Organizing Your Play Kitchen

Two weeks ago, I helped you to decide what play kitchen to buy. Last week, I showed you some of the accessory options. I think I even said something like, there are more play kitchen accessories than you could ever imagine.

There are more than you could ever imagine, and if you let them pile up, they will overwhelm your house and maybe even your yard.

You need a plan for all of those accessories.

My plan is a very simple one and inexpensive one – baskets. I spent $3 on three plastic trays and $20 on four fabric bins in the laundry section of my local Walmart, and those trays and bins hold all of Grace’s kitchen gadgets nicely.

The left side of her kitchen is the refrigerator and freezer. I put some fabric books in the freezer because they don’t fit in the bookshelf that’s out of the photo to the left. The food is in the refrigerator, where it should be. One of the baskets holds all of Grace’s plastic food, and the other holds Grace’s felt and wooden foods.

The dishwasher is on the right side of Grace’s kitchen. In the dishwasher are two small baskets, one for her eating utensils and the other for her cooking and serving utensils.

The oven is in the center of Grace’s kitchen (the left in the photo below). A small basket in the oven holds Grace’s salt and pepper shakers, and a second small basket holds her dish cloths, apron, and shopping bag. A large cloth bin holds all of her pots and pans, and her silicone bakeware sit on the shelf behind the baskets.

I don’t store anything in Grace’s microwave because she can’t reach it without her stool. I keep odds and ends like plastic cans in the little baskets next to the microwave.

No matter what you decide to do with your kitchen accessories, you have to have a plan, and you have to work the plan. We put everything away every day. Joe and I don’t go to bed without first making sure the kitchen is all loaded.

Grace’s Kitchen Friends

Please join in Grace’s Kitchen Friends! To play along, all you have to do is fill out Mr. Linky below. (If Mr. Linky isn’t there, leave your link in the comments.) You can link up any post that talks about kids and food:

• feeding kids
• cooking with kids
• pretending about food
• food crafts
• and probably a lot of other kids and food things I can’t think of now.

I’m easy like that, Dear Reader. The only thing I ask is that you link back here to Grace’s Kitchen Friends in your post. I can’t wait to see what your kids are doing!