Franke: Organize Your Kitchen With These Top Tricks

If you’re tired of hunting among dozens of saucepan lids for the only one that fits the saucepan you’re using, if you’re fed up with scrabbling among your spices to find the curry jar for the Pilau Rice you’re cooking for supper with friends, the time has come to organize your kitchen once and for all.

We suggest you do this by carrying out the following 5 simple actions as directed by the professionals from Franke: you’ll find yourself with an orderly and well-spaced kitchen, even if it’s a small one.

1. Start by decluttering
Before reorganizing your kitchen, getting rid of unnecessary objects – the utensils and saucepans that we only use occasionally – is always an excellent idea. Decluttering means freeing yourself from superfluous things, and it’s an activity that will streamline your spaces and your spirits. Try it: you’ll be astonished at just how amazingly satisfied you’ll feel.

You only have to select all the things you no longer need or have never used. Don’t fall into the “I’ll keep this: you never know” trap: if the 12-person fondue set you were given at Christmas ten years ago has never even been removed from its packaging, what makes you think you might use it now?

2. Order the things in drawers
The way you organize your kitchen drawers is a crucial factor in making the necessary space for practical operations. Here’s what you should do: order the objects in your kitchen drawers according to the frequency with which you use them.

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We suggest the following order:

• In the top kitchen drawer, which is the closest and easiest to access, using a cutlery divider, organize your knives, forks, tablespoons and tea spoons, but also salad servers and wooden spoons.
• In the second drawer place your ladles, potato peelers, strainers, apple corers and knives for cooking and carving but not for laying at the table.
• In the third drawer, make space for kitchen cloths, neatly organizing oven gloves, dishcloths, aprons etc… all carefully arranged so that they stay perfectly ironed and clean.
• If you also have a deep drawer, that’s the place for salad bowls and various containers for preserving food.

3. Apply the law of grouping
Similar things make groups: true in the kitchen as well as in society… so, when reorganizing your kitchen spaces, you should gather objects according to their functions, in compact groups.

Here too, a brief list may be useful:

• Keep together your cups, saucers, mugs, dessert plates, fruit bowls: these are often used at the same time, making it simpler to lay tables and serve.
• Open plan shelves are indispensable in a small kitchen: objects are visible, but above all there’s more storage space to accommodate more things.
• The cupboard spaces below the sink area are often under-used: organize these with hooks to hang wrung-out sponges and microfiber cloths, and systems for dividing differentiated garbage. Be aware however not to store cleaning products under your sink. Product research has proven that certain household products which may be stored underneath a sink, can lead to damage of the sink’s base. Chlorine is the major culprit and can be found in: swimming pools chlorine; bleach; bathroom cleaning products such as toilet cleaners, mildew treatments and tile cleaners; kitchen cleaning products – especially liquid cleaners; powders for dishwashers and laundry detergents. Preserve the life and beauty of your sink by storing these products away from the sink area in a well ventilated cupboard that is preferably child-proof.
• To sum up: organize your kitchen using the same criteria as you apply to your wardrobe. Think about it: would you mix your shoes with your shirts?

4. Establish what you want to always keep in view… and what not
Organizing your kitchen spaces also means making it easy to quickly see and reach for the things you need while you are preparing food.

In this case too, when deciding how to organize objects in your kitchen, the golden rule lies in the frequency of use: the utensils and accessories you use every day must be out in the open, where you can reach them, placed in specific points where they don’t get in the way.

The knife rack, chopping boards, weighing scales and trivets should be on your worktop, preferably near the wall, the hob and the sink, without reducing your available workspace. Condiments, such as oils, vinegar and sauces are best stored on small trays, so as not to dirty the worktop.

Use your kitchen’s walls as an invaluable place for keeping things in view: a metal bar with hooks can support ladles and small saucepans or frying pans, and you can use pegboard to support small shelves and hooks for your favourite utensils.

If, on the other hand, you prefer a kitchen where things are stored out of sight, exploit the inner sides of your cupboard doors: there you can hang utensils or attach small shelves with front bars, for storing condiments, sugar, honey and so on.

5. Avoid the following mistakes in your kitchen

• Don’t cram your cupboards: there’s no sense keeping dozens of saucepans when you habitually use only two or three (that’s why we started with decluttering instructions)…
  don’t fill your worktop with too many utensils: not only will they hinder you while you’re preparing your favourite recipes, they’ll also make your kitchen look disorderly.
• Don’t fail to use internal divisors: a large compartmented tray of 60 or 90 cm will be much more useful if you break it down into smaller compartments where you can arrange things according to their functional uses.

Once you know how to do that, it’s time to invite your friends to dinner in your perfectly organized kitchen!

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