As a parent, you likely spend a bit portion of your day making meals for your kids and cleaning up their messes from your kitchen and dining areas. But while there are dangerous parts of your kitchen that you need to protect your kids from, there are things you can do to make your kitchen more kid-friendly and encourage them to be more involved in preparing food and cleaning up after themselves.
To show you how this can easily be done, here are three tips for creating a more kid-friendly kitchen space.
Install The Right Cabinetry Hardware
Because there are certain areas that you don’t want your little ones getting into in the kitchen, it’s important that you put the right hardware on your cabinets. For some drawers and doors, you’ll want to make it more difficult for your kids to open or climb up. But for others, you’ll want to make the drawers easy for them to get into.
According to Katheryn O’Shea-Evans, a contributor to Parents.com, the best middle ground is to use rounded bin pulls. By installing these as a small kitchen remodel, you’ll ensure that your kids’ small fingers will easily be able to pull open the cabinets and drawers but will have a hard time climbing up them to get to places that you’d rather they not be.
Make Spills No Big Deal
Kids are messy. There are going to be spills, scuffs, and marks all over your home by the time you’ve raised your kids up. And with the right materials in your kitchen, you don’t have to stress over every glass that tips over or bowl that winds up on the floor.
When picking materials for your kitchen, try to pick ones that can withstand some wear and tear. While you might think something looks beautiful, think about its functionality and how child-friendly it will be, especially when it comes to moisture. According to Today’s Homeowner, you should particularly think about what materials you use around and below your sink, as that’s where many of your spills will likely happen.
Keep Kids’ Supplies Down Low
To help your kids learn how to help themselves in the kitchen and how to clean up once they’ve finished, KidsCookRealFood.com recommends that you keep any kids’ supplies in low drawers, cabinets, or shelves. This should include any of their plastic dishes or utensils as well as basic cleaning supplies so they can wipe up spills or other messes.
If you trust your kids to eat snacks on their own, you could also keep some of these things in a low shelf as well. Whatever you feel like your kids can and should be able to do on their own, the supplies for those tasks should be kept well within their reach.
To help you make your kitchen a more kid-friendly space, consider implementing some of the ideas mentioned above.