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Entries Tagged 'Kitchen Organizing' ↓
I just finished reading a really awesome book (that my business partner actually helped write!), called “Dotcom” Secrets by Russell Brunson & Matt D. Murren. It’s a book directed at business owners but it includes good goal-setting advice that can apply to any area of our business, homes or lives that we may be changing.
One of the authors had an opportunity to listen to Tony Robbins speak about the difference between tactics and strategy. I found it interesting to read about goal setting presented in a little different way so I want to showcase the concept today.
Tactics
Tactics are the tasks that you do every day, the little tasks.
Strategy
When you employ a strategy, you take a step back to take a look at the big picture. You ask yourself, “What strategies can I implement to make my tactics (the small tasks) more successful? Even better, you outsource or delegate the small tasks to someone else if you can.
So how can you use strategies and tactics to get organized?
Let’s use getting the kitchen organized as our example for today.
Strategy or Big Picture:
- Create an organized and efficient kitchen.
- Clear counters for food preparation.
- Maintain and restore order quickly.
Tactics:
- Hire a professional organizer or work with an organized friend to declutter the kitchen.
- Let go of excess belongings from counters, drawers, cupboards and pantry.
- Place items of the same type together in organizing bins, baskets or holders.
- Label the “homes” for kitchen items so everyone in the family will know where things go.
- Make sure everyone in the house knows where things go.
- Assign family members duties like cleaning out the dishwasher to help keep the kitchen clean and running smoothly.
- Hire a housekeeping service if needed to maintain the kitchen and/or occasional deep cleaning sessions.
This is just another way to think about goals and creating smaller steps that break down the process and make it easier to accomplish your goals, organizing or other!
Tags: "DotCom" Secrets: How to Get 100 New Customers in 100 Days Online, DIY organization, get organized, goal-setting, goals & time management, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, Matt D. Murren, organizing, Russell Brunson, Tony Robbins
By now, you probably know that making meals is not a task that I really enjoy, nope, not so much. The way I look at it, at least when you dust you don’t have to dust again for a while. But when it comes to cooking, the task keeps coming back all day just like an episode of “Groundhog Day.” But cook we must!
You can mix a little bit of planning with a dash of effort and you should be able to plan meals quickly! Here are 8 meal planning tips to help you lay the groundwork so you can get dinner on the table quickly!
Meal Planning Tip #1: Make a “Master Favorites List.” No, not your hubby’s favorites (ha ha), a master list of tried & true recipes that you know your family loves. Don’t reinvent the wheel every week, brainstorm your list and work off of that in the future. This may mean a serious sit down session with your cookbooks & magazines.
Meal Planning Tip #2: Make a meal plan. Decide how far out you want to make your plans for which meals you will be making. Some people want to plan for the whole month, while some moms want to go a week at a time. It’s all good! This is where you will pull from your master list and decide what you will be cooking.
***Mega Tip: Save these lists and re-use them to save even more time!
Meal Planning Tip #3: Peek at your calendar. When you make your meal plan, look ahead to activities such as dinner out on the town when you won’t have to cook. This means one less meal to plan and buy for-yeah!
Meal Planning Tip #4: Take stock. Look at your list for the week or month and then search the pantry, fridge and freezer to see what ingredients you have and what ingredients you need to purchase. This is where you create your grocery list.
Meal Planning Tip #5: Clip your coupons. Once you have your list, be sure to clip your coupons or scan the store ads to find the best deals. We have 3 major grocery stores within a couple of minutes of each other so sometimes I hit all 3 to help my budget.
Meal Planning Tip #5: Shop ’til you drop. Head out to the store and stock up on spices and non-perishable items as well as perishable items that you will be using up soon. If you plan meals a month out, chances are good you will have a “round two” to shop for more perishable items.
