How To Efficiently Organise Your Kitchen and Recipe Collection

Kitchen mess is a problem we can all relate to. Whilst preparing multiple meals throughout the day, multiple family members sharing the same space, and trying to fit every pot, pan, and pantry ingredient, it can be hard to keep an organised space. Though often a rarity, a well-organised kitchen can contribute to your productivity tenfold, so keeping a neat and tidy workspace is vital for a smooth-running household. Keeping your cooking space also frees up head space to let your creativity soar.

Tips To Organise Your Kitchen

I know too well the trials of keeping a kitchen neat and organised, so below are a few tips I have to share with you that have helped me keep a tidy cooking space:

Empty Your Cabinets

More often than not, kitchen cabinets are some of the messiest areas in a kitchen. We’re all guilty of throwing bench-top clutter in a nearby cabinet to make the kitchen appear tidy, but this just leads to a whole other list of problems in itself. It can be difficult to locate things and when you try, you end up emptying the entire cabinet onto the floor just to find the exact bowl you need! The first step to declutter your kitchen is to empty your cabinets and go through each item; get rid of any yo don’t absolutely need. After the decluttering process, stack the essentials back in a neat and orderly manner so next time you need it, you know exactly where to look! Spices are no exception and a good collection in your pantry is great place to start . An article we found which helps guide you to which spices you should have at home is from porch home living.

Group Similar Items

Another important tip to keep your kitchen organised, is to group similar items together. For instance, store all glassware together, crockery in the same place, cutlery in a drawer together, etc. and keep them in separate places. This way, you can find them quickly and easily whilst keeping an orderly space.

Use Clear and Labelled Containers To Store Spices

Spices are essential ingredients that I use in my cooking every day. Keeping them in a clear container makes it easier for you to see which ones you need whilst keeping them need and organised. For instance, if you’re whipping up a Moroccan lamb shank recipe, you can easily get your hands on the right spice when they are placed clear and labelled containers.

Use Your Vertical Spaces

Making space in your kitchen can be a tough task, but if you take a thorough scan of the room, you can often find spare space in places you’ve never thought of. Make room for mugs by making hooks underneath the cabinets, hang baskets on hooks inside cabinet doors for storing sundry items, or place pantry items on stacked boxes of varying heights so you can fit more whilst being able to see all.

Tips to Organise Your Recipe Collection

If you love to cook at home like me, you’re likely to have tons of recipes scattered all throughout your home in books, pieces of paper, sticky notes, etc. Keeping them in a neat and orderly fashion not only makes them easier to locate, but help greatly when it comes to looking for cooking inspiration! Here are a few of my top tips for keeping your recipe collection organised:

Scan all your recipes electronically.

Look for and gather all the recipes you own in various hardcopy-forms and scan them individually onto your computer, laptop, or tablet. When doing so, be sure to name and group them accordingly (i.e. “pumpkin pie recipe Australia.jpg” or “Beef Madras Curry.jpg”). After you have done all that, attach all these recipes in an email to yourself, then simply download all the recipes so that they can now be saved to your handheld device. If your device allows it, you should also create a folder that says “Recipes” and put them all in this folder, so that you can easily find them after taken dozens of new pictures. This method ensures you’re never without your trusty recipes – even if on a trip away.

Use a recipe binder.

If you are not a tech savvy person, or prefer to have a physical collection of recipes, there are easy ways to organise them this way, too. Gather all your recipes you have lying around and put them in simple ring binders. These binders can be put on your bookcase so they’re out of the way in your kitchen, and you can take get them easily off the shelf whenever you’re hunting for that recipe you need. For your binders, you will need page protectors to slip each recipe into to keep them nice and clean. The binder should also have sections to put certain recipes in, such as “Chicken”, “Beef”, or “Desserts”. That way, you can easily look for beef bourguignon with wine among all your recipes, and won’t waste any time.

Create a filing cabinet/ basket.

If you prefer to have all your recipes in your kitchen, you can opt to install a filing cabinet. Each category can have its own section, or you can arrange them in alphabetical order – just ensure each folder is labelled clearly for easy access. If you don’t have the space or budget for a large office-style cabinet, you can create one using a simple basket in a range of different sizes for storing on the kitchen bench or in a cupboard.

Those are just a few of our tips for keeping your kitchen and recipe collection neat, tidy, and organised!