Maybe you also spent the past few weeks pulling out and putting away Halloween candy and ghost-shaped cookie cutters, only to turn around and find yourself digging for the heirloom gravy boat and starting your holiday grocery shopping. And maybe your kitchen also feels a little, well, disorganized.
The last thing you need right now is a complicated setup that will have you more frazzled than functional. Enter NEAT Method. Their stylish organizers make your kitchen a model of tidiness by putting — and keeping — things in their proper places. They also have a 20-percent-off site-wide sale until midnight on November 28, so this is an excellent time to browse. And if upgrading your kitchen storage gets you thinking about the rest of your home, NEAT Method‘s experts make IRL (and virtual) house calls to design tailored organization systems for any space in your home.
Before you dive fully into holiday cooking mode, use these tips and tools to add seriously helpful structure to your kitchen — even if you’re doing it at the last minute.
1. Label as much as you can.
Bad for people but good for spice jars and flour canisters, labels will help you spot ingredients with ease. Don’t feel like you have to keep this confined to the kitchen; put labels on bins and shelves throughout your home so houseguests can help themselves.
Decanting isn’t just for wine. Pour dry goods into clear canisters or glass jars so you can see at a glance how much you have of each item before you start cooking or make a grocery run. Get containers with airtight lids so your pastas, grains, legumes, nuts, and more stay fresh. Oh, and don’t forget to label them, too.
3. Alphabetize your spices (and upgrade your spice containers).
Many holiday dishes call for dried herbs and spices, including those you don’t use regularly throughout the year (we’re looking at you, cloves). Alphabetize your herbs and place them on a turntable or riser so when you’re cooking you can intuitively find what you need.
And as you’re moving spices around, it’s worth transferring them into these reusable glass spice jars. Because every jar is the same size and can be labeled uniformly, you can read what’s in them more quickly. No more knocking over your cinnamon as you wade through a jungle of differently shaped, differently sized, and differently labeled containers. Plus, uniform jars just look simple and pretty!
4. Turn your shelves into drawers.
Instead of storing items directly on your shelves, put everything in baskets. This makes it easy to pull things out in neat groups to find what you need — as if you were using a drawer! — rather than push items around until you spot that one ingredient. It also makes storing oddly shaped goods a whole lot easier. No more shelf Tetris.
Use metal grid baskets on lower shelves or the floor to hold heavier groceries and pantry produce like potatoes and onions. Rattan baskets can hold lightweight foods on middle or top shelves.
5. Put cans and spices on tiers.
Like a school choir during the holidays, make the most of risers. Use them to store cans, jarred foods, and extra spices (alphabetized, of course). Risers help you see everything at a glance and make it easier to not lose things or forget which items you already have.
The holidays are also the time to put seasonally appropriate items front and center so you remember to use them. The spotlight’s on you, canned pumpkin!