This past Tuesday was the first in a series of kitchen organizing workshops at Cucina Fresca in downtown Elko.  Cucina Fresca is one fine kitchen store.  If you can’t visit the store in person,check out the website.

The workshop was an enjoyable one!   The evening was filled with lots of questions,lots of laughter, lots of great stories and solid organizing information.

 We learned how to zone our kitchens.  If you haven’t heard of  “zoning”  it is the process of determining specific areas in the kitchen where you do specific activities.  Examples of kitchen zones are the cooking zone,the food storage zone,the food prep zone,the clean-up zone.  Generally,there are 4-5 zones but you can have as many zones as meet your needs.   The secret to zones is to keep all the things you need for an activity in the same area.  For example,the cooking zone should be near the stove with pots,pans and cooking utensils stored in the same area.  This enables you to cook without searching for what you need.  It also saves time and reduces irritation.  I am all for anything that saves time and makes the kitchen a welcoming place.

Next we learned about the organizing process and how to do each step of the process.

The evening ended with several give-away items.  Participants left with new motivation to organize at least one drawer or cabinet in their own kitchens.

The workshop was a great success.  I hope you will join us next Tuesday for Workshop #2 on organizing the pantry and cabinets.