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For food blogger Ali Stafford, de-cluttering her kitchen in advance of a renovation did not include getting rid of cookbooks. In the words of Marie Kondo, they give her joy. (Photo by Ali Stafford)
For food blogger Ali Stafford, de-cluttering her kitchen in advance of a renovation did not include getting rid of cookbooks. In the words of Marie Kondo, they give her joy. (Photo by Ali Stafford)
For food blogger Ali Stafford, de-cluttering her kitchen in advance of a renovation did not include getting rid of cookbooks. In the words of Marie Kondo, they give her joy. (Photo by Ali Stafford)
For food blogger Ali Stafford, de-cluttering her kitchen in advance of a renovation did not include getting rid of cookbooks. In the words of Marie Kondo, they give her joy. (Photo by Ali Stafford)
For most of us, the kitchen is our home's hub. It's where we fuel up, hang out and entertain. And because it's an indispensable place, it tends to become the catchall for clutter, where bills, kids' artwork and lists get piled or shoved in drawers.
Cooking is also a magnet for gadgets, from the Slap Chop to the monogrammed meat brander, with new ones coming out every year promising revelatory ease for everyday tasks. See: air fryer, Instapot, bread maker, juicer, food processor.
Clutter slows us down and detracts from the pleasure of the task at hand.
"Visual overwhelm keeps people from moving forward," says life coach Danielle Capwell of Nuts + Bolts Creative, who works with clients to organize their spaces and create new habits. "When we can't think clearly, we tend to shut down."
The urge to better organize is always trending to some extent — hacks for a neater life are almost as popular as kitchen gadgets — but kitchen organization hit new heights when reality star Khloe Kardashian revealed her intensely categorized pantry (where products are arranged by color) and the master organizers behind it, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin from the Home Edit. The women are favored by other celebrities as well and now have a Netflix deal for a scripted reality show.
Underneath the flash and perfect lighting depicted on Home Edit's Instagram feed is simple advice: store things in see-through containers so you can see what you have; and, once an item has an assigned home, return it there every time you used it so you can find it for next time.
When Niskayuna food blogger Alexandra Stafford prepared to renovate her kitchen, she had three goals: a dedicated space for recycling; storage for plates and cups low enough for her children to reach; and room for her cookbooks. She also took the opportunity to get rid of or relocate things she wasn't using.
Stafford, her husband and their four young children live in a house they chose because it was big enough for all of them and because it's close to the Niskayuna Co-op. The kitchen wasn't terrible, Stafford says, but it was hard to clean, and that pushed the Staffords to remodel.
Alexandra Stafford worked with designers from Hudson Kitchen and Bath to create her new kitchen.
Company co-owner Nick Pappas said a reorganization starts with designing for work flow. For example, the trash, sink and dishwasher should be close together so as dirty dishes come in they can be scraped, rinsed and put into the dishwasher without forcing the user to take too many steps.
"I believe in a triangle area for cooking — an area for cooking, an area for cleaning and an area for storage," Pappas says. "I'm thinking of multiple people in the kitchen at once and not getting in each other's way."
Pappas says he also asks clients at every design meeting to take stock of what they have and what they actually use.
Stafford found she had multiple pots specialized for cooking beans (she keeps it simple with a double boiler) and pans sitting in cabinets that weren't getting used. She gave things away and relocated certain, little-used items — like her lobster pot — to shelves in her basement.
Pappas says open shelves, rather than wall-mounted cabinets, are popular — a look Stafford says she likes, but doesn't work for her lifestyle. In her kitchen, plates, cups and napkins are all in lower drawers so the children can reach them. A peg board insert in the drawers keeps the dishes organized. She also has a lazy Susan cabinet. She was skeptical at first, because the lazy Susans she'd seen tended to trap items in the bowels of a cupboard, but hers expands out. Stafford says other favorites are the vertical pan storage above her oven and a knife block built into a drawer rather than taking up space on a counter.
lhornbeck@timesunion.com • 518-454-5352 • @leighhornbeck
https://www.timesunion.com/living/article/How-to-give-your-kitchen-an-organized-makeover-14395539.php
2019-08-28 20:28:00Z
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