Kitchen

Rollout pantry. It is easier to put the groceries away quickly if you don’t have to fumble around in deep cabinets trying to see what you have and where everything should go, or pulling out a lot of smaller items so you can put bigger items in behind them. And when it comes time to wipe down the shelves in your cabinets, these are easier to reach. If you’re getting ready to remodel your kitchen or designing a new one, I hope some of these tips help you create a kitchen that will be a joy to use and a cinch to clean. Hire a kitchen remodelerTell us: What are your best design tips for making a kitchen easier to clean? More:Design an Easy-Clean Bathroom

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Recycling and trash. Having your recycling bins and trash can on rollout shelves in one spot makes it a snap to sort items. This is a big time saver if you can avoid multiple trips to the garage or even outside, where recycle bins often reside.

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Dishwasher. Do you always unload your entire dishwasher in one fell swoop? Or, when the dishes are clean, do you just pull them out as you need them? Many people swear by the convenience of having two dishwashers. You can be using the dishes out of one while loading the other one. Anything that keeps dishes from piling up in the sink is a good thing in my book. Also, if you entertain frequently or have a large family so that you regularly have more dishes than can fit into a single dishwasher, having two makes sense.

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Short path from sink to dishwasher and storage. The sink and the dishwasher are normally side by side. But having your dish storage right by the dishwasher means you can unload and put away in one easy movement. At first, you might think that open shelves would make a kitchen harder to clean. But if you have them for the dishes you use daily and they are within easy reach of your dishwasher, then it is very simple to quickly empty the dishwasher. This also makes it easy to hand wash an item, dry it and put it right back on the shelf. Put only dishes up here that you use often enough that they won't have the chance to get dusty.

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Two kitchen sinks can make it easier to keep your kitchen clean when one is used for prep and the other for cleanup. When the meal is over and prep is done, if you have a helper, then cleanup goes twice as fast if there are two sinks.See design ideas from two-cook kitchens

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Undersink cleaning supplies. When it's time to clean, who wants to get down on hands and knees and feel around in the dark spot behind the garbage disposal looking for cleaning products? A drawer under the kitchen sink lets you pull everything into easy view and within reach.

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Appliance storage. This is an appliance garage on a grand scale. Anything that keeps you from having to haul appliances out and then wind up their cords and put them away again makes it easier to keep the kitchen clean. And why stop at using doors for appliance garages ...

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Savvy receptacle placement. Using a receptacle strip like this mounted under your cabinets keeps the outlets as far as possible from splashes and splatters. It means less time cleaning the receptacles and also makes it easier to wipe down your backsplash. Perhaps we're just shaving seconds off your cleaning time here, but I like this idea. Another great spot out of the splash zone for electrical receptacles is on the end of your base cabinets.How to Hide Those Plugs and Switches

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