Are you looking for ways to avoid kitchen chaos? Our kitchens are often the hub of our house. Everyone congregates here when they get home and, therefore, a lot of things make their way onto our kitchen benches. It can become chaotic pretty quickly. This then becomes a source of stress when it comes to meal preparation, not to mention the cleaning demands.
All of this can mean we avoid having people over and that we don’t enjoy the space as we intended. Here are a few ideas for things you can do to avoid kitchen chaos.
Kitchen Chaos Avoidance Strategies
Have a Collection Point for Papers
The kitchen countertops are popular dumping grounds for papers by passers-by. I’ve found mail, school excursion forms, gift certificates, gift cards, medical scripts – you name it! – on a kitchen bench.
To minimise them ending up all over your kitchen, delegate a spot for these. Find a tray or box you can place on the kitchen bench and encourage everyone to put their papers in there. You can then focus some time towards going through the tray when it suits you.
Use Meal Plans
If you don’t do it already, introduce meal plans. Even having a loose idea of what you’re going to cook or eat, will make life easier in the kitchen.
Planning your meals for the week has many benefits. Meal plans:
- Cut down on the chore of having to think about what to cook (leaving more time for you!)
- Minimise the number of times you have to go shopping for ingredients.
- Reduce the amount of wasted food, as you’re only buying what you need.
- Ultimately save you money.
The way I go about meal planning is by sitting down at the start of each week (a Saturday for me) and plan out the week’s menu. I use recipe books for inspiration. As you choose your meals, you write down your shopping list. Done. You don’t have to do something different each week though. Have you got standard ‘go-to’ meals you like to cook? Gather them all in a folder and decide which ones you’ll make this week.
Don’t forget to also think about snacks!
For those of you who have others in the home that are capable of cooking, it sure makes it easier to leave the recipe book on the bench with a note saying, “Please start dinner, everything you need is in the fridge”.
Set Up a Cleaning Roster
Cleaning the kitchen is the other big time suck and chaos creator.
It’s important to know what your blocks are around cleaning so you can work on those. For instance, our home doesn’t have a dishwasher. My husband and I hate washing up. There would be a constant standoff on who would do the dishes. We found that the task was too overwhelming when we’d left it so long. Now we wash as we go. After each meal, we wash the dishes. It’s really helped us keep the kitchen clean. We also argue less! 😉
If you have kids, you can also create a cleaning roster and delegate age appropriate chores for your kids.
It can be good to tackle the cleaning in stages. If you only have 5 minutes, just do a little bit. When I put the kettle on for a cup of tea, I put the dishes away whilst I wait for the kettle to boil.
Don’t wait for the perfect time to clean the kitchen from head to toe. It barely ever happens that we’re blessed with the perfect amount of time to complete something. Take the small opportunities as you get them. It makes a difference.
I hope you enjoyed the few quick tips to avoid kitchen chaos. It takes a little effort to get a routine happening with some of these, but it really makes a difference to the flow of your home.
What are your tips to avoid kitchen chaos? Please share them in the WellSorted Facebook Group. Let’s help each other with this common problem.
