I am Sharing 10 amazing tips to organize your kitchen now or on a weekend including all of my best tips and a list of all of the items you will want to use for your next organizing adventure. It’s time to get it done!
Do you ever finish a project and then go back into the room to just peek at it?
Over and over again?
That is how I have been this week after I organized the kitchen!
I swear I am like a kid on Christmas Eve once the presents have been placed under the tree.
I haven’t been this excited about a room in my house in a long time. Only because the calm it has given me in the one room I am constantly in has brought me so much peace. And I want you to feel that same peace, too!
When we moved into our house almost 3 years ago my daughter and I unpacked the kitchen and put everything away. Without paying attention to where it was going and how the kitchen would function. The goal was to just get the boxes unpacked and then come back to it shortly and actually organize it.
Fast forward to today and things are still in the same EXACT spot we put them in 3 years ago without any rhyme or reason. The disorganization makes all of us so frustrated when trying to cook or do simple tasks in the kitchen, but we have just been living with it the way it is.
Honestly, organizing the kitchen has been a little daunting to think about and I have been avoiding it by coming up with all kinds of other things/projects to do.
But when my daughter’s new house was recently organized by a professional organizing team, it motivated and inspired me to finally tackle something I have been putting off.
After watching what they did I came home and sourced and bought all the things for kitchen organization and I can’t wait to share how it all came together.
I knew that if I pulled everything out at once it would take me a few days to do it and that would really overwhelm me to have the mess everywhere, so I started one drawer/cabinet at a time.
Each night I would choose something that needed my attention and get to work. Over the course of a week, I had the organized kitchen that my whole family had been waiting for.
You can find everything I used to organize my kitchen in my Amazon store. Shop my favorites!! You can have them by this weekend and start getting your kitchen organized, too!
Let’s divide it all up and talk about the main parts that make my organization-loving heart happy!
10 Amazing Ways to Organize Your Kitchen NOW!
Best way to arrange spices in drawers?
Organize your spice drawer in 4 EASY STEPS!
Not like this photo, lol! Can you believe we have been living with this for almost 3 years? It’s actually so embarrassing.
First, choose new coordinating spice bottles based on the height of your drawer. There are all different kinds on Amazon – round, short, square, silver lids, wood lids, gold lids, etc. You can also get coordinated spice jars or tins by buying one brand for all of your spices at the store so that all of the bottles or tins match, then every time you need to replace the spice you just buy that brand.
Or by ordering bottles that you can transfer all of your spices into so that they match and use up the same amount of space per bottle, which is what I did.
Then you can either transfer a new spice every time you replace one that is out or buy spices in a baggie at a lower cost at Sprouts and add them to your spice jars. This is what we do most of the time.
These spice jar kits come with lid labels, spice funnel jars, and lids!
I ordered the jars with silver lids and added the white labels to my bottles and the round labels to my lids so if the lid is off the jar I know where it belongs!
Once your spices are all transferred and labeled be sure to alphabetize them.
I have some spices that didn’t have preprinted labels so I used the blank labels included in my pack and my label maker to create the labels myself.
How do you organize a messy spice cabinet?
- Figure out where it makes the most sense to have your spices. You may need to dedicate a different cabinet for spices than you currently have.
- Get a tiered organizer. These are stair-stepped so you can see what is behind each row of bottles. I like this spice rack because it is adjustable.
- Get some matching jars and labels like I have. This makes them pleasing to the eye, easier to read, and actually look organized.
- Transfer your spices over to the new bottles and label them.
- Alphabetize them as you put them into place on the tiered organizer in your cabinet.
- Enjoy being able to see where your spices are and knowing when you’re running low on something at a glance!
How do you keep spices from sliding around in a drawer?
After looking for a long time, I finally found these tiered bamboo spice drawer inserts and they were an absolutely perfect fit for my drawer! I couldn’t believe it! Lucky for me they were the exact depth of my drawer, but if they weren’t, or if I wanted to use less of them, then I would have added some ticky-tack at the bottom of each insert to keep them from sliding around. These came in a set of 8!
Then I added a customizable drawer divider on one side so that my spice jars wouldn’t be able to slide off the ends. These come in a pack of 4 and I highly recommend them for all of your kitchen drawers!! Be sure to measure the depth of your drawer to get the correct size for your drawers.
This left me space for my measuring cups and spoons on the side.
I also bought some awesome square spice jars and applied pretty simple labels to them and moved all of my spices out of their original jars and into these. The square jars don’t roll around like the drawer like the round jars.
Kitchen Utensil Organization
What is the best way to organize kitchen utensils in a drawer?
Utensils like spatulas, whisks, can openers, and basters are all things that we need in the kitchen and they are mostly large items. I found the best way to organize them is to add a drawer divider and section off the drawer into slots for “like” items.
