Organizing An Inspiring Baking Station
For many of us, the kitchen is the most-used space in the entire house–especially during the holidays. By investing a little time to set up a baking station, you can create a stress-free baking experience for yourself and any guests who might be baking with you!
Every year around the holidays, I love to set aside time on my calendar to bake with family and friends, and having a baking station makes everything so much simpler.
With a little bit of prep work, you won’t be left digging in the back of your closet for powdered sugar this year!
Here are some ideas on how to organize a baking station to inspire you to create space in your kitchen and organize everything you need to enjoy baking any time of the year. Let’s get started!
I love how this baking station is compact and holds everything you need for your baking experience. From ingredients to equipment, everything is within reach and once you’re done, you simply close your cabinet. What a treat!
Designate An Area And Organize Your Supplies
The first step is deciding where your workspace will be. Most kitchens have their limitations and challenges and since baking is not something we do every day, try to keep it confined to a spot and group like items together.
I always say everything has a family, and every family has a home. By keeping your baking items grouped together, you won’t be rushing all over the kitchen when you bake.
“When it comes to organizing, everything has a family, and every family has a home. “
Helena Alkhas
Ideally, you should store everything out of the counter so you can have ample workspace. However, if you are short on space or if your kitchen is like mine -almost NO upper cabinet storage- start by clearing off your counter space and seeing what your other options are.
A large drawer can hold everything you need like in the example above or a table could work as a make-shift island in a pinch, but try to keep everything in a small area that works as a baking station for you.
Take Stock Of Everything You Need
Take stock of your baking ingredients, spices, bowls, spatulas, and appliances.
It’s much easier to have all of your baking ingredients and tools within reach, and you will thank yourself later if you already organized everything you need and threw out any spices that are probably past their prime.
If you haven’t yet, do a quick inventory before you arrange your baking space. Any spices that have lost their aroma, clumped together, or look dull and faded need to go!
Organizing your spices ahead of time will save you the headache of running to the store right before you bake. Or worse… flavorless cookies.
Be Strategic With Your Storage
First, clear everything else out of your newly-designated baking station.
You need to make sure your new space–be it any combination of cupboards, open shelves, and drawers–can accommodate everything you need for your baking station.
So, start by evaluating how much space you’ll have to work with. You can make the most of even the smallest of spaces with careful planning!
Maybe you’ll have to decant your ingredients and spices into jars or bins to better accommodate them and there are so many products you can use, even those empty jelly jars that you have been saving!
Clean, Baby, Clean!
Second, give the space a deep clean. Scrub the nooks and crannies of your storage space before doing anything else. You don’t want smells or worse, bugs creeping into your flour or sugar, right?
Once you know your space is clean, take measurements of the drawers, cupboards, counters, and shelves.
By now, you have a pretty good idea of what items will be stored in their new space, but you need to make sure your organizers fit the space perfectly. Don’t run the risk of buying impractical organizers by skipping this simple step!
Third, install your organizers and start grouping the items by families.
You might want to shop for new canisters and bins, but you might be surprised by what you can do with what already have around the house!
Make sure that all of your items (spices, dry ingredients, and not-so-dry ingredients) are organized for optimal accessibility. Every kitchen needs to be organized for the family’s specific needs and ease of use, so group items together in a way that makes sense for you!
Use, Assess, Correct
Fourth, it’s important to recognize that your new baking station won’t be perfect right off the bat, and that’s okay!
Spend some time with your setup and figure out if anything needs to be tweaked. Re-arrange things as needed, and don’t hesitate to reconfigure your setup until you find something that works for you.
Make sure, above everything else, that your baking station invites you and your family to spend more time baking together. Hopefully, by having everything grouped together and ready to go, you can make many happy memories baking this year!
