The Kitchen Deck

Why does this happen here?

1. Things get set down here on the way past → NO ASSIGNED HOME
2. There is more kitchen here than the counter can hold → EXCESS
3. Nobody ever agreed what is allowed to live on it → MISSING STANDARD

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. The appliances came out for one job and never went back → EXCESS
2. The board's spot is taken, so it sits wherever it fits → WRONG LOCATION
3. There is nowhere to set a bowl down while I work → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. None of it has anywhere else to go → NO ASSIGNED HOME
2. The real drop zone is in another room → WRONG LOCATION
3. Nothing ever moves it back → MISSING TRIGGER

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

You cannot cook in twenty centimetres, and every other habit in this kitchen starts on this surface.

You need

• the dining table, as a staging area
• a bin bag
• a damp cloth

Steps

1. Take everything off the prep counter and set it on the dining table. Everything, including the things you are sure belong there.
2. Let only three things back: what you cut on, what you cut with, and what you season with.
3. Lift the kettle and the toaster rather than wiping around them, clean under their feet, set them back against the wall and coil the cords.
4. Everything still on the table goes to a home elsewhere, or leaves. Do not put one item back to decide about later, because that is the item the pile grows from.
5. Wipe the run and lay the board down on bare counter.

Victory. Your largest cutting board lies flat with room on both sides, and nothing else is on the run.

Next: PRIMARY PREP COUNTER STANDARD

A surface you have to defend every evening was laid out wrong. Fix the layout and the defending stops.

You need

• a tape measure
• low tack tape or a marker
• one empty low cabinet shelf

Steps

1. Stand where you actually cut, and do not move. That spot is the anchor and everything else is measured from it.
2. Measure your largest board and mark that width under the counter lip with tape, so where the work surface starts is a fact and not an opinion.
3. Knives on your dominant side, on a wall strip or in a block. Oil and salt behind the board rather than beside it.
4. Mixing bowls into the cabinet directly underneath, so you can reach one without turning around.
5. Count real uses of every appliance still on the counter over the past month, not intended ones. Under a couple of times a week, it goes to a low cabinet. Not switched on in a year, it leaves the kitchen.

Victory. You can cut, season, and reach a mixing bowl without taking a step or turning around.

Next: CLEAR THE RUN

Trigger: When you press start on the dishwasher, the counter clears.

Write on

• Who agreed this: ______________ and ______________
• Date: ____ / ____ / ______
• Where this card lives: ______________________________

This is a write on card. Fill it in with a pen, in your own words if the printed sentence is not yours, and put it where the zone is. A standard nobody signed is a preference.

Why does this happen here?

1. The crock holds twenty tools and I use six → EXCESS
2. The tool I need lives on the other side of the kitchen → WRONG LOCATION
3. The drawer is a jumble and nothing shows → POOR VISIBILITY

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. The landing space has slowly filled with other things → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY
2. Those things have no home of their own → NO ASSIGNED HOME
3. Nobody calls that space anything, so it is fair game → MISSING STANDARD

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. The front row hides the back row completely → POOR VISIBILITY
2. Nothing tells me what is nearly gone → POOR REPLENISHMENT
3. There are more jars here than the rack was built for → EXCESS

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Everything here is done with your hands full and the heat already on. A step taken now is a step you cannot take then.

You need

• a tray or a large bowl to hold the tools you pull
• a damp cloth

Steps

1. Empty the utensil crock out onto the counter.
2. Put back six tools, each one you actually used this month. The rest go to a drawer or leave the kitchen.
3. Oil, salt and pepper within one reach of the burner you use most.
4. Clear the landing space beside the hob down to bare counter, wide enough to set a hot pan on.
5. Turn every pan handle in, so nothing sticks out over the front edge.

Victory. With your feet still, you can reach oil, salt and a turner, and you have somewhere to set a hot pan down.

Next: COOKING ZONE STANDARD

Oil left heating and a tea towel stored within reach of a live burner are the two ways a kitchen fire actually starts.

You need

• a small hook and its fixing
• a bin bag
• a food area degreaser and a microfibre cloth

Steps

1. Mount a hook for the pot holders within a hand's reach of the burners and clear of the heat, so you never hunt for them with a hot pan.
2. Pull every spice jar. Anything not used in a year leaves. The ones you reach for weekly go to the front row.
3. Move the paper towel roll, the tea towels and any packaging off the burner side entirely.
4. Degrease the surround and the hob, working top down so what you loosen falls onto surfaces you have not cleaned yet.
5. After cleaning, light every burner once and watch for an even blue ring. A lazy yellow flame, or a burner that clicks and will not catch, is a call to a registered engineer and not a thing to adjust yourself.

