This week I narrowly avoided a concussion when a heavy cake pan sitting on a baking sheet above my slow cooker fell while I was trying to reach a high shelf, causing an avalanche of kitchen utensils, including a pancake pan and a pasta maker. Manufacturer.
You see, my kitchen is not an organized or minimalist kitchen. I prefer to think of it as glorious chaos, and I'm not just talking about my open, stacked shelves. My work surface is a mix of appliances, storage boxes, bottles and jars, a utensil container, a bread basket, an egg basket, pots of herbs (living and dead), a fruit bowl, a basket of tomatoes (yes, don't do it). Do you have one?), a butter dish, a food container and a bottle of hand soap. And then my kitchen is organized.
Marie Kondo , the oracle of the organization, would get goosebumps if she came over for tea because my kitchen drawers and pantry are also very full. It's not that I'm against a clean kitchen; Mine is hygienic and I don't have trucks with a sink full of dirty dishes. But unlike Marie, my aesthetic (if you can call it that) refers to things rather than empty spaces. Instead of incorporating items into my closet, I like to overdo it and leave items open to enjoy and use.
Not only does this mean I'm on the wrong path, Mary, but I'm also falling out of favor with the latest social media trends (sorry, I mean nonsense), which includes the refrigerator. Of course, there's plenty of MDR to watch as TikTokers decorate the inside of their fridge like Cezanne's still life masterpieces. Small sculptures. Pretty jugs with artfully arranged flowers and parsley. Cut glass bowls filled with perfectly ripe fruit. Rainbow rows of color coded containers. Mirror!
Another social media rabbit hole that's easy and fun to disappear down is #CleanTok . Here, "influencers" ruthlessly and thoroughly clean their kitchens from top to bottom, using oceans of chemical creams and sprays to create an environment where no one lives here, let alone cooks. I didn't think there could be this much interest in watching people soap their kitchen sinks until I looked: At the time of writing, #CleanTok had amassed 47.3 billion views.
I'm also fascinated and confused by the coffee station phenomenon, although the less said about it the better, lest you try it and lose hours of your life that you'll never get back. Suffice it to say that trendy kitchen decor apparently requires converting a portion of the countertop into a drinks nook, an over-organized area for preparing hot drinks. The coveted coffee cups should be lined up like this, perhaps on a nice rack, along with the brewing accessories in matching containers. Also a sign in French declaring the room a cafeteria in case you forget where you are.
The fact is that all this nonsense is still life, not real life. To state the obvious: It's really not practical to do the daily tasks of cooking and eating while trying to keep the kitchen clean, tidy, and organized for as long as possible and hiding everything in the cupboards.
I prefer to open my fridge to abundance and clutter (mushy carrots, dirty yogurt containers and all) because it's a more relaxing and enjoyable way to live. My time is better spent making delicious meals than creating more practical drawer plans. And it's much easier to hide the real mess when your kitchen doesn't look like a show home to begin with. (Plus, God knows, we all have better things to worry about.) But taking a relaxed approach to potty training has benefits that go beyond the practicalities.
A slightly disheveled style says a lot about who my family and I are; The things we present to everyone are expressions of our personality. The disorder also causes a small, unexpected spike in dopamine. Recently, while searching through a kitchen drawer for a mold, I found a long-lost butter dish that my daughter made when she was eight. I lifted the lid and discovered that I had drawn "I love my family" on the bottom. The real joy came from the surprise of finding it after I had forgotten it was there, and it almost made me cry.
My philosophy is to accept chaos without apology. Instead of showcasing clever storage solutions, let your kitchen express who you are. Place the flowers in suitable jam jars. Ditch the stacks of inspirational cookbooks when you have time to flip through them. Just buy a cute mug that doesn't match any of the others and leave it anywhere so you feel happy every time you look at it. Don't worry about whether you can safely eat on the kitchen floor or whether you can store coffee too far away from cups. And ask yourself: Don't we all have something better to do than keep little framed photos of our pets on the fridge?
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