The kitchen is clean. There’s not a spot on the counters, a speck on the floors, or a splatter on the walls. The appliances all shine, and yet, there’s something wrong. Your favorite mixing spoon has gone missing, the vegetable peeler is hiding in the silverware drawer, and the lids to all your pots and pans have been replaced by cupcake pans and cookie trays. Let’s not forget the mystery box in the back of the cupboard that you can only see in silhouette; the one that, when you look at it, looks back at you and grins. It’s time, once again, to organize your kitchen after the holidays.
Even the most astute and organized cooks can end up faced with this problem in the company of those who don’t normally use their kitchen, such as children, spouses, and visiting relatives. There’s always that one thing that gets put away in the wrong place. Multiply that one thing by several visitors and you have several things in the wrong place.
There is also a normal drift that happens during the holidays. There are the holiday baking spices that end up taking the place of the everyday spices you normally keep out. As well, specialty gear, that we only use during the holidays, ends up taking the place of the daily cooking and baking gear we like to keep close at hand. Our once comfortably organized kitchen is now just slightly off in dozens of places.
Set aside a day to go through your kitchen and put everything back where it belongs. Get your kitchen organized for a bright shiny new year. Replace the specialty Santa shaped muffin pans with regular muffin pans, put the cookie cutters away and bring out the biscuit cutters. Go through the bread box and do something with the little bits of left over spice breads, and find out, once and for all what that mystery box that’s growing a personality in the back of the cupboard really is. Then do something with it. Take a look inside every drawer and make sure it’s organized to your satisfaction.
This is also an excellent time to make changes to your kitchen organization that you’ve been meaning to make or try out. If you’re planning to take up a new cooking hobby this year, like bread making, this is a good time to set up a station for it. Don’t forget to include the accessory spots for the station, like a designated spot in the refrigerator for arresting dough, or a safe warm spot for letting it raise.
When all is said and done, your kitchen will be a more pleasant and less stressful place to be, and you can get on with all of those resolutions you’re bound and determined to keep this year.