We spend a lot of time in our kitchens: entertaining guests, cooking weeknight meals, baking for special occasions, whipping up late night snacks, packing lunches, working, doing homework, enjoying family game night and so much more. It’s one of the busiest and most used spaces in our homes, so it’s no surprise that it can get disorganized and difficult to manage quite quickly. Contrary to what you may see on TV shows, you don’t need a large space to have a functional kitchen. Learning how to properly organize within your unique space can help you leverage every single inch that you have and create the perfect kitchen for you and your family.
Prep
Before you take on the task of organizing your kitchen from top to bottom, it’s important to take these first few steps. Pulling every single thing that you own out of your cabinets and drawers helps you see what you own, allows you to group like items together for re-organizing and gives you the opportunity to deep clean everything as you go. This prep stage will determine what kind of storage solutions you’ll need to add based on the type of items that need storage, where they’ll go and how often they’re used. Knowing what you own before you begin is critical to understanding how best to store it within your space as you move forward.
Purge
In order to really go through your kitchen and re-envision your space, you’ll need to commit to purging items you simply don’t use or need any longer. Once everything is out in the open, take a good hard look at what you own and ask yourself why you own it. Pairing back and keeping only the functional essentials means that you can declutter your space, better organize your kitchen zones, ensure you actually use the items you have and donate what’s left to someone in need.
Deep Clean
Emptying out your drawers and cabinets presents the perfect opportunity to deep clean the spaces as you go. You’ll be surprised how much dust, grime and food debris can hide in small spaces like under-shelf protectors or in the corners of drawers. Give everything a good wipe down, both inside and out, so when you begin placing things back, you know that everything is clean.
Make Frequently Used Items Accessible
There’s nothing worse than having to dig for items you use regularly, so make sure you prioritize those above others and keep them accessible in their respective zones. If you use your wooden utensils every single time you cook, position them right near the stove for quick grab access. If you make coffee every morning, it may be wise to create a little coffee station that contains the most used items as part of your morning ritual. This will save you from crossing the kitchen repeatedly to gather the same items from different places every single time. The goal is to create a functional space that works with your habits and routines, not against them.
Find Creative Uses For Space
The perfectly organized kitchen doesn’t look a certain way or have a specific floor plan. Instead, it’s simply a space that’s been well optimized, where every opportunity for storage and function has been leveraged. Finding creative uses for space in your unique floor plan means you can seek out solutions that work best for you and the way you use your kitchen. Regardless of footprint, style or budget, there are a few ways to better utilize space that most kitchens can benefit from:
Hanging Racks
Make use of extra wall space with hanging racks and storage solutions that will lift clutter off of your countertops and free up more useable space for cooking and prep. Consider sliding an under-the-shelf bin onto your floating shelves, adding a hanging pantry rack to the back of a door, installing a series of hooks for your towels and bags, buying a pot rack to free up space in your drawers or creating more room in your mug cabinets with slide-on hanging mug holders. Think about different ways you can leverage as much of your space as possible to maximize storage without adding clutter.
Rolling Carts
If you have very limited space in your kitchen or nooks and crannies that simply aren’t being used to their full capacity, a rolling cart may be the perfect solution. There are plenty of ways to incorporate a cart into your kitchen: Tuck one away in the small space between your appliances or cabinets to add extra hidden (but accessible) storage, roll one up to the end of your island for quick grab essentials, turn one into a bar cart in the corner of your kitchen to corral bar essentials, etc.
Drawer Dividers
Don’t fall victim to shoving a bunch of small items into your drawers and become an “out of sight, out of mind” kind of organizer. Purchase some drawer dividers to ensure that each drawer stays organized, and small items remain compartmentalized instead of thrown together haphazardly. You’d be surprised how much easier it is to find items in your drawers when you can see everything clearly!
Grid Panel
There’s no such thing as too much storage in a kitchen, so think about how you can maximize the functionality of less used areas. Grid panels can help you add functional, multi-purpose storage to spaces like behind your stove, above your fridge or on a section of countertop that lends itself well to some extra height. Panels can be more useful than a series of shelves as they provide interchangeable solutions and offer you the ability to hang a variety of items while providing the flexibility to clear it off and re-organize at any time.
Group Areas By Common Items
Keeping like items together may seem elementary, but it’s crucial for keeping your kitchen organized. Empty out every single cabinet in your kitchen and group your items together in categories, like baking, cookware, glassware, entertaining, holiday/seasonal, etc. Once you have those categories determined, you can focus on putting those items back together and how you can best organize them in the process. Keep in mind that you want to store items strategically: Cookware should go close to the oven/stove, glasses near the fridge, less used items higher up, etc.
If you’ve been wanting to organize your kitchen, consider this your sign that now is the perfect time to get started! Regardless of your budget, style or floor plan, there are plenty of versatile accessories/tips that you can use to get (and stay) organized in your space.