![\"how](\"http:\/\/www.kitchenfairy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Kitchen-Organization.jpg\")
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What if I told you there\u2019s a secret weapon to successful and efficient cooking and baking?<\/p>\n
Better yet, what if I showed you how to leverage this secret tactic to help you get homemade meals on the table more often, and much faster?<\/p>\n
My motto is \u201ca place for everything and everything in its place.\u201d<\/strong> This is how I organize my kitchen, which includes the fridge, freezer, pantry, and all other food cupboards. <\/p>\n Keeping my kitchen organized and well-stocked means I\u2019m always ready to quickly throw together a homemade meal to feed my family.<\/strong> It\u2019s saved me many times over the years when I\u2019ve come home after a busy day without a meal plan prepared.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to break down why you need to invest the time into organizing your kitchen, and how to undertake an organization project.<\/p>\n You can skip ahead to certain sections of this article: <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s time to get your pantry working for you! With so many things going on in your busy family life, you may not consider organizing your kitchen a high priority.<\/p>\n But investing the time to get your pantry into shape is important, and it will make running your day-to-day life much smoother.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here are 5 reasons why you should invest the time in organizing your kitchen:<\/p>\n A little time upfront means time saved every day when you\u2019re no longer sifting through the unnecessary clutter to find items you need. You will be able to prepare meals faster when you can easily access your ingredients.<\/p>\n A well-stocked pantry makes it easy to whip up last-minute meals. You\u2019ll have more options for cooking and baking without having to run out to the store. <\/p>\n Writing your shopping list is easy when you can see what you already have. You\u2019ll probably be going to the store less, as you\u2019ll often only need to stock up on fresh meats, dairy, and produce. Menu planning is also an easy task when you\u2019re already organized!<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let old food items expire. Save yourself time and money, and help reduce unnecessary food waste when you know what you already have. No more accidentally buying duplicates at the store when you can\u2019t remember what you have at home!<\/p>\n Get your kids involved in this project, so they can learn valuable organization and planning skills. When everything is done, it will be easier for your family to help with meals, pack lunches and snacks.<\/p>\n It might seem like a frightening task, but organizing your kitchen is important and will benefit your entire family when it\u2019s done! It\u2019s going to change your life.<\/strong><\/p>\n My recommended plan of attack is to start with your pantry and cupboards on the first day, and then move to the fridge and freezer on another day. You\u2019re going to need a few supplies for a kitchen organization project.<\/p>\n I recommend investing in a few of the following items:<\/strong><\/p>\n You will need various sizes of all the above products. They will help you keep dry goods, bulk food purchases, and oddly shaped items organized.<\/p>\n In my own kitchen, I\u2019m a big fan of the <\/strong>Tupperware modular mates<\/strong><\/a> collection<\/strong>. These are amazing for storing baking products, rice, grains, snacks, crackers, cereals, and so much more. <\/p>\n Check out this Tupperware custom kitchen planning storage chart.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I like them because they fit beautifully inside cupboards and pantries to create a tidy visual arrangement of all the things you need<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I am a little bit of a Tupperware junkie! I attribute my neat and tidy pantry to my friend Miriam Hawkins<\/a>, a Tupperware consultant. She\u2019s helped me out many times over the years. <\/p>\n Keep reading to learn how to start your kitchen organization project! The first step in your kitchen organization project is to remove everything <\/em>from your pantry and food cupboards.<\/strong><\/p>\n You might be surprised by what you find. Anything that\u2019s expired should be discarded or recycled. If there are products that are still good but you don\u2019t plan on using, put them aside to donate to a local food bank.<\/p>\n Take stock of what\u2019s remaining and divide the goods into different zones.<\/strong> I recommend grouping together things like all your kids\u2019 lunchbox snacks, baking needs, grains, and so on. If you found non-food items, find another home for them somewhere else. <\/p>\n Now is a good time to wipe down your empty shelves so you can start fresh.<\/p>\n Survey your clean space and make a mental plan for re-stocking all your products. Popular go-to family items like breakfast cereals and snacks should be at eye level and within arm\u2019s reach. If you have kids, you might want to make some of their snacks accessible at their height level.<\/p>\n Baking needs like flour, sugar, oils, vinegars and spices should all be kept on shelves that are convenient and easy to access while cooking.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to neatly restock your shelves using all those Tupperware containers, mason jars, and baskets we talked about earlier.<\/p>\n Label everything as you go<\/strong> (see section below for my top labelling tips). With canned or boxed items, check the expiry dates and keep the more current dates in the front and the more distant expiry dates at the back.<\/p>\n You should have a good visual picture of what types of cooking and baking supplies you have now.