Victory. Pot holders found without looking, weekly spices in the front row, nothing that burns within reach of a burner, and every burner lighting evenly.

Next: THE HOT ZONE WALK

Trigger: Every time you put a pan on to heat.

Write on

• Who agreed this: ______________ and ______________
• Date: ____ / ____ / ______
• Where this card lives: ______________________________

This is a write on card. Fill it in with a pen, in your own words if the printed sentence is not yours, and put it where the zone is. A standard nobody signed is a preference.

Why does this happen here?

1. There is no moment in the day when it gets cleared → MISSING TRIGGER
2. Dishes have nowhere to go until the dishwasher is emptied → EXCESS MOTION
3. Two of us run this sink two different ways → CONFLICTING USERS

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. Bleach and an acidic cleaner are standing side by side → SAFETY CONSTRAINT
2. Nothing under here has a defined place → NO ASSIGNED HOME
3. We have bought the same cleaner three times → EXCESS

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. It lies flat in a puddle instead of standing to drain → WRONG LOCATION
2. Nothing says when it gets replaced → POOR REPLENISHMENT
3. Nobody agreed what this sink looks like at the end of a day → MISSING STANDARD

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

This is the point the whole kitchen resets from. When it is clear the rest is recoverable, and when it is not, nothing else starts.

You need

• a microfibre cloth
• a neutral pH cleaner

Steps

1. Empty the sink completely, including the pan you were going to soak.
2. Wipe the basin dry, and wipe the drain flange, which is the part nobody cleans and everybody smells.
3. One brush and one sponge, standing where they drain. Everything else comes off the surround.
4. Take out of the drying rack anything that is already dry.
5. Wipe the tap and the surround, and dry them so no water sits.

Victory. Dry basin, two tools standing, nothing lying in water.

Next: SINK AND DISHWASHING ZONE STANDARD

This is the one cabinet in the house where two ordinary bottles make a gas that will drive you out of the room.

You need

• one shallow tray
• a bin bag
• your local household chemical disposal rules

Steps

1. Take everything out. Everything, including the bottles at the back.
2. Separate bleach from any acidic or ammonia based cleaner, and never store them in the same tray. If you cannot tell what a bottle is, read the label. If it has no label, dispose of it by your local rules rather than guessing.
3. Anything hazardous that sits within a child's reach moves up and out of this cabinet, or the cabinet gets a latch.
4. One shallow tray goes back, holding dish soap, dishwasher tablets and one all purpose cleaner. That is the whole inventory.
5. Leave the pipework visible, so a leak is something you see early instead of something you smell late.

Victory. One tray, three bottles, and bare pipes you can see all the way around.

Next: THE HOT ZONE WALK

Trigger: When the coffee brews in the morning, the sink gets checked and cleared.

Write on

• Who agreed this: ______________ and ______________
• Date: ____ / ____ / ______
• Where this card lives: ______________________________

This is a write on card. Fill it in with a pen, in your own words if the printed sentence is not yours, and put it where the zone is. A standard nobody signed is a preference.

Why does this happen here?

1. There are more mugs here than anyone drinks from → EXCESS
2. They are stacked because there is no width to stand them → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY
3. Getting one out costs three movements → EXCESS MOTION

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. Daily things are stored above daily reach → POOR ACCESSIBILITY
2. The reachable shelf is full of things used twice a year → EXCESS
3. Climbing to a high shelf holding china is how kitchens hurt people → SAFETY CONSTRAINT

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. Glass is stacked at or above head height → SAFETY CONSTRAINT
2. Categories are mixed, so nothing stacks squarely → MISSING STANDARD
3. The shelf is holding more than it was built for → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Every plate you use is fetched twice a day. Height is the whole cost.

You need

• clear counter space to stage on
• a step stool with a handrail, if anything is genuinely out of reach

Steps

1. Bring down everything you use less than once a month.
2. Send it to the top shelf, on its edge where it will stand.
3. Everything daily comes to the shelf between your shoulder and your eye.
4. One category per stack. Plates with plates, bowls with bowls, and nothing perched on top of a different thing.
5. Cap plate stacks at about six, and space the mugs so each one lifts out without moving another.

