Where everything lives

Our kitchen, mapped.

This is the kitchen's map. It answers one question fast: where does this live? So finding groceries and putting things away is easy for everyone who cooks here.

Where does it live?

Type what you are looking for. Turmeric, toor dal, the pressure cooker, foil.

For our cook

A quick map so you can find and return everything without asking anyone. If a spot does not work for you, tell us and we will move it.

Everyday spices and the masala dabba are at the stove (Zone D). Refills are in the pantry (Zone A), behind the daily dabba.
Dals, rice, and flours each have their own labeled container in the pantry (Zone A).
Pots, the pressure cooker, and heavy pans are in the base cabinets (Zone G). Cooking spoons are in the crock at the stove.
Your prep counter and one drawer are yours to set up how you like.
When something runs low, add it to the restock list on this page or tell us. You never need to buy or spend your own money.
At the end, please return shared tools to their labeled homes and wipe the cooktop. That is the whole reset.

Do these first

A short setup list. You do not have to read the whole page.

Decant open flour, rice, and dal into airtight jars the day they come home. The bag they arrive in is how pantry moths get in.
Label the shelf slot, not just the jar. An empty labeled slot tells anyone where a thing goes back.
Keep the masala dabba and the tadka spices right by the stove. A tadka should need zero walking.
Give occasional and specialty ingredients one labeled bin in the upper bank. Rare items are exactly what gets lost and re-bought.
Keep one landing tray in the pantry for new groceries so they never pile on the counter.
Whoever finishes cooking resets the shared counters to neutral. The next person starts from the same baseline.
When something hits its last unit, add it to the restock list on this page. Nobody has to remember.

8 zones · open what you need

Pantry closet

All the dry food staples. The anchor of the whole kitchen.

What lives here

Bulk staples: atta, rice, and each dal in its own airtight container
Flour family: maida, besan, rava/sooji, rice flour
Spice refill jars (the second tier behind the masala dabba)
Snacks: poha, murmura, sabudana, biscuits, dry namkeen
Sugar, jaggery, tea and coffee backstock
One landing tray for new groceries

Keep it easy

Load top-to-bottom by weight: light and rarely-used up high, heavy atta and rice bags on the bottom shelf.
Keep the daily spices and masala dabba refills at eye level so you read them fast.
Use the wire step-shelves for small spice jars so the back row is never hidden.
One container equals one ingredient, and every container gets a top-readable label with a fill date (turmeric, chili, and coriander powders look identical from the side).
Add a few dried red chilies or bay leaves to rice and atta as a natural weevil deterrent.
Keep one shelf clear as the grocery landing zone.

Wipe-down Line each shelf with cut-to-size liner or parchment. On a flour or dal spill you lift the liner instead of scrubbing. Wipe jar bottoms before returning them.

Upper cabinet by the counter

Everyday dishes. Prime reach over the workspace.

What lives here

Everyday plates and bowls, stacked by size
Everyday glasses and mugs on the lower, easy-reach shelf
Katoris and small steel bowls
Everyday tiffins (lunch-carry set, kept separate from leftover dabbas)

Keep it easy

This is directly over the workspace, so it holds what you touch every meal. Keep dishes here, not food.
Store katoris nested in stacks of the same size.
Keep tiffin bases nested and their lids upright in a small bin so you flip through lids like folders instead of digging.

Wipe-down Put a thin non-slip liner down so steel plates do not slide or scratch. Wipe the front shelf edge monthly, that is where cooking grease settles on uppers near a stove.

Narrow base cabinet by the fridge

Tall and awkward things that stand up.

What lives here

Cooking oil, ghee backup, vinegar, tall sauce bottles
Rolling pin (belan) and board (chakla), stood on end
Thermos and flasks
A tall water pitcher

Keep it easy

Deep and slim, so it is perfect for tall items standing upright rather than stacks.
Stand oil bottles on a small tray or cut-down lid. Oil bottles always weep a little down the side and a tray keeps the cabinet floor clean.
Move any loose spice ziplocks out of here into labeled jars in the pantry.

Wipe-down Wipe the existing floor stain with a baking-soda paste before you load it. Keep the oil tray so future drips wipe up in one move.

Cooking zone (cooktop and oven)

Everything you reach for while cooking, one arm's turn from the stove.

