Kitchen Organization Part III: Tools, Appliances, Dishes
If you followed the first two installments of this series on organizing the kitchen, you’ve clearly defined your vision for your kitchen and how it will support your lifestyle goals, and you’ve cleaned out your pantry, refrigerator and freezer. Now we’re at the last part, which will probably be easier for some than others: decluttering our kitchen appliances, tools, dishes, and flatware.
I’ve got some advice for you on how to deal with each of these categories of kitchen things. But perhaps the most important piece of advice is: remember your why. Why are you doing this? What’s your vision for your kitchen and life? What are you trying to accomplish? When the moment comes to decide whether or not to keep that serving dish or kitchen gadget, think about whether the item in question is going to help or hinder you from reaching your vision. In Marie Kondo’s words, does the item spark joy?
But First: Gather All Your Kitchen Stuff
Before you can begin the process of deciding what to get rid of and keep, you need to be able to see everything that you own, related to each category of kitchen items. For many of you, it may seem obvious that your kitchen items are in the kitchen, but many people don’t store all their kitchen appliances, dishes, etc. in the actual kitchen. Do you have a box of extra dishes or glassware hiding in your attic, “just in case”? Maybe an appliance or two tucked away in a closet? Do you store fancy holiday serving dishes in the spare bedroom? Get them all out of their hiding places.
You need to see with your eyes, right in front of you, everything that you own. That will help you identify what you really want to keep, what you want to get rid of, and even what you might need in your kitchen that you don’t currently have.
Which Kitchen Appliances Bring You Joy?
Grab your instant pot, blenders, choppers, toasters and anything else you plug in
Look at all your kitchen appliances in front of you. Pick up each one and ask yourself if it sparks joy. Does this appliance contribute to creating your dream kitchen? When you imagine what your dream kitchen looks like and what you’ll be doing in the kitchen, do you see the appliance in that vision? If yes, keep it. If not, give it away or sell it somewhere like Craigslist.
For me, the kitchen appliance that brings me the most joy- which, in my book, means it helps me make lots of healthy and delicious plant-based meals- is my Vitamix high speed blender. I use it almost daily for smoothies, and when I need a perfectly creamy cashew béchamel sauce, it does the job.
There’s another appliance in my kitchen that I also love- it’s the ice cream maker! I don’t use it nearly as often as my Vitamix, but when I want to make homemade ice-cream or sorbet, I can do so easily. Both the ice cream maker and the blender really do spark joy for me.
On the other hand, there is a major appliance that I don’t own- a fancy stand-up mixer. Would I like one? Yes. Do I need one? Nope- I get by with the hand-held mixer. Do I have space for this? Not really- it’ll take up a lot of space on my countertop or I’ll have to hide it away somewhere. This is essentially why I don’t have one- I want to have a comfortable, airy kitchen and I don’t have room for big, heavy appliances that I wouldn’t use too often and don’t truly need. You might also be surprised to hear I don’t own a toaster. I don’t have room for it, and when I need to toast bread, I do it on a hot stainless-steel sauté pan.
Cooking Tools, Utensils and gadgets
For these types of kitchen gear, and for each item, ask yourself two questions
“Does it spark joy?”
“Do I really need this?”
Here’s the thing: for every imaginable cooking task, there exists at least one gadget to help you get that precise job done. Just walk into your local Williams Sonoma store and you’ll find hundreds of these gadgets to help you perform tasks you didn’t even know existed- slicing an avocado, storing a single tomato. Etc. Etc. Etc.
In truth, you don’t need the vast majority of those kitchen gadgets. In fact, you can streamline your kitchen tremendously by only keeping the gadgets and tools that you use semi-regularly.
For example, here are the kitchen tools, utensils and gadgets that I use most frequently:
Cutlery: one high quality chef’s knife, one good paring knife, and one decent serrated (bread) knife.
Measuring cups and spoons
Utensils: rubber spatula, tongs, wooden spoon, whisk (small and large)
A good wooden cutting board
Colander
Steamer basket
Vegetable peeler
Your top tools might not be the same as mine, and that’s ok. The point is to identify the tools you really use and love, so that you can creat more space in your kitchen and find things more easily when you need them.
Cooking and Bakeware
Gather ye pots and pans, baking sheets, cake pans, and muffin tins. What do you really use? What items make you excited to cook? Depending on what you like to cook, this category of items might be pretty easy to declutter. Here’s my advice for what to definitely keep:
A seasoned cast-iron pan
A small, medium, and large, heavy-bottomed pot
1-2 sturdy baking sheets (not dark colored / non-stick)
A good sauté pan
Things to consider getting rid of: duplicates (or triplicates) of items, especially ones you never use; cake molds that are holiday-specific and that you’ve used only once (or never); and non-stick pans that are no longer 100% non-stick (in fact, I advise replacing non-stick cookware because most of it is toxic and can disrupt hormones).
Dishes, Flatware and Glasses
You’re almost done!
If you’ve been living in the your space for a while, chances are you have quite a lot of dishes and flatware (forks, spoons and knives). Pull them off the shelves and out of their hiding places. Look at all that you own, right in front of you. Consider each piece and whether it “sparks joy”. Keep in your mind what you want your kitchen to be like at the end of this process and let that be your motivation for getting rid of some items.
I inherited many of my dishes. Quite a few mixing bowls, utensils, and glasses were my grandmother’s. They have sentimental value to me, and getting rid of things that have sentimental value is tough! So I made the choice to keep those items because they make me happy, and instead get rid of excess dishes that had no such value attached to them.
For some dishes you might even ask yourself, “do I love eating or serving on this dish?” And finally, if you have dishes, bowls or even kitchen tools/appliances that really bring you joy, why not display them openly in your kitchen so you can see and use them regularly?
What next?
The kitchen can be a space for so many things: cooking, baking, eating, cleaning. We didn’t touch on cleaning supplies, cookbooks or kitchen towels but you have the skills now so attack those categories the same way you did everything else. And consider relocating things that don’t belong in the kitchen like mail and whatever is in your “junk” drawer (I know you have one!).
Another thing we didn’t touch upon was how to store your stuff. Going back to Marie Kondo, in her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, she offers up a few suggestions:
Discard first, put back after. In other words, only once you’ve decided what you’re going to keep in your kitchen can you start thinking about how you’re going to store and organize it all.
You don’t need any expensive kitchen organizers. I’d add that most of the products out there that promise you a beautiful kitchen are playing on your emotions and may lead you to keep more stuff than you really need.
Designate a place for each thing, and then put things back where they belong immediately after you use them.
Put things away so that you can see them. Just as you want to be able to see all your food so you can eat it before it goes bad and avoid buying things you don’t need, put away your dishes, appliances etc. in a way that allows you to see what you own. Don’t overstuff your cabinets and shelves. If you’ve put everything away and there are things that are stored so deeply in your cupboards that you can’t see them, that might mean you need to go back and declutter (discard) some more.
I’ve got a Pinterest board that includes lots of kitchen organization inspiration. I add to it regularly so go check it out for tips! Good luck!
