It appears my husband has been harbouring unresolved angst since we moved into our current home nearly four years ago.
Angst about the location of our cutlery (flatware) drawer.
You see, when we moved in the previous owner kept her cutlery in the second drawer down and her kitchen utensils such as wooden spoons, can opener and whisk in the first drawer. I thought this was unusual, sure, however I was willing to give this arrangement a go - after all, the previous owner had lived in the house for forty years, perhaps this was a better arrangement.
And do you know, I thought it was. I use my kitchen utensils more often during the day than the flatware, and when unloading from the dishwasher or dish-drainer I use the big rocks first method and thus unload whisks and spatulas into the first drawer before the flatware into the second.
However, this all changed two weeks ago. In a conversation with a certain co-writer on this blog whose name starts with an A my husband sought support for his personal issues with our kitchen drawer organisation. Finding support for his cause he then crept down in the dead of night and changed over the drawers.
I have been having trouble with finding what I need ever since.
Using patented Before Our Time survey techniques I have asked all and sundry how they organise their kitchen drawers and all agree that cutlery or flatware should go in the first drawer down, kitchen utensils in the second drawer down, tea towels in the third drawer down (although this varies) and always cling wrap and foil in the fourth drawer down.
Clearly I am a kitchen renegade.
I have not found written support for kitchen drawer organisation in the before our time literature. However perhaps you have your own views.
Do you follow time-honoured methods for kitchen drawer organisation or are you a kitchen drawer renegade?
20 comments:
We have the flatware up top and all the commonly used utensils hanging from a quick-access rack near the stove. That way, there is no opening and searching through a drawer when you need a spatula or spoon or whisk. The lesser-used tools are actually in the 3rd drawer.
Choking through my laughter here. As soon as I read the title I said (outloud!) 'Teatowels. Third drawer down' Will smile for the rest of the night now.
I'm sorry. The time honoured method is the best.
Cutlery in the SECOND drawer?!?
You must have been mad.
We have lots of cutlery-based arguments in our house, but not on the drawers. We agree on knives and forks in the top drawer (my partner refuses to say "cutlery" because his parents mispronounce it and he's worried he will too) but disagree about the arrangement of the implements - I grew up with (from the left) spoon-fork-knife. My partner insists on fork-spoon-knife, and that teaspoons should all face the same way. I told him he could have the fork-spoon-knife arrangement and stick the teaspoons somewhere uncomfortable.
It's amazing how long it's taken for me to get used to getting the implements out from the "wrong" places. Of course, now that I am used to it the toddler likes to put cutlery away and gets it all wrong, so the drawer is rather random.
Our teatowels are in the bottom drawer, we have five drawers, so there's also a drawer for placemats and paper bags that might get re-used, which is probably a whole other post.
first drawer - cutlery
second drawer - common kitchen utensils
third drawer - other kitchen utensils and measuring cups
fourth drawer - tea towels and aprons
fifth drawer - ladies lingerie... no wait, i don't have a fifth drawer...
LMAO!! What really gets me is the order of cutlery in the flatware drawer. It ought to go from left to right: spoons, forks, knives, misc (with teaspoons at the bottom of there's room). Anything else is just wrong! Fortunately everyone I've lived with is of a like mind in this regard, but I've been to friends' houses and often come up with a fork when looking for a knife, etc.
I find this post hilarious. LOL...If only my drawers were so neat. Anyway, FYI my flatware and misc. things are in the top drawer, the other utensils are in the next two drawers and the bottom one has the tea towels. I think each family has to decide what works for them. I always thought the one who cooked and worked in the kitchen would be the one to decide where things would be most convenient and in easy reach. I stand corrected. LOL...;)))
I only have 2 smalldrawers in our kitchen, the rest are LARGE. So flatware in drawer one, and utensils in drawer 2, except the ones I use most often which stand in a stand in the pantry alongside the knife block. Teatowels live in a slide out basket under the sink, above a huge slide out basket which holds gladwrap, sandwich bags, foil, spare dishcloths, dishwasher tabs etc.