***Mega Tip: Keep your grocery list that goes with your meal plan for future shopping.
Meal Planning Tip #6: Put on your prep chef hat. Make a day out of cutting, chopping and slicing prior to making your meals. This can be one of the longest parts of the cooking process. Just think of how easy it looks on TV when all they do is toss in the ingredients that are already prepared.
***Mega Tip: Get your family in on the chopping action.
Meal Planning Tip #7: Double your pleasure. If you’re already cooking it, then double it and freeze half. It really doesn’t take that much longer to make 2 instead of one and you will have a home cooked meal waiting in the freezer for a crazy, busy day!
Meal Planning Tip #8: Keep a running list of ingredients you are low on for a future shopping trip. This make it that much easier when planning your next trip to the grocery store.
Allrecipes.com is a great website to help when you’re in a bind. The other day, I typed in chicken breasts and cream of chicken soup and got a tasty recipe in return. To help you prepare meals even faster, please read about my kitchen organizing tips too!
Tags: Attention Moms Who Want 8 Tips to Plan Meals Quickly!, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, kitchen organizing tips, plan meals quickly
Hand me a toilet brush before you hand me a spatula because cooking is just not my thing! Now when it comes to baking brownies, that’s another story-yum, yum, I’ll take some! But cook I must and it just figures that the thing I don’t like to do is something that has to be done three times a day. Whadda ya gonna do? We must eat and fortunately I have no problem with the eating part! Whether you love to cook or you don’t, all moms benefit from an organized kitchen so you can get on with your bad cooking self. Here are 3 tips to help you get organized in the kitchen!
Kitchen Organizing Tip #1: Declutter your kitchen. Let go of the small appliances you no longer use (think juicer and bread maker), the duplicates and the ratty pieces like chipped plates and stained rubber scrapers. Make sure your kitchen is functional and stocked with the items that you actually use so you don’t have to sift past the items you don’t use. (Sift-get it?)
Kitchen Organizing Tip #2: Organize your kitchen logically. Make sure your kitchen is set up in a logical way so the items that you use the most often are close at hand. If you make toast every day, you should have easy access to the toaster. If you make waffles twice a year, you should store the waffle iron in an area that’s harder to reach.
Kitchen Organizing Tip #3: Create zones. Create zones to store supplies that you use frequently. If you make lunches for school every day, create a lunch zone with lunch supplies. If you like to bake a lot, bring all of your baking supplies to one area so you don’t have to move around the kitchen gathering supplies before you can even start baking. If you can’t store them where you use them, then make them mobile. You can create a baking kit in an organizing bin that you just carry on over to the counter.
Make it easy on yourself to prepare meals so you can either enjoy cooking or get through the task as quickly as you can like me! For more kitchen organizing tips, please continue to read right here!
Tags: DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, kitchen organizing tips
Recently, a reader asked me how to organize Top Ramen, a common staple in most pantries. I like to keep systems nice, easy and affordable, so here are my easy Top Ramen organizing tips:
Organizing Tip #1: Gather all of your Ramen in one place. It’s common for me to see pantries where the same item is spread about on different shelves. Get it all together so you can see just how much you have and so you can store it all in one area.
Organizing Tip #2: Only buy what you have room to store. If you must buy Top Ramen by the case, then store what you can store comfortably in your pantry and store the rest elsewhere and use it to restock as needed.
Organizing Tip #3: Wrangle your Ramen. Using clear, shoe box size organizing containers work perfectly for Top Ramen and they only cost about a dollar or so. My daughter and I estimate you can get about 9 packages in the bin. If you have a lot of Ramen, you may need to measure for a larger bin and store the packages side by side. Placing a label on the bin is optional because, as you can see, it’s pretty clear what’s inside! Storing in a bin is great if you don’t have pull-out shelves as you can at least pull out the bin and get to packets at the back.
Organizing Tip #4: Stack with your Ramen. You can use cabinet shelves in your pantry to better utilize your space. As you can see here, Ramen on the bottom, tea on top. This eliminates wasted space above shallow organizing bins. For more tips on using cabinet shelves, please watch my organizing video here.
