Gourmet Fare Magazine | Heart Of The Home

Heart Of The Home

Organizing takes thought and
decision-making, and both of these can
take more time than you realize.

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Clay Art Olive Oil Bottle and 4 Dipping Bowls

Greet Spring With An Uncluttered Kitchen
By Kathy Cabrera

Enclume Hammered
Baker's Cart
www.MetroKitchen.com

n honor of spring's arrival, you've cleaned out the closets, washed windows and rearranged the living room. Now it's time to work on the room that is the "heart of the home:" the kitchen. The main problem is not in the initial organization and clean-up. The problem that occurs over and over is not being able to stay organized. When most people think of organizing, they think of material things. According to Monica Ricci, an organizing & productivity specialist in Alpharetta, Georgia, organization is more of a mental shift that precedes a physical shift.

"If you pay attention to the habits we have ingrained, and you can learn to think differently, you really can stay organized," Ricci says. "You need to identify and change the thinking patterns and habits which created your present chaos, and replace them with new thinking and new habits, and 'poof' you get a different result. In order to achieve lasting results in any arena of your life, you must first address the cause of the problem, not just the symptom, which is the clutter."

When getting started, plan to work in increments of one hour at the minimum. Organizing takes thought and decision-making, and both of these can take more time than you realize. Start with the refrigerator then move on to the other spots in the kitchen that need your attention:

Free up counter space...

Get rid of the old microwave. Replace it with one that attaches to an overhead cabinet.

Do you really need stacks of mail, bills and magazines on the kitchen counter? There are entire stores devoted to organizing stuff like this!

Where's the kitchen TV? If it's on the kitchen counter, there are two better ways... a TV shelf or a new LCD TV that you can hang on a wall. Dell, Sharp and Casio are just a few manufacturers that offer this commodity at increasingly affordable prices.

Unless you work for the power company, you don't need a blender, food processor, knife sharpener, waffle iron, grill and coffee pot within reach. Put the ones you don't use often in cabinets, the pantry or the garage.

Clean out the utensil drawer and consider alternative ways to store knives. Knife blocks and in-drawer trays provide answers to your knife storage problem...

Wusthof Walnut Knife Block
www.MetroKitchen.com

Wusthof, for example, offers four ways... blocks with 7 to 25 slots, an under-cabinet mounted block holding eight knives and a sharpener, wall-mounted magnetic knife holders, and a cutting board with a knife drawer underneath.

In addition to hardwood counter blocks and magnetic knife holders, Henkels is a manufacturer that offers an in-drawer knife tray.

Or, consider a compact, revolving organizer like The Pampered Chef's "Tool Turn-About" , which keeps your tools accessible and eliminates searching through drawers to find the tool you need. It’s designed to rotate easily for an at-a-glance view of all your tools.

Purge the cabinets. You can probably fill several boxes of rarely used dishes, pots and pans for charity. Add in the hand-me-down knives and the seldom-used electric gadgets, and you've earned yourself a nice tax deduction!

Enclume Hammered Steel
Oval Pot Rack
www.MetroKitchen.com

Look down... trade a little floor space for storage with eye appeal. Create an instant island with a John Boos butcher-block table or cart. Make a kitchen corner more functional with a baker's rack or an eight-tier hammered steel cookware stand from Enclume.

Borghini Fennel Pollen

Now that you've cleared the clutter and created a more organized kitchen, treat yourself to some quality kitchenware that will last a lifetime. Fill that new pot rack with French copper cookware from Mauviel. And check out Wusthof's renowned forged knives, lightweight one-piece metal knives from Global, ultra-sharp ceramic knives from Kyocera, or stylish knifes from Henckels.

All-Clad 10 Piece Set
www.MetroKitchen.com

To many of us who received our cookware as wedding registry gifts years ago, the thought of going into a store to fill a kitchen with all new tools is a daunting task. To avoid the lines and the hassle, filling your kitchen with fine products is as easy as surfing the net. MetroKitchen.com is an upscale, trusted online retailer that has products from the industry’s top manufacturers, like Mauviel, Henckels, Wusthof, and All-Clad.

Now that you have an abundance of organized preparation space, you may just find yourself enjoying time spent in your kitchen (not in the clutter) again.

Feeling Cluttered In?

If there's clutter all about, it may be time to contact a professional. Monica Ricci, professional organizing & productivity specialist, gives these tips:

If you’ve stopped taking action to organize, or are unable to start, it’s time to call a professional.

How does a professional organizer start in the kitchen? Typically I'll come in and ask a lot of questions first about the family's lifestyle, their cooking and entertaining habits, how they utilize the kitchen, and what is most important to them.

From there, we begin by literally emptying the room, one cabinet at a time, sorting, purging, donating items, and then we put it back together in a way that makes sense for the homeowner. I teach them how to decide where to keep things,
I lead them through the thought process of organizing, rather than just do it for them.

My goal is not only to organize the space, but to help them learn to think in a new way and to develop a useful skill that they can apply to other areas of their life.

The kitchen is typically the "hub" of most households, and if you're not careful, it can become the center of chaos as well. One very important thing to remember is that family members need to know a few things, like the rules, benefits and processes to keep the kitchen a functional, organized family center. Monica Ricci - Organizing & Productivity Specialist. For more tips from Monica, visit CatalystOrganizing.com.