Recently, in the middle of the week, first thing in the morning, I said to myself, “I’m going to finalize my kitchen organization today.” This was a spontaneous decision.
In the previous home, I had no problem keeping various items organized while balancing my business activities. Since we moved into our new residence last October, however, things seemed to easily get out of control in the kitchen. It’s not the dishes that are the problem because they are rinsed and put away into the dishwasher throughout the day, just as they were in the previous home.
Then I figured out what the difference was. In the previous home, there was a designated walk-in pantry. Every kind of food that did not require refrigeration was neatly organized there. Outside of the pantry, the dishes and kitchen utensils had their own designated areas. In other words, everything had its rightful place and, therefore, was in harmony.
With our new residence, there is no walk-in pantry. Therefore, if not careful, the entire kitchen can be thought of as a pantry. Ah, hah! This was the problem. Beyond those that contain china, glasses, and silverware, I needed to segregate which cupboards were to contain food, and which ones were not. To solve the problem, I made room in those cupboards by removing many of the non-food items into a cabinet in the garage, which is connected to the kitchen. This helped create enough room in the cupboards for all food items.
A difficulty I faced was the size of the cupboard shelves, some of which are double the depth of those in the previous home. In other words, things can easily get lost and forgotten about unless well organized. Clear plastic containers, that used to contain ready-to-eat salads but are now empty, to the rescue!
I spent three hours rearranging things and organizing them. Along the way, I found items that I had forgotten about. A couple of items needed to be pitched. With some other ones, it was like a treasure hunt.
When completed, I felt much better and was ready to get back to work. I am grateful to be in a position such that I get to decide what gets done on a day-to-day basis.
Life is good.