The other drawers are deep and uge and hold pots and pans and casserole dishes and dinner ware and all the other palaver.
this is all so funny and has been entertaining!! our drawers are as follows first drawer cutlery but has a long bit across when you first open the drawers and this houses sharp knives and chop sticks but has a lot of other crap in it too, 2nd drawer teatowels and aprons 3rd drawer paper bags gladwrap etc bottom 2 drawers are full of stuff!! batteries globes tape etc etc. mostly used utensils are on the bench and this works well. I would stress if it was all changed after 8 years!!! thanks for making me think of my cutlery drawer!!!
I have most of my frequently used cooking utensils in a container beside the stove.
Top drawer is cutlery, second is cooking utensils that are not so frequently used - except that anything remotely sharp has been moved to a high, high, high shelf in a cupboard far away from little people.
I also use my second drawer for table cloths of which I have 3 - one on the table, one in the wash and in theory one clean in the drawer. But clean table cloths are rare in our house.
Third drawer is for face washers - it used to be for tea towels but they are now under the sink. I had to put face washers in an easy for children to locate space as they were so frequently needed.
Fourth drawer is mixture of spare batteries, lunch and freezer bags. The glad wrap/tin foil etc had to be moved to that high cupboard as there was an unfortunate incident with little fingers and the sharp cutting edge on the box.
A couple of things about this set up the vex me.
1. I'm short and putting stuff in high cupboards out of childrens reach also makes it hard for me to reach.
2. The cutlery in the drawer should be in order of how the table is set
Fork on the left,
Knife in the middle,
Spoons on the right.
Teaspoons go in the little box at the front.
In our house the curly straws our OT insists that youngest daughter use to drink go in the big space on the side of the cutlery drawer.
Teaspoons must all be aligned the same way. Doesn't matter which - but heads at one end, tails at the other. No mish-mash allowed.
You are close, but not quite right. First drawer = cutlery, second drawer = kitchen crap, including batteries that may or may not work, third drawer = wraps and baking paper, fourth drawer = teatowels.
PS my next (in my dreams) kitchen will only have drawers - no cupboards. Some big pot drawers and some small ones.
Wow! Fabulous comments everyone. Who knew that there was so much to drawer organisation.
For the record my flatware is stored Fork, Knife, Spoon, Steak Knives. The teaspoons are stored facing in one direction, currently with 'heads' towards the east.
Peppermint Patcher - I too love drawers in kitchens. Currently re-designing mine to have all drawers below the benches and cupboards above with mesh inserts for airing in our humid weather.
Time-honoured.
Flatware 1st, utensils 2nd, teatowels & wraps 3rd ( I only have 3 presently ).
The 1yr old likes to keep them all pretty messy though, which is driving his mother batshit, to be frank.
And my flatware is in the same order as Megan's too :) I top-tail main/entree forks, knives, and then the soup/dessert spoons too.
I am blessed that I have a large kitchen with lots of cabinets and drawers. They are messy right now, but cutlery is towards the top. You just reminded me I need to tidy them up.
Cutlery first (what WERE you thinking?), of course. I only have single drawers, but have them above all of the bottom cabinets, with the exception of one set of four drawers to the right of the sink. Wax paper, Plastic wrap, zip locks in drawer 1, phone book in drawer 2, placemats in drawer three and aprons in drawer 4. Like Tracey, I wish I had giant pot drawers and no cabinets, on bottom at least. I like my uppers.
While your points are valid, I am of your husbands breed! Flats on top, utensils second, face washers bibs and tea towels third, and plastic rap etc. on the bottom. Wee bit cheeky of your husband I thought. Completely understand the frustration of going to the wrong draw all the time ;-) xox
HI, thought I'd add my bit -I was lucky to get a new kitchen last year and designed 1 side with a top drawer across each of the cupboards with a HUGE one for the flats....Husband still can't get them right tho when putting away!
Tracey and I have the same drawers, and the flatware drawer goes from l-r fork, knives, spoons. Teaspoons and kids cutlery across the bottom facing any which way. I suspect that my mother will have the same arrangement, I think these things run in families.
We must be tarred with the same brush!
Cutlery
Utensils
Tea towels
Junk Drawer
I don't think it would work any other way.
Cheers - Joolz
Post a Comment