How I kept the Vellore Village Kitchen organized

There is an odd satisfaction to having a well organized kitchen, where each item seems to have its own designated area, and there are no curse words involved each time you start cooking and cannot find the one tool you need. Can anyone relate?

Before remodeling my own kitchen, making dinner was total chaos. Half the time was spent on finding something, or pulling out everything in a cabinet just to get to one item way in the back. During the design stage of the kitchen, there was a considerable amount of time spent on how things should be organized, and where they should be placed. Being limited by space, there were items that we wish we could’ve incorporated, but they were not things we couldn’t live without. I will reveal these throughout the article.

Before I take you through all the drawers and cabinets, I would like to offer you with a few tips I learned through this experience that will help you organize your own kitchen.

1. PURGE

It is eye opening to see how much stuff you can accumulate over the years, that is not used or does not belong in the kitchen. Go through the cabinets and get rid of all the things you never use. It will save you tons of space.

2. CREATE AN INVENTORY

While purging, it makes it easier to take an inventory of what you have. Get an idea of how many small appliances, utensils and dishware you have. Do you have a lot of baking tools? Knowing what you have and how much of it, will help you to know how much space those items require in your kitchen. 

3. KNOW HOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO OPERATE IN THE KITCHEN

It is interesting how many people don’t give this enough thought. The ‘kitchen triangle’ that has long made us think we need to use our kitchen in a certain way is not the only answer. Consider how many people cook at the same time in the kitchen and what are their usually roles. The way the kitchen is used will often create room for layouts that would have never been a possibility before. When we design for our clients, we spend a good portion of time with them talking about how they use their kitchen in order to give them the most functional space.  

This exercise can be incorporated whether you completely remodel your kitchen, or simply trying to re-organize it. I encourage everyone to take the time and figure those points out. Sometimes simply changing the ‘use’ of the cabinets can allow it to become a more functional space. 

Now lets dive into my drawers and cabinets and take you through why this worked for me. 

Island Cooking Side

As mentioned in the Vellore Village Kitchen Reveal article, moving the cooking area to the island was very important, as it would create a space that encourages social connection. As you can see, each cabinet has a very defined function and I love it! Cooking is so much faster and everything is at arm’s length.

We will call the right side of the island the cooking station, and the left side the cleaning station. 

The spice and oil pull-outs were both placed on each side of the induction cooktop for easy access. We use a lot of spices and different oils in this house and it was quite important to incorporate them. As a matter of fact, the little oil cabinet generated a bit of tension with another kitchen company that kept trying to persuade me not to put it in, since ‘most people don’t use it anyway’. Needless to say I walked away. Be firm in what you want, as only you know how you will use the space.

The drawer bank by the cooktop was designed for utensils and most used pans. The first drawer has all the serving utensils and cooking knives. The second holds all the cooking utensils, and according to one Instagram comment, an unusual amount of whisks (‘Holy whisks batman! Must do a lot of…whiskin!’). The bottom drawer includes the most used pans, and a few of the smaller chopping boards that can be easily grabbed.

The cleaning side includes the dishwasher, sink cabinet and cleaning supplies pullout. The dishwasher is probably the most used appliance in this house. It really pulls its weight.

The sink cabinet was once again a reason for debate. Everyone thought the sink was too small, without understanding how this particular kitchen is used. The size of the sink is perfect, and a large double sink in this case would have actually used up necessary space. The sink cabinet includes a 3 bin storage. In an ideal world this would have been in a separate cabinet, however we would’ve had to add about 6” to the length of the island, space we didn’t have. The pullout to the right has 3 interior drawers that holds all the kitchen cleaning supplies, towels and mitts. 

The other side of the island has all the dishes, pots and Tupperware. Each one has its own assigned drawer so it actually makes things super fast when unloading the dishwasher. The 2 dishware drawers have a peg system that keeps the dishes from sliding, and you can adjust the pegs to fit your own dishes. The kitchen company supplied these, but you can find pegs on Amazon that are very similar. 

THE PANTRY WALL

The pantry wall was designed to house all big and small appliances, dried food, and anything else you can think of. All cabinets were similarly built with Shelves on top, pull-out drawers at the bottom, making things easy to grab. Only one cabinet is a full pull-out pantry with drawers, that I use for dry food storage. I love how everything is in one cabinet. For storage I use mostly glass jars and OXO organizers as I love all the different sizes, the fact that they are transparent, and easy to clean.

Except for the oven, all appliances such as the fridge and freezer were built to seamlessly disappear. The espresso machine was also hidden on a pull-out shelf with coffee and tea stored right underneath. There is a built-in outlet with a kill switch so we don’t have to take out the machine each time we want to use it. It is important to know that kill switches are required by law if you live in Canada, however I would recommend it regardless of where you live. When the door closes, there is no active power, making it safe and easy to use. There is no fear of forgetting to shut down the appliance. 

I love to bake, but before it used to take me longer to prep than to actually bake. Keeping all baking supplies, utensils and accessories in one place was essential. The oven cabinet has 3 drawers, all assigned to carry oven accessories, as well as all baking trays and utensils. On top of the oven, we enclosed the microwave, once again with a kill switch mounted on the door. Everyone in this household is fairly tall, so the height is not an issue.

Beyond the dedicated spaces, I took the time to divide the drawers even further to help keep things in order. Vegetables and fruits were assigned to 2 drawers. These baskets with lining make it east to separate the vegetables and to clean. Most importantly, there is finally enough space for all the cat food! All pet owners can understand the struggle. We had a dedicated space before the kitchen reno, but it was the small space in the hood fan cabinet above the rangetop. Hard to reach, and annoying to restock. A small drawer was also assigned for all the extra spices that I don’t use on a daily basis. I decanted all the loose bags of spices, and used Ikea Rajtan spice jars to organize everything. I even added printed labels to make everything easily identifiable. 

As for the last bit of cabinet, my favourite part of the kitchen, the open shelf cabinet made to have fresh herbs. I used these self watering pots from Amazon to plant various herbs. While i’m still getting the hang of it, and I may or may not have already killed one round of plants, I love having the fresh smell of herbs right by the cooktop.  Any advice on keeping indoor herbs alive would be greatly appreciated!

There are tons of ways you can optimize your existing kitchen cabinets, with lots of dividers and tools that were simply not available a few years ago, unless you went completely custom. 

While I have every drawer assigned to a specific use, I am still in search of making those drawers even more functional. I will report back as I find the right tools that work for me. In the meantime, what are your favourite ways to organize your kitchen?