Dividing a kitchen into 5 zones helps maximize accessibility, organization, and storage.
Did you know that about 36% of Americans cook at home daily? That means that a little over a third of the population cooks at least one meal at home every single day. Cooking at home can be messy, requiring preparation and clean up. An organized kitchen, divided into its distinct function zones, can make life a little simpler.
If you aren’t careful, your workspace can easily look like it’s been run through by a tornado, especially if it’s not organized and optimized to make cooking flow much smoother.
Your kitchen should be a dynamic space that’s easy to navigate and that brings you joy. You should know where everything is. And it should only take you a few seconds to find it. This amount of organization requires specific kitchen planning.
To best optimize your kitchen, you should make sure that your workspaces are split into different kitchen zones.
By optimizing your kitchen into different zones, you’ll be able to cut down the time you spend in the kitchen.
Consumables
The average family wastes about 31.9% of their food. That’s nearly a third. Food is often wasted because it’s hard to find or hard to see. Basically, it’s food that you won’t reach for as often. After all, you may not even know that it’s there.
Your consumables zone will house all of your foods, spices, oils, and other consumables. The consumables zone should encompass your fridge and your pantry. It should also include the spices you keep next to your stove.
It’s best practice to keep all of your consumables grouped. Only use the cabinets in between your fridge and your spice cabinet for food. Dishes should be kept in a completely separate zone.
To best organize your pantry and food zone cabinets, you should use full extension drawers to optimize your storage space. With full extension drawers, you’ll never lose anything in the back of your cabinets.
Non-Consumables
Non-consumables include cutlery, dishes, glasses, and plastic containers. This zone should be near your dishwasher for easy unloading. The non-consumable zone is one that you will use frequently, so it needs to be well organized.
You can organize your pots, pans, glasses, plastic containers, and other dishes with many of our products, including:
- Flat item organizers
- Drawer inserts
- Pull out organizers
- Pull down organizers
- Drawer within a drawer
Cleaning
The cleaning zone will likely be your smallest zone, but it’s one of the most important. It should be located near your sink. Most people choose to place their cleaning zone underneath their sink.
Cleaning utensils and cleaning agents should be kept here so that everything is close by. You can even choose to put your items in a caddy or carrier so you can easily grab the essentials when you need them.
Preparation
The preparation zone is one of the more important zones, as you’ll likely be spending most of your time in this area. Make sure to place this zone near a place that has lots of counter space, as you’ll need to chop and arrange items so you can achieve mise en place.
While you’re in this zone, you should be close to your non-consumable zone so that you can reach knives, cutting boards, and plastic containers when you need them.
Cooking
And finally, your cooking zone. This houses the stove and is close to the preparation zone and non-consumables zone, so you have easy access to the pots and pans that you need as well as the food that you’ve recently prepared.
It’s best practice to leave some cooking utensils within reach for easy access when they’re needed.
You should be able to accomplish your tasks with a good smooth flow when working in the kitchen. You don’t want to have to walk back and forth looking for things when you could instead establish a rhythm.
Instead of crossing in and out of different zones throughout your time in the kitchen, you should be able to move through them like a cycle. It should feel smooth, not choppy.
Art of Drawers can Design Your Kitchen for Smooth Flow and Greater Accessibility
If your kitchen requires some tender love and care, Art of Drawers can help you design the kitchen of your dreams. It can be hard to feel inspired when you’re working in a lackluster and messy kitchen.
An organized, well-thought-through kitchen will call your name, making you want to cook more. When you experience everyday joy from a well-organized life, you’re able to share that joy with your loved ones.
At Art of Drawers, we’ll work with you to ensure that you get the kitchen you’ve always dreamed of. From design to installation, we’ll make sure you know what’s going on. When your kitchen is fully installed, you’ll be ready to cook and clean like a pro.
For more information or to schedule a free design session, please contact us online or call us at 770-800-8410.
