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Julia Nikolaus is a content strategist for an LA-based company. She enjoys working with food and drink brands along with pet clients. In her free time, Julia likes to bake new recipes, take dance classes, and spend time outdoors.
As you whip up lasagna for dinner, you feel like your blender, food processor, and cabinets are encroaching on your space. Your kitchen almost feels claustrophobic. You long to break away from the clutter and indulge in self-care with a bubble bath, but your difficult-to-navigate-around bathroom will only make matters worse.
Research shows that the kitchen is the part of the house where many Americans feel most relaxed (they spend around 400 hours there annually). The bathroom is another popular spot, with 44% of people in the U.S. spending at least an hour in their bathrooms daily. When your kitchen or bathroom isn’t organized or designed well, it can be hard to feel at home in your own home.
The good news is that you can easily make your kitchen or bathroom more efficient. Let’s explore eight tips for enhancing their functionality.
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Kitchen Tips
One of the first areas to tackle for efficiency is your kitchen. Here are a few tips to make your life a little easier.
1. Take Action—Triangle Action
Tired of digging through a jumbled mess of cooking supplies throughout your kitchen? Use the kitchen “action triangle” approach to make finding your favorite stockpot and frying pan easier. Situate your pans, pots, and other kitchen necessities around the room’s action triangle — the refrigerator, sink, and stove. For instance, hang pots on a wall-mounted pot rail near the sink or stove for effortless access. Don’t forget to use the deep cabinets beneath the range to store your pans and pots, too.
Consider also redesigning your kitchen to give its components the best placement for cooking sessions. Kitchen sinks should ideally be placed between refrigerators and ranges for an optimal workflow. If these three items are positioned along a single wall, keep the refrigerator away from the sink to make food prep and cleanup easy.
2. Become Friends With Open Storage
Your pasta noodles and coffee don’t necessarily have to be hidden inside a cabinet. Maximize your storage space by storing these and other items, like rice and flour, in labeled jars on your countertop. Choose colorful jars to add a decorative touch to your kitchen while keeping your essential ingredients organized.
3. Spice Things Up
Getting ready to whip up the family’s favorite sirloin roast? Keep your must-have black peppercorn at the ready near the stove by placing it on open shelves near your cooktop. Other seasoning staples to keep beside it may range from salt to garlic powder, paprika, ginger, and dill. Vinegar and olive oil should also be kept on open shelves near your cooktop to make cooking more convenient and your kitchen more aesthetically pleasing.
4. Embrace Multi-Tasking
You likely have several items in your kitchen that can pull double duty, allowing you to get rid of unnecessary tools and appliances to save on space. For instance, one side of your functional cutting board can be used for cutting, while the other side can be used for serving (say goodbye to your bulky serving platter!). Allow your chef knife to double as a kitchen garlic press: Simply use the knife’s side to smash garlic. Mason jars are also excellent multitaskers, as they can easily serve as food storage containers and drinking glasses.
Bathroom Tips
Here are a few bathroom tips to keep it as efficient as possible.
1. Switch Up the Layout
A bathroom that is hard to move around in may simply need a fresh layout to make it more user-friendly. A reputable architect or bathroom designer can help you optimize your bathroom’s space utilization using one of three layouts based on your needs and preferences.
The one-wall option involves lining up your shower, toilet, and sink along one wall. Choose this option if your budget is a factor, as it’s relatively cost-effective. The two-wall approach places your toilet and sink on a wall and your shower and tub on another wall, offering greater flexibility. For a highly versatile bathroom layout, choose the three-wall design approach, where each item gets its own wall.
2. Light It Up
Let there be light! Place wall-mount lighting on both sides of your mirror and another light above your mirror to get rid of shadows and help you more efficiently apply makeup and brush your teeth at the sink. To make your bathroom bright overall while still looking sophisticated, add pendant lights or a chandelier to the mix.
3. Make the Most of Your Storage
Free up space in your bathroom with a self-adhesive or wall-mounted caddy for holding items like toothpaste, brushes, and combs efficiently. The caddy can easily go on your medicine chest door or mirror. Trays or wooden boxes designed to go inside your drawers can further help you organize your bathroom.
Add pull handles or knobs to your bathroom cabinets to make your bathroom even more efficient. Pull cabinet handles and knobs are both simple to grip due to their long and round shapes, respectively. Knobs are especially ideal for smaller waist-high drawers that store cleaning supplies, toiletries, or towels.
4. Get Creative
Other smart ways to maximize your space in the bathroom include adding baskets and shelves beneath a pedestal sink to organize items. Hooks and towel bars behind your bathroom door can be used to hold damp towels, and glass jars on an open shelf can give you easy access to small essentials like bath salts.
Elevate Your Kitchen and Bathroom Spaces With Confidence Today
Creating an organized kitchen and bathroom can be as simple as storing pots near the kitchen sink and mounting a caddy on the bathroom mirror. Other tips for creating a more intuitive kitchen and bathroom include embracing open kitchen and bathroom storage options, using kitchen tools that can serve dual purposes, and adding lights around your bathroom mirror to make your morning routine more efficient.
You can redesign your kitchen or bathroom layout to further make the most of your space. Consider all the above-listed tips to make your home’s most essential spaces easier to navigate and more enjoyable in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
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September 8, 2024 
