How To Organize Your Kitchen In Time For Christmas

If you’re hosting a Christmas lunch this year or are having a quiet family affair, you will likely need to create some order in your home, especially in the kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of the home, especially over the festive season and getting your kitchen into some kind of organization can provide you with some much-needed sense of calm over the holidays. 

The reality is that Christmas can be very stressful and if you’re planning on spending time in the kitchen, having an organized space in the kitchen can make the day so much easier and allow you to organize, plan and prepare well ahead of time. With that in mind, here are some top tips on how to organize your kitchen in time for Christmas. 

Clear & Organize Your Countertops 

The first step you should take when it comes to organizing your kitchen is clearing and organizing your kitchen countertops. There is nothing more frustrating than having too much clutter on your countertops or having to always clear things out the way when cooking or putting out dinner. When you’re dishing up a Christmas dinner, often with many more pots, pans and plates being used than a normal weekday dinner, this can become very annoying, very fast and can cause the process to slow down considerably. 

The most common items that clutter flat kitchen surfaces are the day to day essentials such as keys, posts, bags and wallets, especially by doorways or on dining tables. If you don’t have time to sort through the clutter over the festive season (after all, who has any spare time over Christmas!), then one of the best and easiest ways to combat this is to use decorative baskets or boxes where you can put daily clutter to give you more space. 

Have Snacks To Hand

There’s nothing worse when you are cooking than people coming in and asking for snacks, or how long the food is going to take. It can also be stressful when you have family and friends around and they’re not sure where to look for snacks and treats. 

Having some festive snacks and treats organized in jars or tubs around your kitchen that are easy for people to grab on the go or for you to point people in the direction of can make things a lot easier, plus they can add to the overall festive aesthetic of your kitchen. A festive biscuit selection, mini chocolate yule logs, fun Christmas sweets and chocolates or even a Christmas themed trail mix are all good ideas for snacks and treats you can have to hand. 

Re-Organize Your Fridge

You will need some extra space in your fridge over Christmas for all those delicious festive leftovers and party foods. In the run-up to Christmas, try to use up as much of your fridge supplies as possible to clear out some extra space and give the fridge a really good clean. 

If you are planning on doing a big pre-Christmas food shop, then coming back to a partially empty fridge will make putting everything away so much easier and then you’re not juggling and balancing things on top of one another. It also means that you can create some form of system that works best for you (meat in the bottom drawer, drinks and bottles in the door, fresh fruit on the top shelf etc) so that everything is easy to find when you need it, or if you have family or friends helping out with the cooking who may not know where certain items are. 

Stock Up Your Cleaning Station

Celebrations of any kind create a mess and this is especially true at Christmas. Having an organized kitchen can make the cleanup mission quicker and a lot less painful! Have an area near your sink that has a pile of fresh, clean tea towels and stock up on your dishwashing supplies, such as dish soap, sponges, washing up gloves, dishwasher tablets and bin bags. 

You should also have a food waste bin to hand should plates come back with food leftovers on. Before your guests arrive, ensure that the dishwasher is empty so that it can just be stacked and turned on after dinner. Clear any worktops, keeping the space next to the sink tidy and free from clutter so that dirty plates can just get placed there.  

Reasons To Declutter Your Home This Winter

There are many reasons to declutter your home this winter. With more time inside due to the cold weather, now’s the perfect time to start a new decluttering and organizing project. Don’t believe us? Keep reading to check out all the reasons to declutter your home this winter.

Helps Reduce Stress

The holidays are a busy time of year for many; you don’t need the added stress of a cluttered house on top of it all. Take the time early to go through your belongings and sort through the clutter. Decluttering can also help your home feel larger, which is great for entertaining and hosting since many homeowners have family and friends over for the holidays. Help your home feel less cramped in time for the holidays, and take one more thing off your list by decluttering now.

Discover Donations

Another benefit of winter decluttering is all the potential items you can find and donate. Clothing, especially cold weather clothing, is one of the most useful things you can donate this winter. Why not go through your family’s coats, scarves, mittens, and clothes and set aside whatever you’ve outgrown or don’t need? More charities need donations during the winter than ever, and donating a little something extra will help give you the warm fuzzies this holiday season.

Make Spring-Cleaning Easier

One more reason to declutter your home this winter is to make next year’s spring-cleaning easier. Are you already stressing out over the idea of next year’s spring-cleaning? Why not break it up into winter- and spring-cleaning sessions? The more decluttering you do now, the fewer tasks you will have on your plate this coming year. The future you will thank you for planning ahead!

Now that you know all these benefits of a good winter decluttering session, what are you waiting for? Start decluttering now to spruce up your home just in time for the holidays.

Ways To Organize Your Kitchen Like a Professional Chef

If you love to cook, you must have been spending most of your spare time in the kitchen. That must have brought to your attention the fact that your kitchen can be better organized. Unlike organizing other areas of your home, organizing the kitchen is a tedious and complex task. 

