Kitchens are becoming more than just places to prepare food. Everything seems to happen there! Learn how to rearrange it into a super productive space.
For the past couple of decades, the kitchen has been a stopgap place to grab a quick bite between rushing around. Now it’s returning in style to a room of communication and camaraderie.
Now we can enjoy our home and hearth in the kitchen and integrate aspects that make it more productive at the same time.
Whether you’re a busy individual, or part of a busy family always on the go, these 5 tips to easily redesign your kitchen will enhance your productivity.
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1. Functional and Stylish
Most kitchens have an island or extended countertop separating them from the adjoining rooms. This gives you the perfect opportunity to combine your kitchen activities with your child’s after-school assignments, or to just catch up on the day together.
Create an Open Atmosphere
Your den, bedrooms, and bathrooms should be closed off places, ensuring privacy. An open kitchen, though, lets family members and guests feel invited to enjoy your company while you cook.
Constructive use of the islands or countertop spaces you already have move them beyond kitchen-work. Without renovating your current kitchen design, you can make it openly accessible.
Encourage togetherness and make sharing workspace more comfortable with one or more of these ideas:
- Purchase comfortable, height-appropriate or adjustable bar stools.
- Turn your countertop into a workstation with space-saving organizers.
- Ensure laptops and monitors stay safe with easily stored and retrieved stands.
- Don’t stress the plug problem – use a portable tower stand to save room, prevent surges, and keep your guests nearby longer.
2. Display Your Dishes for Decor
When cabinet area is limited, dishes, pots, and pans usually end up taking most of the space and edging out other necessities. But if you use the rest of the room in and near your kitchen creatively, you get a unique outcome that increases productivity and looks good, too!
Maximize Your Space with Creative Displays
It doesn’t take a giant hutch to show off your kitchen plates. Gorgeous buffets that maximize vertical spacing instead of horizontal are available at reasonable prices.
Open shelving ideas are also popular. Use an over-the-sink combination dish drying and storage rack to save room and increase efficiency. Just wash the dishes and return them to their proper space, and you never have to go back and put them away!
Pots and pans are still a minimalist nightmare — unless you get creative! No one wants to add dozens of holes in their walls to hang their kitchen accessories, so it’s easier to shove them under cupboards and out of the way.
Instead of taking up valuable cabinet room, try a hanging rack that only requires two simple holes (check with your landlord if you are renting). Pegboard towers are another option if holes are a no-go.
Organize your supplies to be within easy reach. You’ll increase your productivity by decreasing hunting for what you need.
3. Use Bright Colors
There’s a lot of research behind the study of how colors affect our moods and our productivity. Colored accessories and accents boost your brain’s receptiveness to focusing.
You may not be able to repaint your kitchen, but you can still make it colorful.
Splashing Color in Your Kitchen
From utensils to towels to knickknacks, here are some ideas to brighten up your kitchen and increase your productivity:
- These multi-colored knife sets include all of the most recommended colors for mood-boosting. They’re ergonomically friendly, too.
- Grow some of your own herbs or bring in a flowering plant to practice your green thumb and get the benefits that go along with it.
- Opt for colorful appliances instead of the typical stainless steel, black, or white versions.
- Use sheer curtains to enhance the natural lighting in your kitchen area.
Dark and neutral colors have a psychologically calming effect. But if you want to feel energized and ready to be productive, go with vibrant colors!
4. Maximize Your Available Space
Making the most out of what you have, whether your kitchen is big or small, is important to manage your time effectively. If you have a routine and items you use regularly, they should all be near each other and easily accessible.
With that thought in mind, you can use every nook and cranny to its maximum potential. Don’t forget about the tops of your cupboards and sidewalls if you have the opportunity.
Ideas to Consider to Make More Space
Empty flat surfaces, whether vertical or horizontal, are areas just waiting to be used. Look around your kitchen and ask yourself if you can implement any of these space-making ideas:
- Rolling islands for extra room where you need it when you need it
- Extra space between the tops of your cupboards and the ceiling
- Shelf risers in your cabinets to make use of wasted room
- Plastic storage organizers for efficient placement of items
5. Utilize Your Space Efficiently
If you’re not using your space efficiently, even large rooms will sap your productivity as you waste time looking for necessary items.
To start implementing time-saving tactics, begin with a walk-through of your daily routine. What do you use regularly?
Store those items, like your coffee maker and toaster, next to each other to make sure they are easily accessible. Other, less frequently used items, such as your blender and crockpot, should be stored out of the way.
Busy schedules require innovative ways to keep tabs on everyone, and the kitchen is the perfect meeting place to use as a home base.
Everyone uses the fridge. Use that flat empty surface for quick access to:
- Important notices
- Dry erase lists
- Magnetic refrigerator calendars
- Magnetic pen/marker/notepad holders
Make 2020 Your Year for Productivity
To increase efficiency, analyze your routines to see how they can be streamlined.
By making these changes now, your household can go into 2020 strong. Periodically tweak your routines as you go to keep getting stronger!
[Client bio]
Ryan Sundling is a Group Marketing Manager at Cardinal Group Management. He has over 10 years of experience in the student housing industry and works with Hawthorne SLC on a daily basis to help them with their marketing efforts.
