When I started paying attention to how many steps and movements I was making in the kitchen it caused me to think of better ways to arrange things. In my kitchen the refrigerator is at one end and I had the knife drawer at the opposite end and did most of the cutting in the middle. By simply moving the knife drawer directly under the cutting area I have saved a lot of steps and time. A change like this may not seem significant but multiply this several times around your kitchen and you will find yourself enjoying your time there more and being faster with the work. You make three meals a day 365 days a year in the kitchen, that�s a lot of time and energy. I think creating an efficient kitchen is one of the biggest ways to find more time in your life. When things are simplified and set up efficiently creativity has a place to bloom. Your family will appreciate your more cheerful attitude and want to join you. By creating an efficient work space in the kitchen you will make it easier to teach and train your children in cooking, cleaning, and managing.
Managing the kitchen and meals is one of the biggest tasks of being a keeper at home, just because you were not taught how to do it is no excuse for throwing up your hands in defeat, think of all the other things you have had to teach yourself. Learning never stops in life unless you stop it. I have seen people do this and heard them say things that indicate they can�t learn anymore or that they can't be good at something. It�s not true. We can always try new things and learn new skills with God�s help and a bit of determination. God made us women, helpmeets to our men, and our chief job is to be busy at home (Genesis 2, Titus 2). For what He has assigned, He will enable us to do. He is Jehovah-Jirah.
So how do you start making you kitchen more efficient? By observing and thinking while you are working in the kitchen. How many steps are you taking, how many times are you bending over, reaching up, digging through a drawer, scrounging in the back of a cupboard. Observe yourself for a week as you work, keep a paper on the frig and start writing down ideas as they come.
Some centers to think about setting up in your kitchen
1. Cutting and Sink Center
knives and cutting boards, coffee and coffee maker, dish washing tools, colander, drinking glasses, pitchers, juicer, liquid measuring glass, plant waterer
2. Cooking Center
pots and pans, cooking oil, rice, pasta, cooked cereals, serving dishes, platters, trays, timer, tea kettle, tea,
3. Mixing Center
mixer, bowls, bread pans, baking ingredients
4. Serving Center
I like to keep all the dinnerware in a low cupboard by the dishwasher so my littlest children can unload the dishwasher with ease
5. Refrigerator Center
Ziplocs and containers for leftovers, a marking pen, sack lunch items
There is no perfect kitchen anywhere, there will always be a spot or an area that irritates you. Some of these centers will overlap in your kitchens and that�s OK. You might want to keep two of the same tools or knives in your kitchen one for each center to save you some steps. Some of you might have a kitchen that is so tiny that centers are nearly impossible but at the same time it�s so tiny that you aren�t taking any steps but simply turning around and around. My kitchen is long and that presents challenges. The bottom line is to arrange things for the greatest efficiency possible.
Think about things that you make often and set the kitchen up so it can be done quickly. If you do a lot of juicing then create a �juice center�. If you make salads every meal, then create a �salad center�. Put the items that you use most in your daily cooking between your eye level and your hip level. If you have children that do a lot of cooking then take that into consideration. I recently moved my mixing bowls to a low spot to stop my children from climbing the counters every day.
If you have cake pans that you use every year or two and don�t want to give away, store them in a high cupboard or a back corner cupboard. I cleaned and organized a shelf in my basement�s unfinished area for my infrequently used items. I plan to sew a simple curtain to hide it and keep the things from getting dusty.
As the years go by and your cooking changes (to more healthy hopefully) you will find that your kitchen needs rearranged again. I found that as I started making double and triple batches of things, that I needed to bring my biggest pots, pans, and baking dishes to the front and center and move the smaller things to the back.
Last, do not walk to your kitchen and start tearing it apart. Take a few days to observe yourself and think about things. It could be that you already have things set up in an efficient way and it only needs a little tweaking. If it�s not broke, don�t fix it.
