Since clearing out my kitchen cupboards recently, I’ve been able to move many of the items I used to keep on the countertop into that newly freed up cupboard space. What a difference it made — my kitchen looks bigger and brighter than ever now!
That got me thinking about other ways I could streamline and achieve my goal of an organized kitchen while making my kitchen both easier to use and nicer to look at. After some research and brainstorming, I came up with 9 practical kitchen organization tips to share with you today.
Check them out and see what you might be able to use in your own kitchen!
9 Practical Tips for a More Organized Kitchen
1. Get Rid of Unnecessary Items
Every good organizing effort should start with an effort to identify and get rid of any unnecessary clutter in the area. Go through your stuff and figure out what you can sell, donate, or give away, which will both reduce the amount of items you have to organize later, and make it easier to do so by freeing up some additional storage space.
(Drawing a blank? This list of kitchen items to get rid of should give you some ideas.)
2. Consider Your Countertops
In many kitchens, countertop space is extremely valuable real estate, so be mindful of how you’re using yours. Avoid cluttering them up with too much stuff — a good rule of thumb is to limit your countertop to items you use every day, and keep everything else in a cupboard, drawer, etc.
For more tips that can help you tidy up your countertops, check out my list of what should be kept on the counter.
3. Store Ingredients in Space-Saving Containers
Store bulk ingredients like flour and sugar in neat, stackable containers and label them so you can easily find what you need. These storage containers have saved me a lot of shelf space in my pantry!
Plus, you can refill your containers by shopping in the bulk section at the store. These items are often quite a bit cheaper than their packaged counterparts, so it’s a smart way to save money.
4. Keep Fruit in a Fruit Basket
Corral produce that doesn’t need to be kept in the refrigerator in a wire fruit basket. Fruit baskets not only allow you to easily see what you have on hand, but they also allow for airflow that will keep your fruit fresh longer — a win-win!
5. Hang Things up on Adhesive Hooks
Use adhesive Command hooks to hang your oven mitts or pot holders somewhere near your oven. This will free up space in your drawers and keep your oven mitts closer to the area where you use them most.
You can also use Command hooks to hang measuring spoons and other small items on the inside of a cupboard door or wherever they’d be handiest. It’s a lot easier than digging for them in a drawer!
6. Use Your Cupboard Doors
Speaking of the insides of your cupboard doors, another way to use that space is to hang the lids to your pots there. You can do this with Command hooks by using two hooks at the bottom to support the lid, along with one at the top to hold it in place.
Cookware lids can be one of those things that take up a lot of space when stored elsewhere, so this could free up some very valuable storage space in your kitchen. (And check out other ways to use Command hooks here.)
More Ideas You'll Love
7. Keep Necessities Close
Set up an area somewhere near your stove to store your most-used cooking items. For instance, I keep cooking oils, a ramekin of salt, and a pepper grinder next to my stove, since I use those all the time when I’m cooking.
You can do the same thing with your coffee-making supplies or other often used items. Arranging them on a nice platter (there are some pretty cute ones at Home Goods!) will help keep them neat and organized.
8. Find the Right Organizers
If there’s something in your kitchen that has become an organizational pain point, do a search on Amazon or Google, looking for “[item name] organizer.” You’ll be amazed at the types of organizers you can find for coffee and tea, underneath your sink, and spices and seasonings.
Finding the right organizer can be a game-changer. For instance, this adjustable rack for pots and pans can be configured in a dizzying number of different ways, making it easy to find the ideal setup for your unique collection of cookware.
9. Think Creatively
There are plenty of items that can help you get organized that aren’t considered “kitchen items,” like pegboard, mason jars, and magnets. Pegboard is highly versatile and can provide additional storage space for all sorts of things.
You can use mason jars to corral and store things, and you can use magnets to turn any metal surface (and some non-metal ones!) into more storage space.
Want Even More Kitchen Organizing Hacks?
- For even more tips and tricks that can help you keep your kitchen organized, check out these posts:
- 9 Simple Hacks That Will Help You Get Organized In The Kitchen
- 7 Clever Hacks To Organize Your Kitchen On The Cheap
How do you keep your kitchen organized?
