Kitchen Accessories and Organization Guide

It is commonly believed that the kitchen is the heart of the house; it’s where the entire family can gather despite their differences in age, hobbies, and lifestyles to work together and cook a hearty meal. That is why I believe this is the place that is worth the most to invest time and money into, to make the space feel welcoming and accepting. Here are some products to really take your kitchen to the next level, no matter its state right now.

 

First up is cleaning and maintenance. You can have all the best materials in your kitchen, but if it’s all dirty and gross, I can guarantee your kitchen will not look attractive. That’s why the first step to getting your kitchen in tip top shape is making sure all your surfaces are nice and clean and in good shape. I’m personally not a fan of having a million different cleaners, but when it comes to my kitchen, I swear by these 3 products (a combination of these 3, depending on your countertops). For granite countertops, the Granite Gold Cleaner will not let you down, no matter how much built up grime you may have. If you have wooden countertops or a butcher block island, I would suggest buying a high quality butcher block mineral oil to soak your wooden surfaces and prevent cracking. Both options below will totally transform your wooden surfaces and help prolong the life of them. Apply a generous layer of this oil onto your counters and let it sit for as long as you have time for, to really make sure the wood is able to absorb as much as possible. Then, wipe the excess off and you are ready to use the surface again, as the oil is food safe. Whenever the wood starts looking dry or just about to crack again, reapply the oil.

Even after this one step, with your counters nice and shiny, your kitchen will already feel so much better! But to keep the momentum going, I would recommend using the Weiman glass cooktop cleaner to clean your stove if you have a glass cooktop. While elbow grease is still needed, this cleaner will help.

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The next big step is organizing all your kitchen gadgets and goods, to make sure that everything has a spot and doesn’t end up cluttering your kitchen after one use. To help with this, especially if you aren’t necessarily a natural clean freak, I suggest looking into drawer organizers. This way, you can cut your drawers into different sections with either little clear bins or these dividers to section certain parts apart. This way, even if your organization isn’t perfect, you know exactly which section to put your gadgets and where to find them. Overall, this easy fix will seriously improve the clutter you might have just lying around.

 

I love using utensil organizers to keep drawers neat and tidy. No matter what it looks like, if you have one, you have one. But if you want yours to match your bamboo drawer dividers, I recommend getting this expandable utensils organizer as well! Its expandable design makes it highly customizable and compatible with just about any drawer; its bamboo material makes it extremely environmentally sustainable, as bamboo is essentially just “a grass that takes nothing from the environment”; the beautiful natural bamboo colour means that there were no chemical stains used in this production. 

Next up is the daunting fridge… if there are more than two people living in your home, chances are that your refrigerator is a little terrifying. Of course, you can go in every week, wipe all the surfaces down, reorganize everything and plan space out for more groceries. On the contrast, you can also invest in some clear and stackable containers to help keep everything organized and tidy. Not only does this improve the overall aesthetic of your fridge, but it also helps your produce last longer, thanks to proper ventilation and not having tons of weight being stacked on top of it. Furthermore, by separating different items, you can know exactly what you have in your fridge at a glance and spend less time digging through a jam packed and chaotic fridge looking for a singular item. 

 

The next item is dependent on whether you’re a big spice person or not. If you have tons of drawer space, I’d recommend laying them down on a spice drawer so you can see everything all at once. But if you don’t have that type of real estate in your drawers, you can stand them up in a spinning spice rack organizer. This way, even if you can’t see everything at the same time, you can, at the very least, keep all your spices organized in the same spot and have easy access to whatever you might need. Furthermore, by keeping your spices in these clear glass containers, your kitchen will look super uniform and clean, no matter where someone looks. These are the little things that really tie a space together, and for just a few dollars.

 

I distinctly remember my parents telling me to go digging through our pots and pans cabinet as a child to find an obscure pot we usually didn’t use, but needed that one day. They said that I was small and it didn’t hurt my back to bend over and go searching in this little dark space. But as an adult now, I really don’t love the idea of needing to go on this adventure again. That’s why I love the idea of pull-out shelves and pots and pans organizers. These little additions will make a huge difference in my comfort level in the kitchen and help ensure everything is kept nice and organized for whenever I need a more obscure pot.

 

Another item that is slightly irritating is a stand mixer. They are so convenient to use and really great for baking, but are also so ridiculously heavy. It takes up so much counter space and sometimes I just NEED to move it. That is why I love this genius invention: a stand mixer lift shelf. This shelf can easily bring a stand mixer onto regular counter level with a simple lift mechanism, and then bring it back down into storage in a cabinet after you are done with it. This machine is an actual dream come true and allows you to have the best of both worlds (counter space and access to a stand mixer), with the pain of neither!

Another kitchen factor to consider is where you want to keep your plates and bowls. While traditionally they go in your cabinets, many new houses have more drawers than cabinets. So people are now putting their dinnerware in drawers instead, but find that the constant pushing and pulling of drawers are making the dishes slide around and bump into each other. To help with this constant movement and reduce the risk of chipping your plates, you can consider getting these plate stands. They help with not only minimizing damage, but they also have little handles on them, which makes moving them around a lot easier. 

 

Lastly, to make the kitchen feel truly homey and lively, you need to add a few personal, yet useful, touches. This can be done through a variety of ways, including pretty dishware, unique salt and pepper shakers, cook books and cook book stands, and cute dish towels. These are just a few ideas, but the key is to make each space your own, and really put your personality into everything that you do. 

 

After these quick and simple steps, your kitchen will look and feel completely different! You can, of course, personalize all these tips to your own personal lifestyle, but the overall gist is that it doesn’t take much time or effort to really make the kitchen the heart of your household.

 

 

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