3 Things I Keep in My Kitchen

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The other day I was looking around my kitchen trying to figure out how in the world it had gotten this messy. I literally didn’t have any counter space. I needed to cook, yet I couldn’t find a clean space to begin the prep work. (Any moms out there relate to the unrelenting mess? It’s something that left unchecked will drive me insane. The sheer volume of mess makes me stressed and less patient with my kids.) We had just been hosting a family from out of town for dinner and we had used up a good bit of dishes. I don’t have a dish washer, so dirty dishes were piled everywhere. This is when I realized I {usually} have a gift at keeping my kitchen orderly, but sometimes it is simply impossible to keep up with life. I thought back to days before kids- ah how easy it was to keep a house tidy. Anyway, this prompted me to reflect on how in the world I make day to day life work with 2 kids, a small house, and no dishwasher.  Well, I realized there are 3 things I ALWAYS keep in my kitchen that help make life easier. I’m writing this with the hope that if you struggle daily to keep some sort of routine, that maybe something here will help you get started! If you are all set in that regard, well maybe you can have a laugh at how overwhelmed I get at simply a messy kitchen. 🤣 

To begin, I always keep a running list of items that we need to buy from the store (next to my menu for the week). It’s a dry erase board on the front of my fridge that I can easily add items to as soon as I run out of something. Then, when I do my grocery pickup order (we are only doing pickup right now because of COVID, but honestly it’s so much faster than going in the store) I already have a mostly made grocery shopping list right on the outside of my fridge! Y’all, that’s a huge lifesaver for all of those “what did I use the last thing of the other day?” “I remember I was supposed to get something but don’t know what it was.” 

Next, I always keep atleast one counter top cleaned off. Okay… so maybe that one isn’t completely true given my story from above, but every night I try to wash ALL the dishes so that the next day we start off with a fresh kitchen clean and ready to go! Sometimes it doesn’t happen, but most days I wake up to a clean kitchen ready to cook my three meals a day (plus prepare a few snacks in between). It really makes a big difference in how my day goes. Having a clean kitchen makes our tiny home feel so much more organized! Side note: If you are curious how I cook three meals a day…. well, we live 30 minutes from fast food, so either I cook or load up the kids to drive for an hour… I would rather cook. 🤷🏻‍♀️

To finish off this short list of things I keep in my kitchen I will share with you one last thing that makes my life a little bit easier. I try to always have extra meals on hand! It could be anything from a pizza  to extra meat and veggies, I always try to have extra ingredients on hand so that if I didn’t plan my week super well we have something we can eat! 

I do keep other things on hand too, like  fruit, pizza rolls, extra napkins, easy snacks, ziplock bags (they have so many uses!), and more, but I wanted to share the things I keep in my kitchen that are most helpful in making MY life easier. These are small things but they make a big difference in day to day life! 

 

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Kelly Hamm
Kelly started calling Auburn home in 2010. She graduated from Auburn in 2014 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing. She is a mom to two boys, a writer, an editor, a pastor wife, and a lover books and the great outdoors. You can typically find her chasing kiddos, reading, or encouraging a community of other wives and moms. You can also find her here, graciously giving of her skills (as a former marketing director) as she reads and edits all our content. Her son, Elliot, was recently diagnosed with High-Risk B Cell ALL and is currently undergoing treatment. She has been open with their journey and often finds it helpful to document the process via social media and through writing.