Assess and Evaluate: Kitchen Supplies

Now that all the work zones in the kitchen have been established, and now that you know what belongs in each of these zones, it is time to take inventory of everything in your kitchen. Start on one side of your kitchen and empty all the cabinets and drawers and work your way through the whole kitchen. As you start to take things out of the cabinets/drawers, begin to sort the items and create piles on your countertop for each of the kitchen work zones established earlier. As you group items on the countertop, you will be able to visually assess how many different kitchen items you have collected over the years.

Now you have to take an honest look at everything you have and take into account the amount of realistic storage available to you in your kitchen. You may have to downsize the amount of equipment and tools you keep in order to keep your kitchen space functional and effective. Do you own 4 woks? Have you ever used that coffee grinder? Why do you need 3 colanders? Particularly if you have a modestly sized kitchen, you will need to eliminate items that are not used regularly and items that are duplicates or somehow damaged. Do you have broken utensils? Are those herbs expired? Why are you holding onto those chipped bowls? You need to discard items that are no longer useful to you.

Take anything and everything that you haven’t used in the past year and throw it out. Take everything that is broken, damaged or missing a part and throw it out. Take everything that is expired or otherwise inedible and throw it out. Take everything that you have duplicates of and throw it out.

Congratulations! You now have a much more refined and practical collection of kitchen tools/equipment that makes sense for your space.

To view the rest of the posts in the Home Organization Series, please click here.

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