The Kitchen of Your Dreams
Your kitchen should be one of the most organized places in your home. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to find that lid to the bowl you just poured the leftovers in, or that small shaker of ground cinnamon you could have swore you saw yesterday. Maybe you know where everything is but trying to explain to a friend helping you cook why your spatula is mixed in with your tupperware can be a bit of a problem.
The home neighborhood offers a large selection of kitchen organization and remodeling books. These books have lots of tips and pictures for finding that perfect style. We have books on organizing your fridge to your junk drawer. Don’t dismiss the kitchen design books, even if you aren’t remodeling! These books show the latest styles typically for building your kitchen from scratch however, you can also get great ideas for repainting or staining your cabinets, what backsplashes and colors really pop, and the latest space saving ideas for cabinets.
Consider under cabinet lighting or directly above lighting to avoid shadows
One of the great tips I found while browsing the collection was the proper lighting for your kitchen. Under cabinet lighting is great for preparing food and washing dishes. Being able to see what you are cutting may save some fingers. Another tip was to try to keep an imaginary triangle between your prep area, your fridge and the stove. Laying out your kitchen this way helps minimize spills and juggling ingredients all over the kitchen. One of the newer designs in kitchens is to hide your trashcan and recycling in an unused cabinet. Use pullout drawers to place recycling and trashcans inside cabinets, hidden away. This makes your kitchen look sleek and fresh without having to buy an expensive trashcan to match your appliances.
HGTV.com has a great example of organizing a junk drawer
If you don’t want to take on a project as big as remodeling, get the same feeling by reorganizing your kitchen. It’s also a great excuse to sort through all of those old canned goods and baking items sitting at the back of your cabinet since the '90s. If you need somewhere to start, try your junk drawer. Every house has one, it’s the one filled with pens, pencils, rubber bands, batteries and all that other stuff you shove in there. Your junk drawer doesn’t need to go away, try using plastic organizers, recycled tuna cans or make permanent wooden dividers to help separate things. An organized junk drawer can be a great and useful tool if you can find whatever you are looking for at a glance. If you have too many spices crowding your spice cabinet, consider adding hanging shelves on the inside of your kitchen doors, especially in your baking supply cabinet. This way you can see your spices clearly and won’t block the view of other items in your cabinets.
Check out the home neighborhood on the bookmobile or here at the library for some more great ideas!
