Organizing Your Kitchen For Holiday Cooking And Baking
Whether or not you have recently renovated your kitchen or have not quite gotten around to committing to a newly designed and renovated kitchen, holiday baking and cooking will be a lot easier with a well-organized kitchen space.
Here are a few tips for preparing your current kitchen for the holiday baking season:
Deep clean your kitchen
Your kitchen will soon be covered with flour and filled with the scents that come along with holiday baking. However, give your kitchen a thorough deep cleaning before the holiday baking marathon begins. This will make for a quicker cleaning up after baking or cooking and will certainly make entertaining prep time a little shorter.
Make your holiday baking list
Make a list of all of the recipes and goodies you will be baking. Compile a list of nonperishable ingredients and stock the kitchen to avoid all those last-minute dashes to the grocery store. This is also a great time to organize your holiday recipes. Over the last few years, I have been photographing my old recipe cards and organizing them in digital folders for easy access. I use Evernote, but you could also use other cloud storage to retrieve them from any device and share them with family members easily.
Sort through your pantry or cabinets
Remove everything from your pantry, wipe out the pantry, then sort and re-stock everything. Discard any expired items and make a list of any items needed. For example, you should replace those opened baking soda and baking powder boxes before you start baking. Also, be sure your sugar, flour, and brown sugar are fresh by re-stocking these items if needed.
Organize your bakeware
While you are cleaning things out, organize all your bakeware. Figure out what pieces you will be using and be sure they are easily accessible. You might want to update your cookie sheets or add a few more to your collection to speed up the baking process. Find that special tart pan now before you are in a hurry to start baking.
Organize and refresh your spices
Whether your spices are stored in a cabinet, pantry, or drawer, this area likely needs some attention. Discard any spices that are not fresh and update with what is needed for the season. For example, you don’t want to run short on ginger while baking those gingerbread cookies.
Clean off your kitchen countertops
This is a great time to clean off those kitchen countertops eliminating any unnecessary items (holiday decor is considered a necessary item) and giving yourself some space for baking. Also, if you keep your mixer stored, this might be a great time to keep it out on the countertops where it might be getting a lot of use.
Clean out your refrigerator
Give yourself the added storage space that you might need for your holiday baking supplies, and for extra food storage by giving your refrigerator a quick cleanout. This is also a great time to stock up on food storage containers for baked goods and holiday leftovers.
Check your appliances
Be sure that all of your appliances are in working order, arrange for any necessary repairs. Don’t wait until the last minute to call for appliance service. This is a busy time of year for servicing, and purchasing new appliances can have a long lead time right now.
As you are going through the holiday season, make some notes of how you can set things up differently, making things easier next year. Knowing the limitations of your current kitchen can be helpful when preparing for next year or when you decide to redesign your kitchen space.
Until Next Time,
Gia
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