In The Design Studio: Five Easy Steps to Best Organize Your Kitchen

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This is a sponsored post by Anna Gibson, owner of AKG Design Studio and an award-winning, certified kitchen and bathroom designer. AKG Design Studio is a boutique design firm specializing in kitchen, bathroom designs and cabinetry sales. Contact her at 571-989-2541 or [email protected], and follow her work on HouzzPinterestFacebook and Twitter.

Spring is right around the corner, and most people take time to do some extra cleanup and organize their homes, inside and out. Here are a few tips on how best to organize your kitchen.

STEP ONE: First things first, take everything out of the cabinets! Crazy, I know, but this mayhem is in the name of order! By pulling everything out you can inventory what you have.

Do you really need 15 cookie sheets? You know some of them may have seen better days, time to toss! How about boxed food that is about to expire or you will never eat and it’s just collecting dust and taking space? Those are great items to donate to the local shelter.

Don’t be scared to toss things that you do not use. Most kitchens are short on storage, so there is no point in holding onto your dishes from college or an extra pizza cutter.

In The Design Studio -- March 10, 2017STEP TWO: Group all the items by their use and then frequency. Sort and group all the baking goods together, all the baking sheets, glasses and so on. Now, sort them by how often you use then. If you have more than one set of glasses but only use one on a daily basis, keep that one aside.

STEP THREE: Before you jump into putting everything back, make sure to look at your work space and where everything is located. Spices are best by the stove or close to where you do most of you prep. Serving dishes should be away from your cooking zone and handy to all house members without bumping into the cook, so is the silverware and glassware.

Think about and maximize your efficiency in the kitchen by minimizing the number of steps you need to take. There is no point storing your cooking utensils on the side of the island if your main prep area is by the stove.

In The Design Studio -- March 10, 2017STEP FOUR: Use clean containers to group items together and store them upright so you can see what’s in them. Take an extra step to label them, if it’s unclear what’s inside. You can use larger containers to store and organize plastic containers and lids. Also, use the same system to organize your fridge!

STEP FIVE: Now you can start putting things back.

I like moving from the top down. Place all the items that you rarely use in the top cabinets, where they are hard to reach and you don’t need to get to them every day, then work your way down to the items that you use every day and place them on the two bottom shelves of the wall cabinets. Use the bottom cabinets for the bigger items, such as pots and pans.

In The Design Studio -- March 10, 2017Create your own zones, such as a coffee and tea station, but storing the coffee mugs above the coffee machine and all the supplies on the shelf above or the drawer below. If you are remodeling, consider great accessories such as this one for your k-cups. Some other rollouts can be added — check out Rev-a shelf for great ideas to transform the inside of your cabinets.

For more ideas and gadgets checkout out Pinterest board: Maximizing kitchen storage with accessories.

Have your own fun ideas? Share with us!

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