“Health is wealth” is a popular saying we all know. No doubt, healthy living is so important. Likewise the benefits, that can’t be overlooked. Most health practitioners, warns seriously against junk food.
Life is on a fast lane, and we struggle hard to meet up with it. Starting from the early morning rush, to the late evening appointment. Junk food seems to be on the go, for most of us.
Because we are too occupied, that we hardly cook. Kitchen is a very vital space in every home, but how
often do you make use of it. When last did you prepare a meal in it? And how convenient was it?
To get the best out of you kitchen, and probably make cooking easier and faster.
Your kitchen should be arranged in a way, that you can easily reach for any utensil. Store your tools where it can easily be accessed, and on how often they are used. Protect delicate ones.
In order to maximize your kitchen efficiency, and make your kitchen activities easier for you. organization is the key.
In every kitchen, there is the possibility for great storage space, exhibit, and functionality. But unfortunately most kitchens don’t have adequate of any of them.
A friend of mine called me to ask me, Should the knives go in the drawer next to the gas cooker, or the fridge? Should the plates go to the right of the sink, or the right of the fridge?
Should I put all dry foods in the pantry? Then what do I put in other cabinet? Or may be I should leave them empty? Then he realized he cant set up his kitchen.
How best can you set up your kitchen? You might have discovered it from time spent, cooking in your kitchen. Or may be you’re still gazing at the ceiling, looking for help from above.
No matter the size of your kitchen, setting it up requires only some few protocols to be observed. I guess you must have come across what we call ‘kitchen work triangle’.
But if you haven’t, this what it simply means; that the line made by the refrigerator, range, and sink develops a triangle. Within which becomes the utility space for the cook.
But to some they believe that work zone is much more better, judging from the different sizes of the kitchen and arrangements. But to me I believe in any of them, knowing how you connect one to the other, where to store and probably to set up the surrounding is the real deal.
For a proper arrangement to be achieved, you need to partition you kitchen spaces into zone. Just like zoning your to do activities based on priority level, can help you to attain a success.
kitchen essentials like refrigerator, cabinet, a sink, counter top space, and perhaps a cooker. As soon as you’ve known where each of them should be placed, you are good to go.
No matter the size of your kitchen, whether it’s small or big. You can still achieve a standard kitchen look with zoning.
The kitchen is zoned into five major work zones, which are:
i). catering zone: In this zone you have the stove top, oven, and probably the microwave. It’s best to create your catering zone around the stove top. With the pots and pans stored as close as possible, for easy reach.
ii). concentrated effort zone: This zone involves all the cleaning activities in the kitchen, like dish washing. This space is occupied with sink, and dishwasher.
iii). Work zone: This can be a counter top. In this area, virtually most of the food preparation is done, like cutting of vegetables, fruits and slicing of meat and the rest of them.
iv). Edible zone: Here is where your food stuffs are stored. It’s further divided into two; refrigerator for fresh foods like tomatoes. And the the pantry or cabinet for dry food items like yam, rice and beans, etc.
v). Non-edible zone: Here are for non consumable items, like kitchen utensils ( plates, knives, cook ware, etc.)
Items should be stored nearest to the related zone, to make it easier to reach. The benefit of zoning is to arrange your items in a proper way. In order to enhance your kitchen flow, without breaking it.
For instanced storing your knives, mixing bowls, chopping boards, spices, and other related items for prep, where your prep work is done.
It makes the work easier for you, instead of running from one side of the kitchen to the other, just to execute one task. And it as well saves you extra time.
Non edible items like dishes, mostly used on daily basis. It’s best to store them closer to your sink, and dishwasher. It makes it easy for you, to load them back after washing.
Imagine storing your dishes far from the dishwasher, then you’ll need to travel a mile to pack them after washing. But if its close to your dishwasher, even standing at a spot you offload from the dishwasher and load to the cabinet.
Position your cooker closest to your prep area, like we earlier said ‘the benefit of proper arrangement is to have a smart flow without break’. It’s important, you have enough counter space close to your cooker.
It’s easier to carry chopped food from the prep area to your cooking pot, when it’s closer to the prep area. Some complain that lack of space makes it unattainable. But even at that, you can still find an alternative. Like having an over the sink chopping board, is not a bad idea.
Putting things in order, makes you more careful and probably helps to prevent kitchen accidents.
Although setting up your kitchen can be too tasking, placing things where they are suppose to be is not entirely attainable. But steady practice will get you to master it.
It’s always easy to drop things at any available space, and jump out from the kitchen. But taking your time to drop it at the right place, can be stressful and time consuming, but pays later on.