We had a deep drawer close to the floor that I just threw all of our utensils in. Talk about inconvenience and frustration! We always needed something from that drawer. Everything was in it.
Need a whisk? Need the can opener? Need the lemon juicer?
It was all in that drawer. Literally thrown in.
Then I bought these dividers and took everything out of the drawer. I put “like” items together on the counter so I could see what I actually had. I got rid of duplicate items (because, C’MON, you really only need one lemon juicer). Then I added the dividers to the drawers and put the things that were alike in the same section
It is glorious!!
How can I organize my utensils in my kitchen if I don’t have a drawer?
Luckily I have two large, long drawers If you don’t have a dedicated drawer or a lot of drawer space, then I suggest buying a large pretty jar and placing it on the counter to hold all of your utensils.
You can create a little vignette on your counter with your utensil jar, a butter dish, salt and pepper shakers, and an olive oil dispenser to make it look intentional.
Or you can hang them on the side of a cabinet or inside a cabinet or pantry door with removable command hooks!
You can also place these plastic bins inside a drawer and put “like” items together and then stack the bins inside the drawer if you have limited drawer space. Say if you only had one deep and narrow drawer, you could put two narrow bins inside to separate the more used items from the less used ones.
You can also get shallow stackable bins inside the drawer or add customizable drawer dividers.
2 Ways to Organize Your Silverware
Obviously, the first way most people organize their silverware, myself included, is to get a divider tray insert for the drawer. I like this one because it is expandable and I can customize the size I need for the space. My drawers are wide so I have plenty of space for my silverware, my nice steak knives, and my serving utensils.
I added an expandable tray for my silverware and a stationary tray for my serving utensils. The knives came in their own little trays so I stacked them on top of one another.
The whole drawer is now customized to MY needs.
If you don’t have that much drawer space, you can be creative and use a cute utensil basket on a countertop!
I love this woven caddy and use it for outdoor dining in the summer, but you could keep it on the counter and make it look intentional!
Plus it makes it so easy to set your table. You just carry it over and all the silverware is already at hand!
What is the best way to organize your kitchen with large baking dishes and baking sheets?
I used to have my baking dishes stacked inside a large deep drawer.
Whenever I wanted to use one, I would have to take them all out and get the one I wanted, then put them all back inside. And some of my baking sheets and pans were in another part of my kitchen.
I was constantly searching for what I needed. And these little baking dishes are heavy!
Now, underneath my gas stove top, I have a very large and empty, two-door cabinet box. There are no shelves inside of it. Just an empty space.
So, you know what I did? I took an underutilized space and made it completely functional!
I ordered these dividers and placed them in that cavernous cabinet under my stove top and stored all of my baking pans and sheets vertically and in one place and it all makes so much sense now.
In my old house, I did the same thing but took one of my large, deep drawers and placed these dividers in it. Then I stored the pans inside vertically.
Think about how you can store these upright on a pantry shelf, in an underutilized cabinet, in a deep drawer, or even inside your pantry in your kitchen and I think you will really like it!
What is the best way to organize food storage bags or Ziplock baggies?
Baggies and the boxes they come in were a huge pain point for me!
I am always fighting the boxes, pushing them down every time I open and close the drawer to get one! Anyone else??
I found these awesome bamboo dividers/storage boxes that are embossed with”Gallon, Quart, Sandwich, and Snack”.
And they have made my life a little more sane.
I didn’t think I would love them as much as I do. But I REALLY do!
How to organize a kitchen with a lazy Susan?
Okay, let’s talk upper cabinets! I have only a few upper cabinets and most of them hold dishes. I do have one that is for oils, additional spices, and other things we use to cook and it is next to the stove.
This is why I love a Lazy Susan – for the way it saves so much space and makes everything easily accessible! We used to have just bottles on bottles all shoved in this cabinet and we had to move things around to get what we needed.
And, the oil would leak onto the cabinet shelf sometimes!
Not anymore.
Adding an easy-to-clean Lazy Susan made out of plastic to this cabinet not only saves space and time, but it looks so much better!
Easily access what you are looking for and see exactly what you have at a glance.
I recommend that you measure your cabinet depth so that you buy the right size. Upper cabinets are usually less deep than you think.
Lazy Susans are great in pantries, too! For sauces, oils, cans…..the list is endless! They come in all different sizes and the height of the sides can vary, too.
If you want to have something more aesthetic you can buy a pretty Acacia Wood Lazy Susan.
SHOP THIS POST!
I hope you are inspired to finally get your kitchen organized or to give it a little refresh! I know that I am actually a happier person because of it and my family feels better when they’re in the kitchen now, too! If you are looking for some other kitchen wisdom I have an entire post about ways to keep your kitchen functioning at its best with tips and tricks!
Who knew such a little thing could make such a big impact?! Have a blessed day!
Until next time, keep creating!
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