I use small boxes from the grocery store to keep all canned fruit together, one for canned vegetables, one for tomatoes, paste, sauce etc,,one for all soup broth boxes. This way nothing gets lost in the back of the cabinet…I just pull the box out and can see exactly what I need or what needs to be re-supplied. Mind you I don’t pull the box totally out, just enough to see what I need.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I store all my plastic storage containers with their lids- and they don’t make it into the cabinet without one! I use unused lunch bags to store pet treats in the tiny cabinets above the refrigerator.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I stay organized by going through drawers once a month to declutter!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.The best thing I’ve ever made for my kitchen is my knife block. It’s an upcycled square plastic spaghetti noodle container full of bamboo kebab skewers. (I think it took about 14 packets of 100 to fill) I used an old map to make the outside pretty and it fits all my oddly-shaped knives including my chopper/meat cleaver, my kitchen scissors and my pizza cutter. I love it so much and it was so easy to make!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Please take a picture and post it!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I don’t know how to do that, but hopefully a link to a blog-post is OK on here:
https://wordpress.com/post/33867871/531
Jay, your link isn’t working! https://www.redchairmarket.com/blog/2014/07/09/quick-project-diy-knife-block/ I found this DIY for a similar idea :-)
Oops!! Here’s a link that should work
http://exultantmonotony.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/in-the-kitchen-diy-knife-block/
What a great idea, Jay! I’m going to use your idea in my kitchen and in my craft area for scissors, knitting needles, exacto knives, frequently used screwdrivers, etc.. Would make a great centerpiece holder/vase also! Thank you for sharing!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.What a great idea! I’m going to use your idea in my kitchen and in my craft area for scissors, knitting needles, exacto knives, frequently used screwdrivers, etc.. Would make a great centerpiece holder/vase also! Thank you for sharing!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’d like to see it too.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.please post a pic
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Very cool idea. I’m going to put that in my “cool ideas” journal. Good luck with grad school. I’m headed there in a few years.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I live in a tiny 170 sq. ft. studio while atrending graduate school. The kitchenette has no cupboard space, so I purchased a dresser from Ikea to organize all of my limited, but necessary cookware. I use clear plastic shoe box size storage bins to keep smaller items, such as utensils and spices, organized and easily accessible.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I use the shoe bag idea. I have 3 of them. 2 are in the utility room. I have a 4Th for travel and hang it on the door of those small motel bathrooms. Basically, unroll it and hang it on the bathroom door and load it from my travel bag.
I needed more kitchen storage. So I installed a 72×60 inch DVD storage cabinet on the wall in my dinning room near the kitchen. It is only 6 inches deep. Perfect for storing 12 packs of pop, etc. They come in a bunch of colors and don’t look like kitchen cabinets. Mine is all glossy white with push open doors and no handles. I got mine from IKEA.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have the very old, very outdated metal kitchen cabinets in my kitchen and so have a tremendous amount of space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling. This space is my “pantry” and I arrange my boxed mixes and canned good in a pleasing pattern. I can see at a glance what I have and what I need to put on the grocery list. Another thing I do for my very small kitchen is utilize the “coffee station” idea but my station is on the top of my microwave. I have my little espresso maker and a small regular coffee maker there along with a sealed jar of dry milk poweder and a small container of ground coffee.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.We just downsized our home to half the square footage, when my husband got an amazing job in another state and I had one day to find an apartment. We gave away a lot of stuff! In our new tiny kitchen, I repurposed a wire bin for holding pot lids. It’s one of those duh moments…why didn’t I do this years ago?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I am in the middle of a kitchen redo. Like Britta, I have little room in the kitchen for anything. One thing I have read was put a lazy susan in the cabinet for bottles of cooking things. I am planning on doing that first. I also bought a few plastic air tight boxes for storing less used items in the basement. All my holiday sprinkles, wrappers etc are going into special boxes that are labeled with the holiday and then stored in my basement on a bookcase. I am doing the same for my everyday items to free up the drawers for other things.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.next I am going through all my appliances. I am a fanatic for little gadgets but they take up so much space. So I am installing a bookcase or rack in my hall closet and will use that for my small appliances and get them out of the kitchen and off the shelves.
I am already using plastic containers for my baking items. I have an awkward cabinet above the stove which houses my plug for the microwave. This is good for these bins and keeps them out of sight and out of mind.
Since I have plenty of storage space under some dining room furniture, the dry bar and the China closet, I will use that space and some shelves in the basement to store items I think I will use. Everything else is being donated.
Those are just a few things I do to save space in my kitchen.
Love, and need this article. Just find it hard to get rid of stuff that I feel I “might” need in the future. Not a hoarder by any means, but I do like my kitchen gadgets.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Dani, I also love my kitchen gadgets. I have dozens and dozens of them. When I was decluttering my kitchen I went through all of them and put 95% of them in a plastic bin and stored in a closet. That was several years ago and I have only opened the bin once to look for something. I found that I can get along just fine without all the gadgets and I have so much more room in my kitchen. I haven’t been able to bring myself to get rid of my gadgets, though, so I moved them to my outside shed and will be giving them to my nieces as they set up their kitchens.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.We each have a Tervis tumbler, so it’s hard keeping track of the lids. I use the smaller metal command hooks to hang up by cup lids on inside of my cabinet door.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.i have a high shelf above my kitchen sink which which would basically be wasted space. i put a shoe rack up there and use the short shelves to organize cook books, a stereo (to listen to music while washing dishes), placemats and cutting boards
Please log in or create a free account to comment.