My top ten list to do to de-clutter and organise your kitchen

Cooking is is something I really enjoy doing.The best way to learn the art of cooking is to watch and observe, participate, taste and smell the ingredients.Once you start to enjoy food preparation and tasting the different ingredients, and cooking you need to arrange your kitchen so that its neat and tidy so that all your ingredients and utensils are clean and well organised and easy to source. You can be adventurous and add more and more ingredients, utensils and gadgets to your workspace once you have got your basic workspace organised and in order

In this day and age there are some many gadgets, utensils and ingredients that one can purchase, it is critical to have a clutter free and organised kitchen workspace and larder.This is a must to help your food creativity flow and you to enjoy stress free cooking.

Do you kitchen cupboards look like this??

My top ten list to do to de-clutter and organise your kitchen:

1. De clutter your work tops, if you don't use the gadget regularly store it away in a cupboard until you need to use it.

2. Only have essential gadgets on your work top and store those away from space near hob as this area should be free for cooking on.

3. Invest in good quality cast iron pots and pans that will last you along time. Don't fill up your kitchen with cheap pots and pans that are missing handles or are damaged with teflon coating peeling off. Take a deep breath and throw these away.Its far better to have fewer good quality pots and pan than lots of bad cheap quality ones.

4. Invest in good quality bake ware, throw away bakeware that is, burnt, caked with grease, buckled or rusted.

The perfect choice for everyday baking and cooking is the Pyrex’s superior quality metal bakeware collection. It is made of carbon steel to ensure everything is baked uniformly – enabling home owners to achieve the best results every time. Each product is oven safe up to 230°C and dishwasher friendly, while a non-stick coating covers the inside and the outside of the products, allowing for quick and easy food release and easy cleaning.

I tried the pizza pan which had holes in the base to allow even cooking and large easy grip handles to make taking the hot pan out of the oven easier.The tray gave me delicious crisp pizza base whilst baking the pizza . The collection includes cake, loaf, quiche and flan pans in a choice of sizes, six and 12 cup muffin tray options, and a four bun tray – perfect for Yorkshire puddings. There are also two essential springform loose bottom cake pans and a set of four tartlet pans.

5. Have a tool tidy and limit it to 5 or 6 important tools you use regularly. De-clutter your kitchen drawer and throw away spatulas, wooden spoons that are broken or discoloured that you no longer use.Do not hoard.

6. Have a wooden block to store your kitchen knives safely.

7. Have a separate chopping board for fruit and veg, bread and meat.Throw away any very old worn wooden or plastic  boards as bacteria can breed in them.

8. Allocate a cupboard  for your spice storage, opened bags of spices loose their aroma and freshness very quickly, once opened store in air tight containers and use them by the use by date.

To keep my ingredients fresh I have used these wonderful silicon lidded Tricon space saving canisters that are easy to stack and as they are see through you can see the ingredients in them at a glance.The lids double up as a cup-size measuring tool for contents. They keep all the ingredients dry and fresh

9. Invest in a good, some measuring cups,measuring spoons and some good air tight storage containers.

I recently added the 4-in-1 measuring spoon, which  efficiently combines all "spoon keys" into one simple body and is a space-saving, quick-cleaning solution to your cooking and baking adventures.

 In addition the set of four mug shaped measuring cups are useful as they stack together to give the appearance of a drinking mug when not in use and is perfect for measuring all sorts of ingredients. The sizes of the cups are one cup, half cup, third cup and quarter cup and can be popped into the dishwasher for a super-easy clean up. 

Both measuring spoon and measuring cups  are durable, space saving and the cups are stackable taking very little room in my kitchen drawer.

All these three items are available from Umbra

10. Store pasta, rice and flours in air tight containers and make sure you use all your ingredients by the use by date.

These larger quantities of ingredients require a bigger container and these lovely Pop containers by OXO are perfect for the job. The OXO Good Grips POP Containers are airtight, stackable and space-efficient, making it easy to keep your dry foods fresh and your kitchen organised. The Containers have a unique push-button mechanism that creates an airtight seal with just one touch. The button also serves as a handle to lift off the lid. The Containers are designed for modular stacking so that you can efficiently organise your counter top and pantry. In addition, with their square and rectangular shapes, the POP Containers make the most of any storage space, while their corners allow for easy pouring. The POP Containers are available in 12 different sizes to meet your dry food storage needs

Thankyou to Umbra for sending me the measuring spoon and cups and the Tricon storage canisters. Also many thanks to Pyrex for sending the lovely pizza tray and OXO for the wonderful storage POP containers. My kitchen is now well equipped and organised so that all the ingredients are easily accessable

All the views in this post are my own.All these products can be purchased on line through the relevant web sites.

 And finally  an organised set of kitchen cupboards.