Kitchen Organization Ideas

With Kitchen Organization Ideas - The Basics, learn the fundamentals incl. how to maximize your available space. Read step by step guides for all kitchen areas.

Not enough countertop room to work on?

Not enough cabinet space to store things in?

Can’t find what you are looking for in your kitchen?

Glass jars and bowls arranged on open kitchen shelves

Step by step guides for every kitchen area

These are some of the typical problems you will face in a disorganized kitchen. But by employing our simple kitchen organization ideas, you can bring some order to this high traffic area.

Check out our tips, advice and step by step methods to turn your chaotic kitchen into an organized and functional space that you can enjoy.

Kitchen Organization Ideas: The Basics

There are many different areas of your kitchen that may be causing you problems. As such we have written detailed step by step how to get organized guides on each one.

These will help you tackle each issue in a more manageable way. They are all detailed below, however, as an overview here are the 4 key basic ideas.

Basic idea 1: Declutter before you organize

If your kitchen is full of things you don’t use very often or even non-kitchen items, find them a home elsewhere – that is unless they should be thrown out or donated.

Basic idea 2: Location, location, location

In a kitchen it is important to store your items where they will be used – we call these zones. So work out where you will prepare food and store relevant items close by. Work out where you will cook and put related items nearby and so on.

Basic idea 3: Maximize your existing space

Decluttering may well alleviate your ‘lack of storage space’ problems by leaving you with a lot less to store. But if not, you need to maximize the space you have available to you.

Walls

Vertical space on walls is ideal for hanging any number of things. Utensils, knife racks, spices, shelves for canisters and fresh herbs and even baskets can be fixed to spare wall space in the relevant kitchen zone.

Ceiling

The ceiling is another often forgotten part of the kitchen. Hanging racks for pots and pans are a popular choice, but don’t forget about tiered hanging baskets for vegetables for example.

Cabinets

Double the space in your cabinets with stand alone shelves. Even better install tiered sliding shelves to give you easy access to items stored at the back.

Also don’t forget about the back of the cabinet doors where you can install caddies or other organizers. This applies just as well to your main kitchen door and pantry door as it does to cabinet doors.

And how about the space under your cabinets? This can be used to mount small appliances, cook book or stemware holders and much more.

Countertops

The only space you do not want to make use of is your countertop. Say ‘No’ to clutter and keep it clear to work on.

Basic idea 4: Frequency of use

When you know which kitchen zone is going to be home to each group of items, you then need to determine how often you use each thing. Keep things that are used frequently to hand, normally at eye level, and then work your way up to the ceiling or down to the floor for those least used items.

Kitchen Storage Solutions

There are many kitchen organization products out there to tempt you with their ‘buy me to fix your chaos’ promises. Just remember that you can buy an organizer but you can’t buy organization – you still need to put the time and effort into using these products to make the most of them.

Items that are worth a look include 2-tier sliding shelf organizers for cabinets, drawer dividers and wall mounted knife and spice racks.

Photo credit: Team Dalog.