Cleaning
Amanda Hesser’s Very Best Tips for an Organized Kitchen
All the systems she relies on in her tidy-as-can-be Brooklyn kitchen.
The first step to better, happier cooking? Setting up a tip-top kitchen. We're talking one that's stocked with essential tools and ingredients, organized so everything you need is close at hand, and sparkling-clean from floor to ceiling. Food52 is here to make it happen. Your Do-Anything Kitchen gathers the smartest ideas and savviest tricks from the Food52 community and test kitchen to help you transform your space into its very best self.
Our co-founder Amanda Hesser’s influence as a master organizer runs through the Food52 office and community. Genius Director Kristen Miglore picked up many of her most reliable kitchen systems (like the little wire drawer organizers for keeping measuring spoons, thermometers, and other small tools tidy) from her in Food52’s earliest days—when the site’s recipes were tested and photographed in Amanda’s Brooklyn kitchen. And parts of that every-nook-and-cranny-considered home kitchen—its shallow pull-out spice drawers, open shelving, and mix of vintage and new—were recreated at the Food52 office when it was time to design a test kitchen.
For Your Do-Anything Kitchen, Amanda let us into that very same Brooklyn kitchen and shared how she keeps her pantry, refrigerator, and cooking rhythms humming along (plus, the one storage conundrum she’s still working out).
On the little systems that are a daily delight:
“After a lifetime of trying to lay out uncooperative plastic wrap in order to store a piece of cheese, it brings me immeasurable pleasure to simply plunk the cheese into a silicone cheese vault and put the lid on it. It’s so much easier, and the cheese is much happier.
A close second is a drawer filled with neatly folded kitchen towels. Third place goes to my multiple sets of bowls all stacked in descending order in a drawer below my butcher-block counter. Having this set up right beneath my workspace makes me feel at the ready."
On how she maintains what’s possibly the world’s most orderly fridge:
"In my fridge, lemons, limes, and garlic are each stored in their own muslin bag inside of the crisper drawer. All the cartons of milk are lined up—labels facing forward!—in rows, with the one that’s open at the front. Same goes for beer, juice, yogurt, and any other regular staple.
Condiments are organized by type, so all of the hot sauces are grouped together on the fridge door next to ketchups and mustards, then capers and anchovies. The goal is to make it easy to assess what’s needed and to make it seamless for anyone to find what they need without digging around.
I do a clean-out once a week, just before the groceries arrive, and small bursts of maintenance during the week. We label and date foods (like coconut milk or chopped tomatoes) that have a tendency to turn, but for the most part, with tweens in the house, food never lasts long enough to go bad."
On creating streamlined kitchen zones:
"We have a counter next to the fridge where we make toast and assemble drinks. Across the kitchen is a butcher-block counter with a pull-out garbage drawer beneath it, where all of our chopping and prep work is done. Next to this is a counter with the KitchenAid mixer and blender, where all my baking and puréeing occurs. And to the right of the stove, we usually set down all of our ingredients getting cooked on the stove or in the oven, right near a ceramic vessel filled with all our wooden spoons and silicone spatulas."
On the best things she did when she renovated her kitchen:
"We don’t have a ton of square footage but we do have high ceilings, so we had the pantry custom-built to take advantage of every inch of height. The pantry has essentially four levels of storage.
There are two design details I’m very happy with. One is a pull-out shelf for all of my oils and vinegars. The other is a library ladder to reach the top level of cabinets. It’s nice to be able to swing it left and right and not have to pull a step ladder out of a closet."
On the organizational dilemma she’s still trying to solve:
"Aren’t we all still figuring out lid storage? There are steel and copper lids for pots, which behave differently from the glass and plastic lids I have in my container drawer. And then there are my circular, lipped bowl lids, which flop around in a cabinet. In my container drawer, I’ve found it most effective to line up lids inside of one of the rectangular containers—this way, you can pack them in tightly and if they get loose, at least they’re confined to the container.
For pot lids, I have a rack inside of a deep drawer that holds pots and pans. For my bowl lids, I just ordered an adjustable rack (kind of like a plate rack) and I’m hoping it’s going to solve all of my life’s problems."
What’s the one kitchen organization dilemma you’re trying to solve? Tell us in the comments.
It's here: Our game-changing guide to everyone's favorite room in the house. Your Do-Anything Kitchen gathers the smartest ideas and savviest tricks—from our community, test kitchen, and cooks we love—to help transform your space into its best self.
Grab your copy
Written by: Caroline Lange
Popular on Food52
11 Comments
“ We don’t have a ton of square footage but we do have high ceilings, so we had the pantry custom-built to take advantage of every inch of height. The pantry has essentially four levels of storage.”
Join The Conversation