<\/strong> You might notice there are some obvious items missing, so keep a shopping list of items you will need to re-stock. <\/p>\n Keep moving things around until you get it just right for your needs. It can be a bit like a jigsaw puzzle at first, but with enough focus eventually you\u2019ll get all the pieces to fit! With all your dry and canned goods organized, it\u2019s time to turn your attention to the fridge.<\/p>\n Again, you\u2019re going to need to remove everything from the fridge and discard or recycle any expired items.<\/strong> It\u2019s time to get rid of that moldy piece of cheese and wilted lettuce!<\/p>\n When the fridge is empty, thoroughly wipe down all the shelves and walls. Many fridges even have removable shelves and drawers that you can wash in the sink. I guarantee it will look like a brand-new fridge when you\u2019re done!<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to create different \u201czones\u201d for commonly used items again.<\/p>\n Check out this infographic to find out where foods should be stored in the fridge to keep them fresh!<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget you can use those Tupperware containers, mason jars and baskets inside your fridge to keep things organized and loose items grouped together. You can also label those containers so you don\u2019t forget what goes in them!<\/p>\n Now, the hard part is done but keeping your fridge organized is going to be a weekly effort.<\/strong><\/p>\n The best time to maintain your fridge is just before you make your grocery list and menu plan for the next week<\/strong>. Do a quick check for any expired, stale or wilted items and take the time to wipe up any spills each week. Do you know what\u2019s at the back of your freezer?<\/p>\n There\u2019s no point in buying a bunch of chicken breasts when there\u2019s a great sale on, and then forgetting about them in your freezer for the next 8 months!<\/p>\n Or what about finding an unidentified casserole dish with no label, and the contents completely freezer burned? What a waste of all the time, effort and money you put into making that meal.<\/p>\n Once again, you\u2019re going to remove everything from the freezer. You\u2019ll want to work quickly on this section so things don\u2019t have much of a chance to thaw.<\/strong> Put aside the unidentified or expired items, and then quickly put back all the frozen foods in your freezer.<\/p>\n You should keep a list of the foods you\u2019re putting back in the freezer.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sort them into different zones for frozen foods, casseroles, meats, vegetables, frozen treats, etc. Your kids shouldn\u2019t have to reach under frozen raw meat to get to their popsicles so keep the more popular items accessible near the front.<\/p>\n Each week when making your menu plan and shopping list, you can check your freezer stock list first.<\/strong> There will likely be things in your freezer that you can use in your weekly plan before they expire. I label and date everything in the pantry, fridge, or freezer.<\/strong><\/p>\n It only takes a couple seconds to create a label for something and makes things much more efficient, reduces waste, and helps everyone in the family find what they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n My advice is to label all your items in the fridge, freezer, and pantry<\/strong> (even leftovers in the fridge). It\u2019s a great task for kids who will have fun making labels.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need a fancy label machine to make labels. Just use a roll of masking tape and a permanent marker to make quick labels. It\u2019s easy to write on, stays put where needed, and is easy to peel off with no residue!<\/p>\n Along with my Tupperware addiction, I am a big fan of labelling tools:<\/strong><\/p>\n What kinds of things can you label? Product names, expiry dates, and dates products were opened, cooked, or frozen.<\/p>\n For example, if I open a box of crackers even if the expiry date is 12 months away, I\u2019ll add a note on the box with the date I opened them.<\/p>\n That way, if I come across the open box in my pantry a few months later I will know they are stale because once opened, they\u2019ll go stale in about a month or so. Congratulations, you\u2019ve achieved kitchen order and are on your way to successful and efficient cooking and baking!<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n5 Reasons Why Your Kitchen Needs TLC<\/h2>\n
1. Save time in the long run<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Make meals and snack time easier<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Make meal planning and grocery shopping more efficient<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. Reduce your food waste<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. Teach your kids life skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe Supplies You\u2019ll Need for This Project<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/a><\/p>\nOrganizing Your Food Pantry & Cupboards<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kitchenfairy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Pantry-Organization-Tupperware.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"How](\"http:\/\/www.kitchenfairy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/How-to-Organize-Your-Pantry.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Pantry](\"http:\/\/www.kitchenfairy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Pantry-Organization-Cans.jpg\")
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\n<\/a><\/p>\nOrganizing Your Fridge<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\nOrganizing Your Freezer<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\nLabelling Tips & Tricks<\/h2>\n
![\"Kitchen](\"http:\/\/www.kitchenfairy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Kitchen-Labelling-Materials.jpg\")
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\n<\/a><\/p>\nMaintaining Your Organized Kitchen<\/h2>\n