A Kitchen for Cooking

Out of all the rooms in your home the kitchen is the one with the most potential for chaos. You invite in a multitude of different materials and products on a weekly basis and it is likely that you are using, or at least moving, many of these materials every single day. There are liquids, powders, gadgets; bags of rice, jugs of milk, tangles of cords. Vegetables wither in the crisper while cooking becomes the most tedious of chores. The solution is simple: a beautifully organized kitchen that will inspire you to whip up gourmet dinners every night of the week. There you go, that’s all you need to know!

Or is it?

I’ve been thinking a lot about kitchen organization lately. Between unpacking my kitchen post move and being inundated with beautiful pictures on Instagram I have put a lot of mental energy into deciding what makes a home kitchen run perfectly.

Marie Kondo taught me that a kitchen that is easy to clean is a kitchen that makes cooking enjoyable. I had never really thought about this before but it had already been working for me. When I lined up all my adorable little labeled bottles of spices on a shelf near the stove it was 10/10 cute, 10/10 easy to grab, and 0/10 easy to clean. A little bit of extra cleaning time doesn’t always feel like a sacrifice, but when it comes to the relentless struggle to keep oil and dust off tiny spice bottles this wasn’t for me. Dedicating a place to tidily store my spices in a cupboard meant that I would pull out my spices before cooking, and put them away as soon as possible. The effortless cleanup won every time.

“Saving” time

In the spirit of research I spent some time sitting in bed watching kitchen organizational tips on YouTube. The first video I watched had a million views and preached the value of shelves. I know it’s a bold move to criticize a video that has a million views, but I am a bold woman. The examples shown were busy looking kitchens with open shelving crowded with colourful spices and dozens of bottles. Multiple bars held hanging frying pans and knives were stuck to magnetic strips mounted to the walls. In the moment you’re saving precious seconds to access a jar of cumin but you’re paying the price in grime. I wasn’t the only person to feel this way; many comments argued that this kitchen meant to produce amazing cooking wasn’t really friendly to good cooking. Those oils decanted into matching clear bottles were begging to go rancid in the light and heat. At best the visual clutter could make you feel bogged down; at worst you were designing an all-inclusive resort for germs. There were testimonies from people who had to clean their frying pans before cooking, and others who were looking forward to the day they could remove their open shelving. Not having your ingredients visible and at arms reach was considered a mistake, but is it that hard to open a cupboard?

When I owned a restaurant we had many open shelves. This was a case where having to get a glass out of a cupboard would have actually been a hindrance. These glasses were not close to the stove and their frequency of use meant that they were being washed multiple times a day. The same was true for our knives on the magnet strip and the pans by the stove.

Do you want to deep clean every item in your kitchen every day? I personally choose not to have many items on display, regardless of aesthetic or convenience. I don’t think anything looks good covered in filth, and a negligible increase in accessibility is hardly worth the effort.

So what is the solution?

1. Consider each item that you choose to have visible in terms of frequency of use, proximity to the stove top, and durability.
2. Cupboards are for protecting your things, not hiding them. Let them do their job by starting with clean cupboards.
3. Gather the ingredients you need before you start cooking.
4. Keep open shelves as minimal as possible.

There was a brief moment in time when I loved my open shelves. But the shelves I had cut, sanded, stained, and carefully decorated only taught me how many cleaning agents I would need to remove the patina of cooking oil and dust off wine glasses. Nowadays I take more pride in storing my items rather than displaying them. The end result? A kitchen that is a joy to cook in.

We can’t wait to share more kitchen tips! Let us know if there is any kitchen related insight you are dying for below!