Here we are at the beginning of Thanksgiving week! Woo Hoo!  I love it!  If you’re hosting company this year, before you get into a panic, let me encourage you to take a look over your kitchen today and make sure that you’re doing this one simple thing that will ease the work of putting any meal together.  Here it is…

Create “stations” in your kitchen.

Let me explain.  Take into account  what you do regularly in your kitchen.  Do you bake?  Are there coffee or hot tea drinkers at your house?  Does your family toast waffles or bagels for breakfast each day?  Each of those activities needs a station for that task.  Let me show you a couple examples.

Here’s a peek at my coffee station:

My baking station is in one area where the cookbooks are, as well as the utensils needed for baking.

In this are are all my measuring cups, biscuit cutters, pastry blender, rolling pin, mixers (hand mixer and Kitchen Aid), ruler for measuring dough length, measuring spoons, whisks, and salt.  In the cabinet above are all my spices, herbs and baking soda and powder. My canisters are on the counter on the other side of my stove – about two steps away.

For your toaster station you’d have the toaster in the cabinet where an outlet is accessible.  Add a small cutting board to slice the bagels or butter the toast. Knives for cutting or buttering should be within reach as well.

Even when you’re doing a special task like making mashed potatoes, do it in an area where you can gather everything together so you won’t have to be going back and forth.

Make sure your trash can is in an area close to your work space, or even keep a garbage bowl on your counter so you don’t have to walk over to the trash can every time you have to dispose of an empty can or egg shells.

Eliminate you steps and create work stations and I bet you’ll enjoy working in your kitchen a whole lot more!

What kind of stations have you created, or what ones will you set up?

With love from my country kitchen,