What lives here

Masala dabba and the tadka spices: mustard seeds, cumin, hing, turmeric, chili, curry leaves, dried chilies
Active cooking oil, ghee, and salt
Chai station: milk pan, strainer, tea, chai masala, sugar (fridge for milk is right here)
Foil, parchment, and cling wrap in the base cabinet
Oven trays and flat bakeware, stored on their edges like files
Cooking spoons in a counter crock: ladle, jhara, palta, chimta

Keep it easy

Build a tadka station at the stove: oil, ghee, and the tempering spices all in one grab zone so a tadka needs zero walking.
Store oven trays and bakeware vertically with a cheap wire divider. You grab one without unstacking five.
Keep a small chai tray by the stove: milk pan, strainer, tea, and a jar of chai masala, so a cup needs no hunting.
Keep the fire extinguisher visible and reachable. Do not bury it.
Never store paper or foil boxes right against the cooktop heat.

Wipe-down Keep a small spray bottle (1 part vinegar, 3 parts water) and a cloth in the base cabinet. Wipe the cooktop and backsplash right after cooking, before grease bakes on. This corner takes the most grease in the kitchen.

Three-door upper bank

Serveware and the occasional-ingredient bin.

What lives here

Serving bowls, platters, and the big steel thali plates (left door)
Guest and extra glasses (middle door)
Weekly appliances: hand blender, spice grinder, mixer jars (right door)
The occasional and specialty ingredient bin: rare masalas, baking items, festival ingredients

Keep it easy

Central but a reach, so it holds things you use often enough to want visible but not every meal.
Give occasional and specialty ingredients one labeled, dated bin grouped by use. Rare items are exactly what object permanence fails on, so a bounded bin keeps them retrievable instead of lost and re-bought.
Add a shelf riser in each bay. These are tall bays with wasted air above the shelf.
Wrap appliance cords with a velcro tie so they do not tangle.

Wipe-down Lay a flat sheet of parchment on the very top of the cabinet run. Every few months you swap the sheet instead of dusting the tops.

Corner cabinets over the sink

Things you grab many times a day.

What lives here

Everyday drinking glasses
Coffee station: coffee, filter, sweetener, mugs
Vitamins and daily medicines, up on the top shelf, dry

Keep it easy

Reachable and over the sink, so it suits the things you grab constantly.
Keep vitamins and medicines up top, out of steam range, but visible enough that they actually get taken.
Do not store anything that rusts (no bare steel) on the lowest shelf here, it catches sink steam.

Wipe-down Wipe the underside of the bottom shelf occasionally. Splash from the sink reaches up there.

Base cabinets and drawers

Tools in the drawers, heavy hardware down low.

What lives here

Drawer 1: cutlery tray, spoons and forks
Drawer 2: cooking tools, spatula, tongs, peeler, whisk, measuring cups
Base cabinet: pressure cookers, heavy kadai, big patilas
Leftover-storage dabbas (kept separate from lunch tiffins)

Keep it easy

Low and load-bearing, so it takes the heavy things. Nothing heavy goes in upper cabinets.
Store the pressure cooker here or on the counter since it is used almost daily. Keep the gasket and whistle in a small bag taped inside the lid, and store the lid inverted so the gasket does not deform.
Nest patilas by size with a cloth or paper between each to stop scratches, largest on the bottom.
Add a drawer divider so the tools drawer does not become one jumbled pile.

Wipe-down Put a boot tray or plastic mat under the pressure cookers. They carry a little water and oil residue after washing, and the tray pulls out to rinse.

Under the sink

Cleaning only. Never food.

No photo yet

What lives here

Dish soap, sponges, scrubbers, gloves
Surface sprays and cleaners
Garbage bags and the extra trash-liner roll

Keep it easy

Keep food and cleaning chemicals in separate cabinets, always.
A small caddy or lazy-Susan under here stops the bottle-jungle and keeps back items reachable.

Wipe-down Check for leaks under the trap every month or two. Keep a folded old towel on the base to catch drips early.

How we keep it calm (the three of us)

Not rules to obey. A shared map so no one has to hunt, ask, or nag. The system holds the plan, not any one person.

Everything has one labeled home. If you cannot find where something goes, it does not have a home yet, so we give it one.
We aim for a home that is faster than dropping it on the counter. If putting-away is fussy, we fix the home, not the person.
Shared counters reset to neutral when you finish cooking. Personal zones can stay in play, no judgment.
We talk about the system, never the person. 'The landing tray is full,' not 'you left this out.'
The restock list is the source of truth. See the last unit, add it to the list. Nobody has to remember.
Once a week we do a 15-minute reset together, side by side. The only goal is returning things home, not deep cleaning.

Restock list

See the last unit of something? Add it here. Nobody has to remember. Saved on this device.