Chatting with Panhead John about some cast iron, he brought up utensil organization,.
I feel like my kitchen area cycles through changes every 3 - 4 months like a furniture store changes their layout. It’s just a place that is evolving to the next season of what I like to cook. But yesterday I made some pretty big moves. For me, it is such a pain in the A to keep wheeling up, grabbing handle, wheeling back, wheel around the door grab Then wheeling back to shut the door, Drawers are a bit more friendly, although I have broken a few as I generally don’t reach down into them, I find my arm rests a bit on the drawers, and over time they break, happens in my kitchen fridge as well, I replace a cross brace bar in there likely every 7 months. Just always think the your arm is at a 90 to your body, so all lifting is a bit awkward or weighted at times. Reaching into an oven is another thing from behind the door.
I decided my oven is the Nucleus of my kitchen, even though I am at the counter far more often, it;s not where I need to access things, if I do, my cart sits next to me with all big and heavy things on it. The biggest floor cabinet is to the right of it, and series of drawers to the left. The large cabinet is definitely for pans, but some of those pans talked about in the cookware thread, that often do not get used in a week. So I removed a fair amount of the pans, and now have them hanging on the hooks on my stainless kitchen cart, which holds all of my baking equipment, vac seal, etc... I have taken that extra space to continue holding my every day or week pans, add the stainless bowl set I use the most, the larger glass measuring cups up to a quart. My hand held strainers,.. so open one cabinet, and not having to wheel back and forth. I also often put a tray on my lap to move things collected from cabinet & drawers as I get ready to work at the counter,.
By removing the knife block and a bit more organization in my countertop utensils holder, I made room for my induction burner to sit next to the sink. We had that area re wired for me this past spring. If you are in a chair and you are trying to move a lot of hot stock or soup, heck cold water. you need to move it from pit holder to pot holder across the counter like stepping stones, until you get to where it is going. So now, when I need to drop a stock pot into a sink ice bath, I can now just set it in, no more trying to slowly move it, which also, you never want to move liquid on your lap, even with a tray, it slops back and forth witn every jiggle of the chair.
The next was those drawers that are constantly a mess, as well as my utensil holders on the counter cluttered with too much,, and stupid wood block holding fewsteak knives on my counter while the ones we use are in a drawer… Solution I took the top drawer and put some trays in it, front tray has that tool I use every time I am in the kitchen (bench scrapers and I have a lot thermometers, can opener, microgram scale), the middle tray holds all measuring cups and measuring spoons, the third is the third tray is the I use it 2 - 3 times a week. The bottom drawer is meant for large hand held like immersion blender. SV, ,. And containers I may use them in most, other than a SV tub. I also removed 50 percent of our pot holders, way to many. The second drawer is now the catch all, it is bigger and at some point I will organize it, but the stuff I will use is clearly on top of the mess.
Still lot’s of stuff to figure out to make my area more efficient with my time spent there, Truly if it were up to me, I would have someone come pull all of the floor cabinets and store them in our lower level, and I would put in stainless tables, I’m embarrassed about the amount of dents in our stainless, a dpaint off of a cabinet from my foot rests…😬 but I know that will never fly, lol
Do you have a “nucleolus” per se to your methods in the kitchen?
I feel like my kitchen area cycles through changes every 3 - 4 months like a furniture store changes their layout. It’s just a place that is evolving to the next season of what I like to cook. But yesterday I made some pretty big moves. For me, it is such a pain in the A to keep wheeling up, grabbing handle, wheeling back, wheel around the door grab Then wheeling back to shut the door, Drawers are a bit more friendly, although I have broken a few as I generally don’t reach down into them, I find my arm rests a bit on the drawers, and over time they break, happens in my kitchen fridge as well, I replace a cross brace bar in there likely every 7 months. Just always think the your arm is at a 90 to your body, so all lifting is a bit awkward or weighted at times. Reaching into an oven is another thing from behind the door.
I decided my oven is the Nucleus of my kitchen, even though I am at the counter far more often, it;s not where I need to access things, if I do, my cart sits next to me with all big and heavy things on it. The biggest floor cabinet is to the right of it, and series of drawers to the left. The large cabinet is definitely for pans, but some of those pans talked about in the cookware thread, that often do not get used in a week. So I removed a fair amount of the pans, and now have them hanging on the hooks on my stainless kitchen cart, which holds all of my baking equipment, vac seal, etc... I have taken that extra space to continue holding my every day or week pans, add the stainless bowl set I use the most, the larger glass measuring cups up to a quart. My hand held strainers,.. so open one cabinet, and not having to wheel back and forth. I also often put a tray on my lap to move things collected from cabinet & drawers as I get ready to work at the counter,.
By removing the knife block and a bit more organization in my countertop utensils holder, I made room for my induction burner to sit next to the sink. We had that area re wired for me this past spring. If you are in a chair and you are trying to move a lot of hot stock or soup, heck cold water. you need to move it from pit holder to pot holder across the counter like stepping stones, until you get to where it is going. So now, when I need to drop a stock pot into a sink ice bath, I can now just set it in, no more trying to slowly move it, which also, you never want to move liquid on your lap, even with a tray, it slops back and forth witn every jiggle of the chair.
The next was those drawers that are constantly a mess, as well as my utensil holders on the counter cluttered with too much,, and stupid wood block holding fewsteak knives on my counter while the ones we use are in a drawer… Solution I took the top drawer and put some trays in it, front tray has that tool I use every time I am in the kitchen (bench scrapers and I have a lot thermometers, can opener, microgram scale), the middle tray holds all measuring cups and measuring spoons, the third is the third tray is the I use it 2 - 3 times a week. The bottom drawer is meant for large hand held like immersion blender. SV, ,. And containers I may use them in most, other than a SV tub. I also removed 50 percent of our pot holders, way to many. The second drawer is now the catch all, it is bigger and at some point I will organize it, but the stuff I will use is clearly on top of the mess.
Still lot’s of stuff to figure out to make my area more efficient with my time spent there, Truly if it were up to me, I would have someone come pull all of the floor cabinets and store them in our lower level, and I would put in stainless tables, I’m embarrassed about the amount of dents in our stainless, a dpaint off of a cabinet from my foot rests…😬 but I know that will never fly, lol
Do you have a “nucleolus” per se to your methods in the kitchen?
Comment