The holiday season is upon us which means sharing your time and your home with friends and family. Gatherings can be a time of warmth and love but for a lot of us, it can still lead to plenty of stress and anxiety.
This month, I want to help ease your worries when it comes to hosting! The kitchen is the heart of the home, especially during the holiday season. It’s where we prepare meals and create memories. Having an organized and peaceful kitchen can help you feel at ease as we come together during this special time of year.
I have some fast and festive tips to help get your kitchen ready before the holiday hosting begins!
1. Sort your spice cabinet
Take 10 minutes to sort through your spices. Check expiration dates and make sure to toss anything that has gone bad or is well past the expiration date. Make a list of any spices you may need to replace or add to your collection (especially those fall and holiday favorites!). Be honest with yourself! Did you buy that fenugreek for a recipe three years ago you were dying to try only to never use it again? It’s time to let it go! Pass off any spices you no longer use to someone who will.
2. REVIEW YOUR BAKING ITEMS
Fall and the holiday season tend to be when we all want to try our hand at that apple pie or those Christmas cookie recipes. Make sure you aren’t stranded mid-recipe when you realize your brown sugar is rock solid. As with your spices, check all your baking ingredients and toss anything expired or unusable. Sometimes expiration dates are a helpful suggestion rather than a hard-and-fast rule but use your best judgment to protect your own health!
3. optimize your grocery list for quick & easy shopping
Plan your upcoming meals, check those recipes, and note if you are low on pantry staples. Create your grocery list by category/how items are located in your grocery store. This will help smooth out your shopping trip and eliminate the back and forth between aisles. It will also prevent you from forgetting any important ingredients for your next fall meal!
Sage Wisdom: I love creating memories while cooking! One of my favorite things is to print a hard copy of a recipe and store it in a binder with sheet protectors. When you’re ready to use one, pull it out and bake away! When you’re done, toss it back into the protector. You can easily find the recipes and see how well-loved they are, complete with sauce stains and fingerprints. But within the binder, they are protected and organized for long-term safekeeping.
4. check in on your tupperware
This is a great time of year to take stock of your tupperware. Pull out all your containers and make sure each base has a lid to match. No match? Recycle! From there, take stock of the state of your containers. If they are discolored, no longer seal properly, or just are in need of an upgrade, now is the time! Give yourself an early present and invest in a set of glass tupperware containers. Not only is it better for your food, your health, and the environment, it is so satisfying to see a clean set of organized glass containers stored in a cabinet or being utilized in the fridge... It really is the little things in life :)
5. our top two go-to products for kitchen organization
While it is by no means required to purchase products to have an organized space, we believe that products are the key to creating and maintaining sustainable systems. (More on that in our FAQ page!)
Our first love-to-have favorite is a drawer divider. This simple solution will have a huge impact on your space by preventing items from swimming and falling over in your drawers. It immediately eliminates visual clutter and makes it easier to navigate your space, saving you time. A minute or two at each meal translates to a lot of time over the course of a year. Think about how many more holiday cookies you could eat in all those extra minutes!
The second product we recommend is a turntable for your oils and vinegar. Instead of having to poke your arm into that deep cabinet to get to that specialty oil in the back, a turntable allows you to access every oil with one swift spin. It is also a great choice if you keep any of your common oils on the counter - your items will look curated, not cluttered!
Here at Sage Organization and Design, we love spending time in our kitchen cooking delicious meals that we will remember for years to come. That’s why kitchens are one of our favorite spaces to organize! We want tasty recipes and happy memories for you too so we hope that these tips and our passion for hosting help you feel motivated to get your kitchen prepared for the holiday season!
Are the spaces in your home in need of organizing before the end of the year? Schedule your free consultation call today!