Time and time again, when asked “what can a home cook do to level up their cooking abilities?”, professional cooks deliver the exact same answer. Mise en place. French for “everything in its place”, mise en place usually refers to the preparation and placement of ingredients to optimize the cooking process for any dish. However, mise en place is a concept that should be applied throughout the entire kitchen. Cooking is so much more difficult when you can’t find the colander, and the fridge is a mess, and where did I put the whole coriander again? These little instances add up to a kitchen experience that can be frustrating when it doesn’t need to be professional 

These tools and products will help organize your kitchen and help optimize your workflow to make cooking as fun and easy as possible. An organized and uncluttered kitchen also saves us time, helps prevent food waste, and is overall more aesthetically pleasing. For a passionate home cook, the kitchen should be a space in the home that you are excited to enter and work in, free of frustrations. Many of these organization tools are the perfect remedies for small areas of the kitchen that are often left in suboptimal working conditions. 

1. Reusable Silicone Bags

These food safe silicone bags are a game-changing alternative to plastic zip-top bags. These are virtually infinitely reusable, sturdy, and easy to clean. They also have the added benefit of being constructed to stand up straight, making food storage in the fridge much more efficient. A set of these will save you money in the long run, and significantly reduce your plastic consumption.

Pot and Pan Lid Organizer

Let’s all agree to end the days of a cabinet or drawer full of pots, pans, and lids that we have to dig around in to find a matching pair. This organizer is extendable to fit the exact dimensions of your cabinet or drawer and keeps all lids upright and easy to access. The rack spacing is also customizable to ensure lids of all different sizes will fit. It can even hold pans or cutting boards!

Cord Organizer

These are silicone attachments for small kitchen appliances that provide a spot to wrap their cords for easy storage. They install in seconds by simply adhering to the appliance and finally provide an end to the floppy electrical cords that hang off the back of each tool. They’re affordable and make a worthwhile difference to the organization of your kitchen.

Under-sink Organizer

As cooks, we spend a lot of time doing dishes and cleaning up after ourselves, and there’s no reason mise en place shouldn’t apply to this area of the kitchen as well. Each under-sink cabinet is different, but there’s no reason it should be a jumbled mess of trash bags and all-purpose cleaner. Measure your space and find an optimal organization solution for your unique cabinet! The organizer here is a great example of what can be used in those small spaces. See how Mike G. did his here

Trash Bag Organizer

This box provides a set place to store and dispense your trash bags that are (most likely) kept under the sink as well. You can even dispense compost bags out of it as well. The organizer can be mounted to the cabinet door or the wall of the cabinet to save even more space on the floor of the cabinet for other storage.

Dish Drying Rack and Silicone Mat

On the same train, the area next to the sink can also feel very suboptimal when working in the kitchen. Do yourself a favor and invest in a long-lasting, easy to clean dish drying rack and a silicone mat to make dishwashing and cleanup as painless and efficient as possible.

Automatic Soap Dispenser

If you’re an efficient, clean-as-you-go Pro Home Cook, then an automatic soap dispenser should absolutely be next to your sink. It simply helps ensure that you can clean your hands or dishes without having to touch anything when your hands might have just handled raw meat or be covered in oil.

Principle Faucet

This is an incredibly innovative and adaptable system you can install to your kitchen sink to control it with a foot pedal, for all those times your hands are dirty. Keep everything clean, save water, and be more efficient!

Mason Jar Lid Organizer

A very specific organizer to solve a very specific problem – but a very real problem at that. The gallon zip-top bag full of mason jar lids seemed to be a shared and universal experience with the team at Pro Home Cooks, and this product is an easy solution. It holds the screw tops and seals separately, and comes in both small and wide mouth sizes. 

Kitchen Stickin – Tape Dispenser

Blue tape is ubiquitous in professional kitchens for a good reason – and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be utilized in your home kitchen as well. This tape mount is specifically designed to hold blue tape (and a marker) for your kitchen and is designed with teeth for easy and clean tape tearing. Keep everything labeled and dated, as well as open containers sealed with just a little tape. 

Wire Basket

Wire baskets are sturdy, attractive, and make for great organizational systems in the kitchen. The design makes it easy to see what’s in the container without being constructed out of plastic or glass. Baskets help keep related items compartmentalized in spaces that might otherwise become a storage free-for-all. We love these baskets from Neat Method.

Compost Bags

A home compost system is a great way to stay eco-friendly and reduce your true food waste. While any container can be used to throw compost into, these bags make transporting that compost to wherever it needs to go (a community bin, city program, or your backyard) much cleaner and easier. We highly encourage you to begin composting your food scraps if you do not already do so! Click here to see the full video !