Organizing Tip #5: Keep your Ramen fresh & tasty. Make sure that you are using your Top Ramen before it expires. Here’s how you can check on the “best by” dates, directly from the Nissin Foods website:
| Big Cup Noodles | Find the date printed on the bottom of the cup. |
| Bowl Noodles | Find the date printed on the shrink film bottom of the package. |
| Chow Mein | Find the date box on the side of container film in MMDDYY format. |
| Chow Noodles | Find the date box on the side of container film in MMDDYY format. |
| Cup Noodles | Find the date imprinted on the bottom of the paper sleeve. |
| Souper Meal | Find the date printed on the shrink film in MMDDYYYY format. |
| Top Ramen | Find the date printed below the bar code. |
Follow these organizing tips so you can get your hands on your Ramen for a quick, warm, yummy meal!
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, organize, organizing tips, organizing video, top ramen
My kitchen is small and my preference is to walk in and see clutter-free counters so it doesn’t make my kitchen look even smaller. Plus, just by my nature, I don’t like to see too many things out all at once in any area of my home. I believe the kitchen is a very important room to keep organized and functional so we can prepare meals quickly and easily. The more we have to push past stuff and search for stuff, the harder it is to work efficiently. Since cooking isn’t my favorite task of the day, I’d rather get in and get out!
Here are 5 Strategies to Clear Your Kitchen Counter of Clutter so you can work efficiently whether you love to cook, bake or not so much!
Decluttering Strategy #1: Throw Away Trash
- Grab a trash bag and look for all the trash that can be tossed on the spot: food wrappers, fast food containers and recycle items such as pop cans (OK soda cans East Coast, I hear ya) and beer bottles.
Decluttering Strategy #2: Let Go of the Extras
- Go drawer by drawer, cupboard by cupboard and let go of items that you have too much of or that you no longer use. Kids no longer using sippy cups? Let them go. Do you have 30 coffee mugs when you can get by with 10, let 20 go. Chipped dishes that you never use? Let them go.
- Letting go of the extras will free up space to put things away and not leave them out on the counter.
Decluttering Strategy #3: Stow Small Appliances
- Have your counter tops turned into small appliance parking lots? Only keep the most frequently used small appliances out within easy reach. For most of us, this will include a toaster and a coffee pot. Use that extra space you created in the cupboards to store less frequently used items such as juicers and waffle irons.
Decluttering Strategy #4: Stretch Your Space
- Use organizing products to your advantage to stretch your space to hang up your paper towels & hand towels.
Paper Towel Holder from Organized A to Z
Towel Bar from Organized A to Z
Decluttering Strategy #5: Keep a Flow Going
- Make sure dishes don’t end up on the counter and in the sink because the dishwasher needs to be cleaned out. Be sure that someone in your home (or you) has dishwasher duty so you can load it up instead of backing it up.
For even more kitchen organizing strategies, you can keep reading more right here cuz that’s how I roll.
PS: These photos are from my kitchen on a bad day-see, I’m not perfect. 
Tags: clutter, clutter-free, Decluttering, decluttering strategy, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kitchen counter, Kitchen Organizing, kitchen organizing strategies
Bamboo Drawer Organizer from Crate&Barrel
Do you have little bits of this and little bits of that stashed away in a drawer? Maybe a lotta bits of this and a lotta bits of that… paper clips, tape, rubber bands, super glue, it’s all good. Just make sure your ‘junk’ drawer doesn’t turn into a dumping ground free-for-all. You can have a junk drawer and still be organized; what a win/win!
So, let’s look at the proper anatomy of an effective junk drawer:
Junk Drawer Tip #1: Try to keep it down to just one junk drawer
Junk Drawer Tip #2: Take everything out of the drawer and sort through it. Discard things that are broken, things that don’t work, things that you don’t use or donate extra items if you have multiples.
