The secret to a happy home isn’t just one that looks gorgeous, but one that best fits your lifestyle. In the more utilitarian parts of the home, this means thinking about what you use it for and how you use it. With that in mind, we’re going to take a look at how to best approach your kitchen so it’s a streamlined for success. Here’s how to make it easier to use, clean, and to simply live with in general.
Know your zones
First of all, it’s a good idea to know what areas of the kitchen you use and for what, exactly. Zoning your kitchen is all about designating the areas for different purposes. You can set the washing area, the food preparation area, the cooking area, and storage areas for both consumables and non-consumables. This helps you better understand what you should and shouldn’t implement in those different areas. For instance, having your garbage disposal near your food preparation area is always wise, while any ventilation adjustments should be made much closer to the cooking area. Before making any major areas, ensure that you always have those zones in mind to make sure you have enough space to do what you need the kitchen to do.
Bring the kitchen with you
A tight, well-designed kitchen should help you flow to space to space with minimal time wasting or inefficiency. However, what if you have a kitchen that’s a little smaller, a little more spread out, or simply has an awkward layout? You don’t have to keep your zones all in one place. Portable kitchen carts, also referred to as portable kitchen islands, can be used not only as storage but as a workplace you can move around or lock in place as you need it. Many of them even come with extendable surfaces so you can open them up for more working space when needed and shrink them down for easy storage when you’re done with them.
Forget the cupboard doors
It might seem like a relatively minor change but taking the doors of your cupboards can help in a variety of situations. For one, a lot of people simply like the streamlined look of open shelving in the kitchen, with its modern, minimalist flair. If you have a smaller kitchen, then those cupboard doors might be a serious annoyance, too. Rather than finding yourself hemmed in every time you look for a bowl, you can make much easier to simply reach in and grab it when you need it. Of course, if you have any children, safety must a priority, so it might be a good idea to keep the floor level cupboards secure while using open shelving for the higher portions.
Keep it easy to clean
Open shelving also reduces the need for cleaning the kitchen, with no cupboard doors to attract dirt and grime. But the most effective way to streamline the room is to remodel your kitchen with a focus on efficient, resilient surfaces. Natural materials like quartz and marble are much more resistant to spills, stains, and dirt, making them much easier to simply wipe off when you’re done with the food preparation. For the floor, seamless linoleum or vinyl covers are not only easy to clean but highly cost-effective. With the right surfaces, you spend a lot less time tidying up the kitchen and a lot more time enjoying it.
Visibility is crucial
Whether you’re chopping, stirring, or enjoying a little boogie while you wait for the microwave to beep, nothing is more important than visibility. Not only is it crucial to your safety but also in being able to see better can help you more quickly locate the utensils, ingredients, and appliances you need and can highlight any stains or spills much more easily. Natural light can be boosted by using more flexible and minimalist window treatments like slat blinds instead of curtains or shades. Kitchen lighting can help a great deal more, however, with task lighting solutions like recessed lights under the bottoms of your cupboards and your roof helping to keep your worktops well lit and highly visible, no matter how much sunlight you do or don’t have coming in.
Purge and put away
Minimalist is a term we have used a couple of times and for good reason. Regardless of how you like to style your home, few rooms benefit from a “less is more” approach than the kitchen. In the kitchen, you should semi-regularly conduct a mini-audit of everything you have lying out visibly on the surfaces. Consider how much you really need them and the last time you used them. If they’re not used often enough to justify their prime positioning, then put them away in storage so that they’re still in reach, but not cluttering up your counters. Clutter attracts mess and gets in the way when you’re trying to free up space for food preparation, so aim for a minimalist kitchen.
Don’t neglect your appliances
Though it’s not strictly an interior design choice, your appliances still play a major role in how you use the kitchen. As they grow more inefficient or faulty, they become much more of a hassle, needlessly extending the amount of time that you spend cooking. Know when to replace your appliances and source your local expert to get repairs done quick as soon as you notice any faults. Not only can it help extend the lifespan of your appliances, meaning you don’t have to budget for a replacement, but it can stop small problems from growing into much larger, and thus much more expensive, problems as well.
A pretty kitchen isn’t something to turn your nose up at, but any redesigns, remodels, or renovations should begin with one top priority: just how useful the room is in the first place. The tips above can help you narrow that focus down by implementing some slick, streamlined features for the kitchen that will be paying themselves off for years to come.