You must have seen cookery shows online. Have you observed how chefs work in the kitchen? Have you noticed how they can find the things they need quickly without having to look all over the place? That doesn’t happen just like that. It takes a lot of ‘behind the scene’ planning to showcase a professionally organized kitchen where chefs can quickly conjure up the tools and ingredients they need as if by magic.

Would you love to enjoy the luxury of an organized kitchen that you see on your favorite cookery show? Here’s how to do it just like a professional chef.

Chefs are always short of time and must find things quickly. Their program can be a success if conducted smoothly minus any glitches. And the most crucial element for achieving this is a well-organized kitchen. The top chefs focus on the following areas:

The Kitchen Tools Drawer

A kitchen tool drawer contains every single tool you need to whip up a fancy preparation. These include graters, peelers, spoons, knives, spatulas, and many others. But can you find the right one when you need it quickly. The simple solution – create organized drawers for different tools. All the spoons in one, the knives in another, and the spatulas in yet another compartment so that you can find the ones you need quickly without rummaging through the drawer.

Arrange Spices In A Specific Order

This is a trick that can be quickly completed, and it will give your kitchen a well-organized look too. You will need spices for nearly everything you cook. Use transparent or labeled containers placed on a shelf above the counter to find the herbs you need. Knowing where to find the jar of paprika when the recipe calls for it will help you save time and effort. You can number it, name it, or color-code it. Regardless of whether you are using simple glass shelves or designer kitchen cabinets, what matters is that you must find it fast, and it must also be arranged neatly, if possible, in jars of the same size and design.

Keep Countertops Clutter-Free

You make dozens of dishes every week. If you have a clean space to work, the motivation to be creative in your cooking is high. A clutter-free kitchen starts with a clean countertop. They are the key to maximizing your cooking efforts. It has a way of making your feel-good factor come to the fore. Experts suggest keeping what is needed only on the counter. For easy access and use, use squeeze bottles for oils and salt. Use transparent bottles for items like sugar, salt, chili flakes, spices, etc. 

Managing Your Refrigerator and Freezer

Keeping the refrigerator organized can be one of the most challenging tasks. The fridge environment keeps changing and quite dramatically too. Top chefs know how to keep it simple. They follow very basic rules. Eggs must always be kept in the shelf/tray. Meat should never be put anywhere else but in the meat drawer. Cheese and butter must never leave their designated spaces in the refrigerator. Veggies and greens will obviously go in the crisper drawer. 

Label the meals and clearly mention the expiration date to prevent any accidental use of spoilt food. Nuts must always be kept in airtight containers to prevent them from getting stale. 

Pots And Pans Must Be Kept Hanging

In any kitchen, residential or professional, space crunch is always a common factor. You will have to use dozens of pots and pans to whip up dishes fast, but the problem is where to keep them in an organized manner. A simple solution is to use hooks to hang pots, pans, utensils, spatulas, and more. Make sure the hooks are large and strong enough to hold the heavier pans and skillets.  

Conclusion:

Planning a revamp of your kitchen like a professional chef? Start early and from ground zero. Cleaning your kitchen is the first step. Pull out everything you are not using, or you don’t need without hesitation and dump them. It will give you the necessary space to reorganize the things you need and in the proper manner. Remember, cleaning is a regular process. Don’t just attack the floors, tiles, and visible areas. Go deeper with the cleaning and reach out to the drawers, inner side of the cabinets, and clean everything end to end. 

Looking for the best kitchen renovation and makeover services in the Bahamas? Consult the innovative kitchen remodeler for free designs, free estimates, and free consultation.

Ways To Make More Space Within Your Home

Regardless of your home’s size, it’s possible to feel like you’re claustrophobic if your home becomes too cluttered. Luckily, with clever uses of lighting, furniture manipulation, and storage, there are many ways to make more space within your home. Let us show you a few of the best methods you can take advantage of.

Use Mirrors and Lighting

Without adequate lighting, much of your house can become obscured in shadows, especially in the corners. Consequently, even the emptiest of rooms feel smaller because you can’t physically see all of them. By allowing more natural lighting into your home, you can fill out the dark corners and make it feel larger. To help facilitate this light, you should use warm and bright wall colors and mirrors. Doing this helps reflect the light around the room. Furthermore, mirrors create the illusion of space even if they’re simply reflecting the room at you.

Balance Your Furniture

Another way to make more space within your home is to rearrange your furniture into a more pleasing balance. Before you worry, we’re not referring to the practice of feng shui, but rather the simple fact that rooms look more spacious when furnished well. The key is to devise a layout that makes it easy to move through the space. At the same time, it should keep the entirety of the room captivating.

Create New Storage

Maybe you feel like you have too much stuff. Or perhaps you need a storage place for tools and equipment that are important but unnecessary in everyday life. Tool sheds are old solutions to such problems. But these days, prefabricated sheds allow for quick and easy construction. They also look nice. In fact, building a prefabricated shed adds value to your property in addition to being an elegant solution for your storage needs. Other slick ways to add storage include creating a closet under staircases or having the living room ottoman double as a storage place. These storage spaces won’t be intrusive to your home and property.