Kitchen Organization Ideas | Get Set Organize

How To Organize Kitchen Drawers

What do you have in your kitchen drawers? Really, be honest, are there garlic bulbs mixed up with cooking utensils and swimming goggles in with the dish towels? There were in mine! Oh dear.

Drawers are premium space in a kitchen, especially those in your 5 activity zones. So don’t let them be a dumping ground. If you can’t open or close them properly or find what you need at a glance, you need some kitchen drawer organization. So where do you start?

Kitchen Drawer Organizer

==> Click HERE for the full range of kitchen drawer organizers <==

Essentials that should be stored in a drawer are cutlery, utensils, food storage bags, plastic wrap and foil, dish towels and small accessories.

Cooking knives are the only real exception, which should be kept out of the drawer:

(i) to stop anyone cutting themselves; and
(ii) to keep the knives from going blunt more often by bumping into other contents.

Use a magnetic knife strip to keep them handy but off of the countertop to help with your kitchen counter organization.

How to organize kitchen drawers

Before organizing the items within your drawer, toss or donate anything that is duplicated, never used or broken (I had a broken garlic press and nut cracker in my drawer!).
Then allocate your items to a drawer in the right activity zone.
Group like items together.
Grab yourself some organizers, small bins or boxes to stop everything getting messed up a few days after it goes back in the drawer.

You don’t need to spend a lot on drawer organizers – for cheap options just look in your pantry for boxes you could repurpose. Cover them in pretty paper if it makes you feel better.

Not many drawers?

If you are short of drawers consider these kitchen organization ideas:

Move cutlery to a pretty holder on the kitchen table.
Repurpose an attractive jug or vase or buy a utensil holder for the utensils that you use on a regular basis.
Use pretty baskets to store dish towels on top of the fridge, on a shelf or in the pantry.
Hang plastic wrap in over-the-door cabinet organizers.
Buy some flower pots or baskets that can be hung on the wall and use these for silverware, or dish towels.
Look out for a set of tiered baskets that can be hung from the ceiling to house your cutlery, napkins etc.

If you are lucky enough to have deep, wide drawers near to your stove, make the most of them by storing all your pots and pans in one place.

The junk drawer

If you have one and it is taking up valuable drawer space, find a proper home for its contents. Alternatively use a compartmentalized junk drawer organizer to keep like junk items together.

Kitchen drawer organizers

There are many drawer inserts you can buy to help you keep your drawers organized. These range from utensil and flatware caddies, spice drawer inserts, compartments and dividers. If you keep your items neatly together, rather than overflowing and junky, the remaining space in your drawer is opened up.

==> Click HERE for the full range of kitchen drawer organizers <==

I’d love to hear the craziest things you found in your kitchen drawers or your favorite kitchen drawer organizers. Please leave me a comment.

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How To Organize A Kitchen Junk Drawer

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How To Organize A Kitchen Junk Drawer

What junk have you got in your prime storage real estate?

How To Organize A Kitchen Junk Drawer

Before we get into how to organize a kitchen junk drawer let’s have some fun and think about what this stuff you’re hoarding says about you. It might just help you to let go and TOSS some of it in the trash.

OK here’s mine:

Keys that could be for anything: Means I’m paranoid that I’ll find that door/lock/box that I’ve not needed in 5 years and won’t be able to open it. Not that I knew the key was in the junk drawer in the first place.

Opened packet of throat sweets with a best before date of 5 months earlier. More throat sweets (unopened) dating a year earlier than the other pack. Means I don’t like throat sweets.

Vitamin C tablets: Means I’m forgetful. If they were in the bathroom cabinet I’d forget them, but as they’re in the junk drawer which I visit daily for some reason I won’t forget to take them.

Lottery tickets from a year ago: Means I’m stupid – even if I’d won I’d be too late to claim, so best to not even check.

A comb I bought for my son 5 years ago. Means I have unrealistic expectations of my son. Now 10 he still won’t comb his hair, so we shave most of it off every few weeks to avoid the problem!

So what does your junk drawer say about you?

How about we start with is it OK to have a junk drawer? Doesn’t junk mean it should all be tossed?

Well not necessarily – we all have odds and ends that we need to keep on hand, whether it is rubber bands, twist ties, matches, pens and pencils, labels, batteries, spare keys etc etc.

Our goal should be to have an ORGANIZED junk drawer. If you do, you can free up that time you spend either trying to open or close the drawer or fumbling around in it trying to find what you’re looking for. But how?

Step 1 – Find a junk drawer organizer that fits

Buy, find or make some containers of varying sizes that will fit into your drawer. These establish boundaries for the groups of items you will store in there later so they don’t all get mixed up together again.

Obviously make sure the containers will fit in the drawer – the drawer size is something you must know before you go out shopping for your containers. I love this quote from TheKitchn.com:

“Go ahead and play Tetris with all the containers on the floor of the store to make sure they will fit together inside your drawer.”

