Your Holiday kitchen guide:
This time of year, before the holidays, is a perfect time to declutter your kitchen area.
When you embrace minimalism ( or just having less) in your kitchen, it’s easier to stay organized. It will also be quicker and easier to keep your kitchen clean, which is perfect if you’re hosting any of the family gatherings. The best part is you will feel so much calmer and more in control in the kitchen this holiday season.
Tips to get you started:
Start with decluttering. Remove items you don’t use. Maybe there are things that have always lived in your kitchen but don’t really serve a purpose there. If it doesn’t need to be there, get it out of your kitchen.
Stick with multi-functional tools. If you have unitaskers, or single-purpose gadgets that only do one thing, they’re probably taking up valuable space in your kitchen. For example, if you have a rice cooker that you use once in a blue moon and usually end up making rice on your stovetop, go ahead and let that rice cooker go. You can donate it to a charity where it will go to someone who needs it.
If you have a unitasker that you use often or accomplished something no other tool can do, then it’s ok to keep that gadget.
Go paperless for recipes. Instead of using multiple cookbooks, make sure all your recipes are digital. One phone or tablet takes up less space than several cookbooks. Using digital recipes will save time too. Rather than searching through multiple books, digital recipes are easier to organize and find quickly.
Keep only essential ingredients in your pantry. Rather than storing four kinds of mac and cheese or three different spice blends you’ve only used once, store only essential ingredients in your pantry. You could donate shelf-stable foods you don’t think you will eat, or you could go ahead and cook those items that haven’t fit into previous meals. You’ll save money by using what you already have, and you can make sure your pantry has space for only the best quality, real ingredients you will want to use for your holiday cooking. Your goal here is to curate a minimalist pantry focused on exceptional ingredients.
Now that you’ve prepped your kitchen and pantry, here is my advice to make those holiday meals easier.
Batch prep ingredients. For example, if you have two recipes that call for carrots, you could peel and either chop or shred (depending on the recipe, of course) those all at the same time. If you have three dishes that use shredded cheese, you can shred all the cheese you will need at one time.
Serve family style instead of individual plates. This saves time serving and cleaning up. It also minimizes food waste.
Use real dishes and utensils instead of paper or plastic. Paper and plastic might seem easier when it comes to cleaning up, but it creates a lot more waste and trash to gather and take out. Minimalism means cutting out what’s wasteful or unnecessary in our lives, and this extends to single-use items like plastic cups or paper plates.
Opt for simple, classic decor and table settings. The more complicated something is, the more clutter it’s likely to create. Choose more simple options when decorating to make your holiday prep easier and less time-consuming.
Embrace simplicity. If you want to feel calmer this holiday season, embrace simplicity. Just like you created a minimalist kitchen by getting rid of what you don’t need, you can create a simpler, more enjoyable holiday by eliminating what’s unnecessary.
Happy prepping!
Michelle & Saffron
xoxo