Junk Drawer Tip #3: Organize what you are keeping. The bamboo drawer divider from Crate&Barrel shown here is a great way to keep the goodies you are keeping from turning into a big mess that slides about. And, bamboo is environmentally friendly to boot! Keeping your small items separated will keep them from getting mixed together and make it easy to find what you need when you need it.
You can go one step further by adding some small containers within the drawer organizer to contain really small items like paper clips and rubber bands.
Junk Drawer Tip #4: Items you may want to stash in your junk drawer:
1) Rubber bands
2) Flashlight
3) Glue
4) Tape Measure
5) Calculator
6) Matches
7) Stamps
Emergency candles
9) Batteries
10) Pens & pencils
11) Screwdrivers
12) Anything else that works for you
So, make sure your drawer isn’t overloaded, keep just what you need and then make it easy to find what you need by separating and storing your stuff in a drawer organizer! Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to show off your ‘junk’ drawer! Oh, yes it would!
Tags: bamboo, Crate&Barrel, DIY organization, drawer organizer, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, junk drawer, organized
Have you ever moved into a new home, put everything in it’s new place and then realized about 3 months down the road that it wasn’t working? Sometimes we put things where we think they should go at the time, only to discover later that’s not efficient.
Here’s an example that happened in my own home. When my girls were little I placed their hairbows under the bathroom sink. Every day I would bend over and retrieved them from under the sink. Finally one day, a lightbulb went off and I thought, “Why am I going all the way under the sink when I have a drawer at the top of the vanity?” So, I bought some containers at the Dollar Tree, lined them up and loaded them in the top drawer. Now, why hadn’t I thought of that sooner? Who knows. Sometimes we just do something a certain way and get used it it, even if it’s not the best way. I’ve done the same thing with lunch sacks too, had them across the kitchen instead of right next to where I was making lunches.
Let’s start with the kitchen for some examples of best places to store stuff:
Kitchen
- Drink cups for the kids down low within their reach
- After school snacks in a bin for kids at their reach (more here on how to create a snack bin)
- Glasses by fridge instead of the sink if you get all your water and drinks from the fridge
- Holiday serving dishes can be stored in cupboards that are up high or low or even stored in with the holiday decor in the garage
- Keep lunch making supplies together in a kit where you make lunches
- Create a baking kit with your most common baking supplies so you can bring it to the counter when you want to get your Betty Crocker on
- Keep spices-dry and away from light, preferably close to your food prep area
Watch for part 2 coming up for awesome storage ideas for other parts of your home!
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, storage
Not everything you have in your home has to be at your fingertips at all times. As a matter of fact, if you have everything out and close to you at all times, chances are your space will look crowded and cluttered and it will be harder to find what you need when you need it.
But we should keep items that we use every day closest to where we use them and at our fingertips. Examples in my own home:
1) I keep lunch sacks in the cupboard closest to where I pack lunches.
2) I keep flossers for my kids in the top drawer in the bathroom close at hand.
3) In my office I keep pens, pencils and paper clips in a drawer organizer right next to where I sit and work on the computer.
Storing these items closest to where I use them improves my efficiency.
But we all have items in our homes that don’t have to be stored right at our fingertips and to improve home organization, they can be stored higher, lower or further away. To do this, you can use wall shelves, wall units, closet shelves, under bed storage or any other area you can think of to stretch your space and tuck things away.
Here are 7 items in your home that you can store a little further ‘up and away’:
1) Holiday dishes: They can go up to the top shelf in a kitchen cupboard or even be stored out in the garage in your holiday bins.
2) Infrequently used serving dishes: They can also go up to a top shelf, a bottom cupboard that forces you go get down on your knees to get to them or in that black hole that some cupboards have that go way back.
3) Infrequently used small kitchen appliances: First, make sure you really are going to use them again. If you haven’t used your juicer in 5 years, you should consider letting it go. But for items you just use once in a while, consider storing them up high or down low in the pantry or in a cupboard that isn’t as easy to access in the kitchen.