Don’t be constrained by containers specifically made for drawers (although this two tiered junk drawer organizer with 22 compartments from Amazon.com, pictured below, is particularly good). You can also consider flatware holders, food storage containers or those for the bathroom. Be creative with your kitchen organization ideas. For free options, think cereal boxes, tea boxes and similar.

Junk Drawer Organizer

TIPS:

It’s OK to buy nifty containers as you see them. Just keep them stored until a little job like this turns up.
If you have toddlers, look for small bins with lids that you can close making it more difficult for them to fumble around in your drawer.
Moveable dividers are a great option as they allow your storage spaces to change as new ‘junk’ appears and needs to be accommodated.

Step 2 – Sort the contents

Empty the drawer, TOSS any real junk (eg: anything that is broken, pens that no longer work, things you never use) and sort the rest into groups of like items. Do the items really belong in another location? Would beauty products be better off in the bathroom, should batteries and screws really be in the garage or basement?

Avoid keeping paper in your junk drawer. Instead invest in a magnetic sorter box and stick this to the side of your refrigerator. There you can keep takeout menus, coupons and any other papers that you find in the way on your countertops. Organize the holder into sections for each type of paper.

Step 3 – Organize your remaining ‘junk’

Arrange your bins, boxes or dividers in the drawer and replace your ‘junk’ in an orderly and organized fashion!

Step 4 – Enjoy

Enjoy being able to close the drawer easily.

So how long is all this going to take? Well Stephanie’s Mommy took 15 minutes. Can you manage that?

The Dynamic Junk Drawer Theory

Of course there is another school of thought that says junk is by its very nature dynamic – so don’t try and organize it, just go through it once a month and TOSS everything that is not essential. What do you think?

Martha Stewart Kitchen Ideas & Organizing Tips

Martha Stewart’s raison d’être in the kitchen is to create a functional but beautiful space.

Many of her kitchen organization ideas are fairly well known, such as ensuring you use all of your wall space, group like items and create activity zones, and some are a little over the top. I mean who has a drawer full of skewers and picks and open shelving might be OK for those with perfectly matching dishware sets and attractive pitchers, but for the rest of us, cabinets with doors are a much better idea.

Martha Stewart Kitchen Martha Stewart Organizing

Photo credits: MarthaStewart.com.

However, she also has some great organizing ideas that you might not have heard about elsewhere. So here they are: how to organize a kitchen Martha Stewart style!

Use bird beak shelving for adjustable shelves that can slide in and out. They offer a nice sleek look, with no holes or hardware in sight. Here’s how to make them from an article at LumberJocks.com:

Martha Stewart Kitchen Ideas - Bird Beak Shelving

Choose decorative storage options that can be left on display. Pretty bins and baskets can be used to corral items on shelves. Decant your dish liquid into a decorative container to improve the overall look of your kitchen. Display items that you like looking at as long as they don’t become clutter. Make sure they are being functional whilst on display, for example, use attractive platters to store fruit and vegetables.

Use items that you already own as organizers – perhaps a tray as a shelf divider in your glass cabinet or a baking pan to house your spices, oils and vinegars. Hang a pencil and notepad in the pantry and keep an inventory of your items. You’ll have a quick reference point for what you need to use up or stock up on.

Make your own magnetic message board that matches the colors of your kitchen and use it to keep track of family life. Click HERE to learn how.

Install under cabinet lighting to ensure your countertops are not hidden in the shadows and brighten up every inch of your kitchen.

Don’t underestimate the uses of a rolling cart. They offer storage wherever needed, an extra workspace whenever needed and could even be used as a sideboard or bar when entertaining. They are particularly useful in tight kitchens.

Ensure your family’s safety is paramount by not overlooking this often forgotten element of kitchen organization. Keep a fire extinguisher and first aid kit close by.

For more Martha Stewart kitchen and organizing ideas and tips, check out the Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

Martha Stewart Living Magazine

How To Organize Kitchen Countertops The Up, In & Out Way

Without some knowledge of how to organize kitchen countertops, they may turn into a permanent dumping ground (sorry storage area!) and that is not what you want for an efficient kitchen.

Countertops are your main working areas and they need to be cleaned frequently – clutter hinders both.

How To Organize Kitchen Countertops

Completely bare countertops may look beautiful and sleek in home magazines full of kitchen organization ideas but they are a bit impractical.

The UP, IN and OUT way

To achieve kitchen counter organization, you need to think UP (what can you hang on the walls or ceiling), IN (what can be placed in drawers or cabinets) and OUT (what can be tossed or stored elsewhere).

So what should you store on them?

Items that are used on a DAILY basis (no, not your food processor) are ideal for countertops as storing such items in cabinets and having to get them out and return them every day can turn into a headache.

So essentials that are used daily are OK to be left topside unless they are easy to access from drawers or cabinets in the right kitchen zone. For example there is no need to use a utensil holder if you have a drawer right next to the stove. If you do not have easily accessible drawers look to attractive organizing products to help you out.

Pretty utensil holders and racks are available everywhere as are eye-catching canisters for coffee and sugar and beautiful bread boxes for your daily loaf.

