By Jackie Burns
Sympatico, MSN Shopping online
Back to school can be a hectic time of the year so the last thing you need is a disorganized kitchen that works against you. Organizing and Productivity Specialist Sally Allen offers her expert advice for preparing your kitchen for the September battle.
Create Zones in Your Kitchen
Allen suggests her clients create zones within their kitchens that will help stay them organized and efficient. If there are younger kids in the home, Allen likes the idea of having a larger bottom drawer dedicated to children’s items including plastic plates, cups, straws and cutlery so they can help themselves whenever they need something. “It can also help if you have their snacks in bins on one shelf in the pantry so that they can pull out the different snacks rather than reaching behind and having everything fall off the shelf,” she adds. Allen also recommends making sure you have certain stations within your kitchen that house all of the supplies you need for different tasks like baking, salad making or in the case of lunch preparation, things like plastic containers, brown paper bags and sandwich baggies. “Things that work together should be stored together,” she says.
Kitchen Tools Can Be Your Saviour
Allen says it’s smart to invest in certain kitchen tools that have been known to ease the burden of a hectic schedule. She says slow cookers allow you to make larger batches of food on the weekend when you have more time which can then be frozen for use later in the week. Toaster ovens are great for children who need a quick after-school meal before heading out to an athletic event. Allen suggests preparing their “meal in a box” in advance and then all your teen has to do is heat it up in the toaster oven.
Clear Your Surfaces & Avoid Duplication
Allen says having all of your surfaces full of electrical equipment can be a major aggravation and takes away precious space that could be used for meal preparations during the busy school season. She suggests identifying a space for all of your electrical equipment like toasters, blenders and kettles and keeping those that you use daily at the front for easy access. Duplication can also lead to headaches in the kitchen and forces you to spend more time searching for what you really need because things get too cluttered. Allen suggests purging anything from extra pots and pans to duplicate potato peelers.
Organize Your Kitchen Based on Lifestyle
“So many people arrange their kitchen around their dishwasher because they don’t want to move away from it when they are emptying it,” says Allen. “But once you’ve emptied it, that’s it. It doesn’t help you on a daily basis.” She says the first thing you should do is figure out how you use your equipment on a daily basis and arrange your kitchen based on that theory. “The dishwasher often becomes the focal point of organizing your kitchen and that’s not always the best way to create the most efficient and productive kitchen.”
Allen suggests having plates, glasses and cutlery close to the dining room so that children can help set the table without getting in your way while you’re busy preparing dinner. Explaining to children how things are organized in the kitchen will also ensure you don’t have to do everything. “If you have a system in your kitchen then you can get help,” she says.
