Kitchen set up and You.

Since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen I thought it would be fun and informative to write a hub about setting up a kitchen for a regular family style house. Now I am not any kind of expert, professional Chef, or Hotel Manager trying to make a name for myself here, just a regular Joe who likes to cook, knows a thing or two about kitchen set up, and just likes to share.

For me the first thing that really matters is what kind of cookware you have, you know the tools of the trade if you will. So let’s start there with..

Pots and Pans

You don’t have to have one of those million dollar Copper plated sets to have a good working kitchen. I get away with a #10 cast iron skillet, 2qt sauce pot, Alloy frying pan, a couple of baking sheet pans, pizza pan, Pyrex baking dish, and lids for all. Additional stuff I include is a Colander, one of those screen lids, and a good Pyrex measuring cup up to 1qt. Some of the stainless steel mixing bowels from Goodwill are great and cheap too!

Utensils

Here again you don’t need every tool ever made to have a good set of utensils. A couple of wooden spoons, spatula, tongs, whisk, cheese grater, potato peeler, a good set of measuring spoons(1/8 tsp-1tbsp). The wooden knife block with all the knifes is great, but all you really need is a 10“Chef knife, clever, paring knife, sharping steel, bread knife, That just about does it for me, anything else just cloggs up the dishwasher.
Containers and Storage

This is an area that never seems to be up to stuff, never have the right lid, or the one you finally found that matches isn’t microwavable. So what I do is buy the sets of containers and go from there. Storage is something that helps to keep dry goods dry, fresh, and besides they just look good on the counter’‘) If you are one of those kitchen people who collects plastic bowls and lids just to throw them in the box under the sink, then you need sets of containers. The BPA free ones are a really good deal for two reasons, 1) no unwanted chemical byproducts in the food or water.

2) They don’t cost any more than the throw away ones you collect under the sink.

Stocking the Pantry

Need that special ingredient? Spices getting low? Well the pantry is the heart of the kitchen in my book. This little room next to the laundry room is the place where all the meals are planed out, ingredients are stored, and winter food stocks are kept. right? right! What do you keep here? Well start with all the dry goods like, flour, rice, sugar, canned goods, anything that the kids will eat right out of the box. Cereal, cookies, potato chips, ramen soups, the microwave popcorn. This is the fort Knox of your kitchen. I keep most of the bulk spices and other stuff that I don’t need at hand in here. That way I use the spices and stuff at a slower rate, don’t have to stock up as often. It’s cheaper this way believe me, it’s cheaper.

Cleaning Supplies

Yes, you have to cleanup! So might as well use the good stuff, me I don’t mess around with generic chemicals. I use 409 on just about every surface in the kitchen. Dawn dish soap-(enough said), the dishwasher gets JetDry, and Cascade dishwashing pills. Those sponges with the green scrubie thingy on the bottom rock, You gotta have a good industrial style mop and bucket. Those swiffer things are cool, but $28 come on! I want the floor clean, use Mr. Clean or something with a cleaning agent in it. Dude, this is serious stuff when it comes to the kids. Nothing is kid proof, that means you have to be careful with where, what, and who has access to the bad stuff. Don’t just put it in the closet, or the pantry, under the sink is the first place they will look. Besides it is down there at kid eye level and those stupid plastic hook latches break after 2-3 good pulls. Put the stuff in the garage with all the other cleaners, chemicals, car stuff. Then go to Home depot get one of those door knobs that only have one side, put the side with a handle on the garage side. That way jr & sissy can’t open the garage door from inside the house. Yea, I know pure genius...

This is the way I set up my kitchen every time I move into a new house. I have helped many a friend move and always without a doubt have setup their kitchen this way and never has anyone complained after I was done. Most of my Lady friends think I should be some kind of life coach of something like that since a lot of the things that I do make pure sense in a natural kinda way. Hey, I just see the light some times.

So the next time you feel like changing the kitchen around or end up moving because the roommate can’t pay their share, give my system a try, let me know if it works for you.