Magnetic or mountable organizers are the best choice as they allow convenient access to your equipment without taking up value countertop space. Think magnetic knife strips, magnetic spice racks and paper towel or cookbook holders that can be mounted on the underside of cabinets.

This one from Organize.com pulls down when you’re cooking and folds flat when you’re not.

Under Mount Cook Book Holder

An appliance garage is an aesthetically pleasing option for items such as your coffee maker or toaster and consider narrow shelves to house small items such as kitchen timers near your splashback.

Watch how

I’d love to hear what you do to keep your kitchen countertop clutter free. Please leave me a comment.

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How To Organize Kitchen Cabinets In 4 Easy Steps

How To Organize Kitchen Cabinets Kitchen cabinet organization is something you probably dream of when you’re wasting time trying to find things. This can not only be annoying but can also cause havoc if you’re at a crucial point in a recipe and have to turf out the whole cabinet to find something.

Having organized cabinets also means that you won’t waste money by letting food go past its use by date because you’ve forgotten about it or by buying duplicates of foods you already have.

So we now know WHY we want organized cabinets but what about the WHEN and the HOW?

When to organize your kitchen cabinets

Organizing kitchen cabinets is unlikely to be something that you are looking forward to doing at the weekend, so rather than put it off indefinitely, make a plan to GET GOING.

The next time you have a spare 10-15 minutes, perhaps when something is in the oven that doesn’t need your attention, get started with your kitchen organization ideas and work on one cabinet at a time.

You may need to empty two or three cabinets to start with, to give you room to re-organize, so keep the contents of the others in a cardboard box until you have another short spell to get to them.

How to organize kitchen cabinets

Follow these 4 easy steps when organizing your kitchen cabinets:

Step 1

EVALUATE what you’ve got in there and TOSS or donate everything that is either past its expiry date (food) or never used (think appliances, pots and pans, serving ware and utensils).

This is a hugely important step and can make or break how organized your kitchen ends up. You want to free up space for things you use everyday.

Infrequently used items should be stored elsewhere. Do this step properly and you’ll be surprised by how much kitchen cabinet storage space you really have.

Step 2

SORT what’s left and group like items together.

Step 3

Consider your kitchen zones of: food storage, food preparation, cooking, serving and cleaning and ensure that items relevant to each zone are stored in the zone. For example, canned goods would be in the food storage area, pots and pans would be in the cooking area and serving plates would be in the serving area.

Step 4

Once you know which cabinet is going to house which group of items, you can then decide where to STORE each item within the cabinet.

Generally heavier, bulky items will be stored in lower cabinets and lighter, smaller items will be stored in wall cabinets. So pots and pans will be stored down below in the cooking zone while oils and spices will be stored up top.

Organization within each cabinet will be determined by how often the item is used. As such you need to separate each group of items between those used on a daily basis, those used regularly but not every day and those used only occasionally.

Items used frequently will be stored on the bottom shelf of wall cabinets. Those rarely used should be placed on the top shelf and the rest will find a home on the middle shelf.

Kitchen cabinet organization products to help

Whilst you don’t really need anything but a little bit of common sense to order the contents of each shelf, there are a lot of kitchen cabinet organizers on the market to make your life a little bit easier and your cabinet a little more aesthetic.

These help to use your limited space more efficiently: for example, just adding an extra shelf doubles the amount you can store and using a tiered plate rack saves you having to lift the bowls to get to the plates.

They range from the plastic functional kind to the downright attractive depending on your taste and budget.

Options include stand alone shelves; slide out shelves and drawers for lower cabinets; under-cabinet shelf wire baskets, cup and paper towel holders; 2-tier shelves for pots and pans and lid racks; over-cabinet door organizers as well as Lazy Susans and cabinet liners.

Stand Alone Kitchen Cabinet Shelf Slide Out Kitchen Cabinet Shelf Under Cabinet Organizer

For some great products in the kitchen cabinet organizer range please click HERE.

Or click HERE for a DIY project where you can make your own pull out kitchen cabinet shelves.

Not enough cabinets?

If you are stuck with a kitchen that does not have enough cabinet space, then please remember three things:

We use 20% of our kitchen items 80% of the time, so move those rarely used items out of the kitchen into another room where you have more storage space.
Don’t forget about your under-cabinet space. There are a number of under mount appliances you can find including coffee makers, microwaves, toaster ovens and can openers. You can also mount a stemware rack, a paper towel holder or affix some hooks to hang decorative mugs and cups.
Don’t forget about the dead space between the ceiling and the upper cabinets. This can be ideal for attractive appliances or serving dishes but if your seldom-used items are not that attractive, use pretty matching baskets to keep them in.

Hopefully you can now see how to organize your kitchen cabinets easily to save money and time. Try to curb your ‘all or nothing’ mentality and make a start on one cabinet or even one shelf in a cabinet today. Ready, get set, organize!

I’d love to hear any tips and tricks you use to keep kitchen cabinet clutter at bay. Please leave me a comment.

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