4) Food stockpiles: If you’re a couponer or you just like to have a lot of backup items on hand, keep the foods you are currently eating, such as crackers and cereal, down low and easily accessible. The backups can be stored at the top of the pantry or in a garage pantry to restock as you run out. For 6 organizing tips for your couponing stockpile, please read more here.
5) Paper product stockpiles: I have a house full of girls and I feel best when the toilet paper is stocked! Place extra toilet paper and paper towels in a closet or on a shelf in the laundry room. There is often space to move the shelf in the laundry room down and add a higher shelf above it for stockpile items.
6) Extra office supplies: Use a shelf in the closet or add a shelf on the wall in your office to store extra supplies such as pens, pencils, envelopes and computer paper. Make sure you have a good supply right next to where you work and use this backup to restock. You can hide extra supplies in decorative boxes for a touch of pretty.
7) Reference books & magazines: An extra shelf or wall unit in your office is a great tool for keeping these resources out of your immediate workspace but still accessible when you need them.
Look around your own home and see what other items you can store a little further away so you can keep the things that you truly need close by right at your fingertips.
Tags: 6 organizing tips for your couponing stockpile, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, shelf, wall unit
Here we are, home organization mistake #3: Overwhelming yourself.
Number #1 thing that I hear from clients-they are overwhelmed! They are overwhelmed by their stuff, stressed and they don’t even know where to begin when they see their piles of stuff staring back at them. Well, first, you are the boss of your stuff, don’t let your stuff boss you around! Second, you can do this by tackling a little bit at a time. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time…
Here’s how you go at it!
1) Pick a place to start. Is the floor covered? Start there. Is the kitchen table piled high preventing you from sitting down to eat? Start there. Is your desk covered with paper so you can’t even think straight to work? Start there. It’s good to begin with surfaces that are covered so you can see instant results before digging into drawers & cupboards.
2) Allow yourself to set a timer for the amount of time and energy that you have to expend on this. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a crew come in like TV and sort everything for you? Probably not going to happen huh? So make sure you just do what you can do. If you can organize for 20 minutes, do it. If you can go for two hours, do it. Make sure you don’t burn yourself out by just doing one area and when you are done, move onto another area.
For more organizing tips, you can read more right here!
Tags: DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, home organization mistake
The kitchen is considered the symbolic and traditional “heart of the home.” It tends to be the room people gravitate towards when we have company over and food is often a way that we bond with those we care for. Just think of some of the many activities that may occur in the kitchen:
- Food preparation of course
- Eating
- Visiting
- Sharing a cup of coffee
- Family games at the table
- Homework
- Bill paying at the table
- Family meetings
- Insert your kitchen activities here
- Art/craft projects
There’s a lot of potential for good stuff going on in the kitchen, so it’s important that we make the most of our space by getting & staying organized in this space. Here are 3 tips to get organized in the kitchen:
Kitchen organizing tip #1: Decide what activities you want to have going on in your kitchen. The items that support these activities can stay in the kitchen. Stuff that has somehow accumulated in the kitchen that doesn’t fit in with these activities need to find a home elsewhere.
Kitchen organizing tip #2: Create zones for the activities that will be going on in the kitchen. It’s your room, it’s your home, you can use it however works best for you. It’s OK to have a bill paying zone, an art zone, a baking zone, or a board game zone. Just keep the items of the same type together so supplies aren’t spread all over the kitchen. This way you know right where things are when you need them!
Kitchen organizing tip #3: Make sure you have a kitchen that works well to support your activities. Make sure you have excellent lighting and you have a “working triangle” between the sink, refrigerator and the stove. Keep counters clear enough to have space for food preparation and to keep the kitchen from appearing cluttered.
I’d love to have you keep reading right here for more kitchen organizing tips!
Tags: cluttered, DIY organization, get organized, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, kitchen organizing tips, organizing tip, staying organized