Victory. You can take a plate and a mug down with one hand each, moving nothing else.

Next: UPPER CABINET ZONE STANDARD

Reaching a top shelf from a chair, a counter edge or an open drawer is how people fall in kitchens, and it happens while they are holding something breakable.

You need

• a step stool with a handrail
• somewhere outside the kitchen for the second set

Steps

1. Have the shortest adult who uses this kitchen fetch the everyday plates while you watch. Their reach is the test, not yours.
2. Band the cabinet: below shoulder and shoulder to eye are for daily things, above eye is for monthly or less.
3. No glass above head height. None, in any cabinet, for any reason.
4. Second sets, inherited china and the platter for eight go to the top shelf or out of the kitchen altogether.
5. If something still needs a climb, buy a two step stool with a handrail and keep it in the kitchen. Never a chair, never a drawer edge, never the counter.

Victory. The shortest person in the house can lay the table without climbing or asking.

Next: THE HOT ZONE WALK

Trigger: Every time the clean dishwasher gets emptied.

Write on

• Who agreed this: ______________ and ______________
• Date: ____ / ____ / ______
• Where this card lives: ______________________________

This is a write on card. Fill it in with a pen, in your own words if the printed sentence is not yours, and put it where the zone is. A standard nobody signed is a preference.

Why does this happen here?

1. The stacks are deeper than three → EXCESS MOTION
2. There are more pans here than we cook with → EXCESS
3. Nothing holds them apart → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. Lids have no place of their own → NO ASSIGNED HOME
2. There is no rack or rail to stand them in → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY
3. They are stored away from the pans they belong to → WRONG LOCATION

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. Weight is stored above shoulder height → SAFETY CONSTRAINT
2. It is nowhere near the hob it is used at → WRONG LOCATION
3. The cabinet floor, where it should be, is already full → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Taking four pans out to use one is why they end up living on the floor of the kitchen.

You need

• floor space to lay everything out
• a damp cloth

Steps

1. Take out every pan and every lid.
2. Put back the two you cook with nightly, at the front, in the cabinet nearest the hob.
3. Cap every stack at three, or stand pans on edge if you have a divider.
4. Stand the baking sheets on end rather than laying them flat.
5. Whatever is still on the floor when you finish has not earned the cabinet. Decide about it now, not next week.

Victory. Each of your three most used pans comes out in one motion, moving nothing else.

Next: LOWER CABINET AND COOKWARE ZONE STANDARD

A tall nest of pans, or a cast iron pot stored above waist height, comes down on hands and feet the moment the stack shifts.

You need

• a wire divider or two tension rods
• a lid rack or a door rail
• a sheathed box for loose blades

Steps

1. Heaviest pieces onto the cabinet floor. Nothing heavy above shoulder height anywhere in this kitchen.
2. Set a divider or a pair of tension rods so baking sheets, boards and shallow pans stand on end.
3. Fit a lid rack, or a rail on the inside of the door, so no lid is ever loose.
4. Food processor and blender blades go into a sheathed box, never loose inside a bowl in a dark low cabinet where fingers go looking.
5. Test it: fetch your three most used pans one at a time and count the movements. Two or fewer, or move it again.

Victory. Nothing has to come out to reach anything else, and nothing heavy is stored above your shoulder.

Next: THE HOT ZONE WALK

Trigger: When the pans come off the drying rack.

Write on

• Who agreed this: ______________ and ______________
• Date: ____ / ____ / ______
• Where this card lives: ______________________________

This is a write on card. Fill it in with a pen, in your own words if the printed sentence is not yours, and put it where the zone is. A standard nobody signed is a preference.

Why does this happen here?

1. The things in it have no home anywhere else → NO ASSIGNED HOME
2. The drawer has never been given a job → MISSING STANDARD
3. You cannot see what is in it without emptying it → POOR VISIBILITY

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. An unsheathed blade is loose among the hand tools → SAFETY CONSTRAINT
2. Nothing divides the drawer → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY
3. No drawer in here holds one category → MISSING STANDARD

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. It holds more than it can take → INSUFFICIENT CAPACITY
2. Most of what is in it is a duplicate → EXCESS
3. Half of it belongs in a different drawer → WRONG LOCATION

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

A drawer with no job accepts everything, and then nothing in it can be found.

