Home Staging Kitchen Tips
- Location, Location, Location!
Reposition kitchen contents where they most make sense. Think about location, prime location and accessibility.
If you use something less frequently then place it in the harder to reach cupboards.
If you use something daily, never put something in front of it (a block).
2. Move Shelves
So many people forget that most kitchen shelves move up and down.
Use this to your advantage. Move shelving up by the side of your cooker to fit in tall oils and vinegars – if you’re storing small/shorter items move shelving down so you can utilise space below or above.
3. Occasional Items
In reference to your kitchen this means crockery that is only used at dinner parties,
excess glasses taking up prime spots in your kitchen cupboards that get used a couple of times a year, the bead maker or chocolate fountain that comes out only at birthdays.
Store these items elsewhere labelled neatly – in the garage, store cupboard or under the stairs perhaps.
Use your daily space for the bits you need daily.
4. Tea and Coffee Station
It makes no sense doing three laps of the kitchen just to make a coffee.
Your mugs and cups should be in a cupboard above your kettle, next to your tea and coffees and if the cutlery drawer isn’t practically placed to this then a little jar of extra teaspoons should be placed neatly with your mugs too.
Streamlined mornings (especially when it comes to your first coffee of the day!) mean time saving efficiently.
5. Look With Fresh Eyes
If your work surfaces are covered in bits and bobs you will never truly feel organised.
Take a look at your space with fresh eyes – what is in your cupboards that you don’t need anymore? What is taking precedence over the items you need put away? I bet with these fresh eyes you see things you haven’t even noticed for months or longer.
It’s like being mindful of your space… a sudden eye opener for many who are simply trying to get out of the house each day with no time to spare!
6. How Many Do You Need?
There is no desperate need for spares and quadruples of utensils and crockery unless we go through them extremely frequently, yet our drawers are cluttered with multiples.
How many wooden spoons do have in your utensils? How many spatulas? Mixing bowls? Mugs? There are some of the main culprits I see so many of, yet they just aren’t used!
Give away or gift to someone who needs them but be realistic about usage and ‘need’.
7. Your home is not a shop
I’m not sure quite why we all panic about running out of certain foods when there are, for most people, a mass of shops on every corner – in an absolute disaster we could find what we need pretty easily I suspect.
In fact, with online shopping, you could more than likely get whatever you need delivered within hours, in London especially. Learn to have just enough at home and not enough to last the next 6 months… you shouldn’t have to search for storage in your home to house the 20 bottles of almond milk or the 25 kitchen rolls.
Order to suit your space and get used to what you need less of and more of.
If you shop online, have a regular shopping list and perhaps even a fortnightly or monthly one. It will be obvious to you what you need more regularly.
Check your cupboards before you shop!
8. A Gadget Should Be Useful
How many times do you reach for a knife when cutting an avocado, when chopping an apple or when slicing up an egg?
I believe most people do so and therefore the avocado slicer, the egg dicer and the apple corer become redundant. In the 50’s they managed fine with just a knife
and if you are looking to have less and appreciate more, we can all use this way of thinking to simplify and streamline our lives.
9. Jars Or No Jars?
There has been an enormous trend of transferring everything you buy (food wise) into jars. I have a few things to say about this.
1. You are causing some extra work here so if you are going to do this then realise it’s a commitment – you transfer, you label with the contents and the use by date and then when you get to the last of the contents you tip out, pour the new in and then the old back on top so you use it first….then replace the date etc etc….you can see where I’m going with this. This is more than just a visual addition to your kitchen – it’s extra work!
2. You still have to store the refills that don’t fit in the jars!
3. If you are putting the jars anywhere other than on a display shelf they are not the most space efficient. Stored in cupboards they can be cumbersome and awkward.
I would suggest using square jars so you can store them more efficiently and perhaps only use them for certain foods and not everything.
Work out how many you need before buying them and –
10. The biggest tip of all
Sometimes the easiest tip of all is the simplest.
If you feel your kitchen is stressing you out, you have to know where to put things, you’ve tried and tried to tidy but before you know it-it’s back to how it was… then you probably just have too much stuff – too much for the space you have and too much to be able to sufficiently organise without feeling crammed.
Prioritise what you need – what do you have doubles of? What do you never ever use but keep just in case? What takes up room but doesn’t deserve it and how many people are you catering for in comparison to how many people actually live in and frequent your home?
Learn more exciting, useful organising tips at www.youneedavicky.com