If you’re hosting a Christmas lunch this year or are having a quiet family affair, you will likely need to create some order in your home, especially in the kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of the home, especially over the festive season and getting your kitchen into some kind of organization can provide you with some much-needed sense of calm over the holidays.
The reality is that Christmas can be very stressful and if you’re planning on spending time in the kitchen, having an organized space in the kitchen can make the day so much easier and allow you to organize, plan and prepare well ahead of time. With that in mind, here are some top tips on how to organize your kitchen in time for Christmas.
Clear & Organize Your Countertops
The first step you should take when it comes to organizing your kitchen is clearing and organizing your kitchen countertops. There is nothing more frustrating than having too much clutter on your countertops or having to always clear things out the way when cooking or putting out dinner. When you’re dishing up a Christmas dinner, often with many more pots, pans and plates being used than a normal weekday dinner, this can become very annoying, very fast and can cause the process to slow down considerably.
The most common items that clutter flat kitchen surfaces are the day to day essentials such as keys, posts, bags and wallets, especially by doorways or on dining tables. If you don’t have time to sort through the clutter over the festive season (after all, who has any spare time over Christmas!), then one of the best and easiest ways to combat this is to use decorative baskets or boxes where you can put daily clutter to give you more space.
Have Snacks To Hand
There’s nothing worse when you are cooking than people coming in and asking for snacks, or how long the food is going to take. It can also be stressful when you have family and friends around and they’re not sure where to look for snacks and treats.
Having some festive snacks and treats organized in jars or tubs around your kitchen that are easy for people to grab on the go or for you to point people in the direction of can make things a lot easier, plus they can add to the overall festive aesthetic of your kitchen. A festive biscuit selection, mini chocolate yule logs, fun Christmas sweets and chocolates or even a Christmas themed trail mix are all good ideas for snacks and treats you can have to hand.
Re-Organize Your Fridge
You will need some extra space in your fridge over Christmas for all those delicious festive leftovers and party foods. In the run-up to Christmas, try to use up as much of your fridge supplies as possible to clear out some extra space and give the fridge a really good clean.
If you are planning on doing a big pre-Christmas food shop, then coming back to a partially empty fridge will make putting everything away so much easier and then you’re not juggling and balancing things on top of one another. It also means that you can create some form of system that works best for you (meat in the bottom drawer, drinks and bottles in the door, fresh fruit on the top shelf etc) so that everything is easy to find when you need it, or if you have family or friends helping out with the cooking who may not know where certain items are.
Stock Up Your Cleaning Station
Celebrations of any kind create a mess and this is especially true at Christmas. Having an organized kitchen can make the cleanup mission quicker and a lot less painful! Have an area near your sink that has a pile of fresh, clean tea towels and stock up on your dishwashing supplies, such as dish soap, sponges, washing up gloves, dishwasher tablets and bin bags.
You should also have a food waste bin to hand should plates come back with food leftovers on. Before your guests arrive, ensure that the dishwasher is empty so that it can just be stacked and turned on after dinner. Clear any worktops, keeping the space next to the sink tidy and free from clutter so that dirty plates can just get placed there.