You need

• a tray to tip onto
• blade sleeves or sheaths
• a damp cloth

Steps

1. One drawer at a time. Tip it out onto a tray.
2. Say the drawer's one job out loud before anything goes back into it.
3. Only that category returns. Everything else goes to the drawer it belongs in, or out of the kitchen.
4. Sheath every blade. If a blade has no sheath, it does not go back in until it has one.
5. Close it. If it does not close flush with one push, take something out rather than shoving it.

Victory. You can name each drawer's job, and each one closes with one push.

Next: UTENSIL AND UTILITY DRAWERS STANDARD

A drawer that is named is a drawer that gets put back correctly by somebody who does not live here.

You need

• masking tape and a pen
• a divided insert
• a lidded box for batteries

Steps

1. Write each drawer's name on tape inside its front edge, where you see it as it opens and no guest ever does.
2. Divided insert for flatware, with nothing loose beside it.
3. Foil, cling film and baking paper stand on end so you can read the boxes from above.
4. Button batteries and anything small enough to be swallowed leave the low drawers entirely, into a lidded box stored high.
5. Give the junk drawer a real job, or dissolve it. Tape, batteries and a tape measure can each have a home. The rest of it is a decision you have been storing instead of making.

Victory. Every drawer has a name written inside it, and nothing swallowable is stored at child height.

Next: UTENSIL AND UTILITY DRAWERS STANDARD

Trigger: When you put the shopping away.

Write on

• Who agreed this: ______________ and ______________
• Date: ____ / ____ / ______
• Where this card lives: ______________________________

This is a write on card. Fill it in with a pen, in your own words if the printed sentence is not yours, and put it where the zone is. A standard nobody signed is a preference.

Why does this happen here?

1. We cannot see what we already own → POOR VISIBILITY
2. Nothing has a place that means eat this first → NO ASSIGNED HOME
3. Nothing checks the fridge before the shopping list → MISSING TRIGGER

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. Raw food above ready to eat food drips onto it → SAFETY CONSTRAINT
2. No shelf has been assigned to anything → NO ASSIGNED HOME
3. The low shelf is full of drinks → WRONG LOCATION

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Why does this happen here?

1. Nothing carries a date → POOR VISIBILITY
2. There is no moment when the fridge gets cleared → MISSING TRIGGER
3. Leftovers go in and are never counted again → POOR REPLENISHMENT

Pick the answer that is true in your kitchen, then turn to that root cause card. If two are true, take the one you could change this week.

Most food thrown away in a house was bought on purpose and then became invisible.

You need

• one shallow open bin
• blank labels and a pen
• a bin bag
• a neutral pH cleaner and a cloth

Steps

1. Bin the obvious. Do not negotiate with a container you have to smell.
2. Raw meat down to the lowest shelf, sealed, so nothing can drip onto anything you will not cook again.
3. Put one shallow bin at the front of the middle shelf, where the door opens straight onto it, and put everything within three days of turning into it.
4. A blank label and a date on every leftover, on the lid where you will read it.
5. Wipe the one shelf you cleared. One shelf today is a finished job; the whole fridge is an abandoned one.

Victory. Nothing raw above anything ready to eat, every leftover dated, and one bin at the front that tells you what to cook tonight.

Next: REFRIGERATOR AND FREEZER STANDARD

A fridge without assigned shelves is filled by whoever unpacks the shopping, which is why the raw chicken ends up over the salad.

You need

• a fridge thermometer
• clear lidded containers
• blank labels and a pen

Steps

1. Assign the shelves out loud and agree them with whoever else shops: raw low and sealed, leftovers at eye level, door for condiments only.
2. Pull anything pressed against the rear vents. Blocked vents cost cooling and they cost money every day.
3. Clear containers only for anything you want eaten. Opaque food is forgotten food.
4. Put a thermometer in and check it. The usual food safety guidance is a fridge at or below 5C or 41F and a freezer at minus 18C or 0F; if yours will not hold that, it is a repair call, not a storage problem.
5. Set the eat first bin where the door opens straight onto it, and nothing else goes in that spot.

Victory. Anyone unpacking the shopping can put it away correctly without being told, and the thermometer reads in range.

Next: THE SHOPPING LIST LOOP

Trigger: On the way to write the shopping list, before the grocery run.

Write on

• Who agreed this: ______________ and ______________
• Date: ____ / ____ / ______
• Where this card lives: ______________________________

This is a write on card. Fill it in with a pen, in your own words if the printed sentence is not yours, and put it where the zone is. A standard nobody signed is a preference.