Best Kitchen Organizing Ideas and Tips for Your Home

I organize along with many of my readers in both February and September.

I always start in my kitchen

Whether you have a large or small kitchen it is typically the heart of the home. Keeping it organized allows you to be more productive and you will also enjoy spending time in that space.

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Preparing for Organizing

We work together in February and the Month of September but with my organizational tips and tools, you can do it on your own at any time. 

You can get access to all of my FREE resources by sharing your email with me. 

First Things First

1. The first step in organizing your kitchen is to declutter your kitchen countertops so you will have space to lay things out as you organize. 

Don’t just put everything into a box or move to another place. Go through the things on your countertop and put them where they belong. That might be a garbage can or donate box. 

This is a good time to challenge yourself. Look at what you keep on your kitchen counters and reevaluate it.

• Is there a better space for it somewhere else? Does it even belong in the kitchen?
• Do you use it? 
• Does it work?
• If it’s something that you haven’t gotten fixed in a month or more, get rid of it. You obviously don’t need it that badly and you probably won’t get it fixed.

2. Once your countertop is cleared off (by the way, don’t you already feel better? )

The best way to get started is to take everything out of the space you are working on, whether it’s a drawer, cabinet, pantry, shelve, or refrigerator. 

Organize everything into three piles.

• Keep
• Throw – I have a garbage can out and ready to just throw the things away that can’t be donated.
• Donate/Sell

3. Thoroughly clean the space that is now empty. I use my vacuum attachments to get up crumbs, cobwebs, dirt, or whatever lurks in our spaces. Then I clean it with soap and water and dry it. If I haven’t already I put shelve paper down if the space is applicable. If you are so inclined this is the time to add organizers.

4. Finally put back only the things that you use and/or love. Everything else stays in the throw or sell/donate pile. 

The best practice is to deal with those right away. Take the garbage out to the garbage bin and put the donate in the trunk of your car. 

Finally put back only the things that you use and/or love.

Everything else stays in the throw or sell/donate pile.

The best practice is to deal with those right away. Take the garbage out to the garbage bin and put the donate in the trunk of your car.

Best Kitchen Organization Ideas

Kitchen Drawer Organizers

My perfect solution to organizing your kitchen drawers is plastic drawer organizer cubes.

My favorite pack has 25 cubes in multiple sizes so they can be configured in just about any sized drawer. I have them in my utensil drawers, and our junk drawer (we will talk about that later).

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They are the almost perfect solution to never having messy drawers. 🙂

They make drawer inserts for knives and I love mine. I used to have a knife block on my countertop but it seemed to always be in the way. It was also more cluttered!

With the drawer knife block, I still have easy access but can store knives away in a drawer. And quite frankly keep them out of sight of young children.

Another way that I’ve seen for knife storage is a magnetic strip that can go either on the inside of a cabinet door or also attached to your wall above your countertop. 

Expandable drawer dividers are also a great option to keep things like dish towels, washcloths, pot holders, and such organized in a drawer.

My drawer where I store my plastic bags and plastic wrap is a disaster. That’s a space I need to get under control. I was thinking of one of those wooden holders for all the different bag sizes but haven’t settled on anything yet. I’ll keep you posted. 

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Organizing Kitchen Cabinets

My upper cabinets hold my dishes, glassware, and spices. 

For my dishes and glassware, I don’t personally use any kind of organizing tool but I’ve seen the portable shelves used to take advantage of vertical space to store more dishes.

In my spice cabinet, I have a rail system that “Handy” made that goes around the perimeter of the cabinet to hold most of my spices, and then in the center, I have a two-tiered lazy susan for even more items. 

My spice cabinet needs to be decluttered. All spices have an expiration date and I need to go through all of mine. I know there are things I haven’t used in over a year and they need to be tossed. 

Lower Cabinet Organization

Until we remodeled our kitchen my lower cabinets were all open cabinets and they can be tricky because when things move to the back of the cabinet, you forget about them or they are hard to get out.

Using slide-out drawer units can be a lifesaver. They make organizing a cabinet (and keeping it organized) so much easier. 

We only have one standard cabinet in our new kitchen and I have a metal slide-out in. It’s where we store all of our water bottles and plastic cups. 

I’m a huge fan of dividers for things like pot lids, cookie sheets, and baking pans. 

Most of my lower cabinets are deep drawers and I just love them. Nothing ever gets lost in them and I always can see when it’s time to take 5 minutes to reorganize them.

Hidden corners

Many kitchens have a hidden corner where things go to die! I had one in my old kitchen and I usually couldn’t tell you what was back there.

Recently I was asked about how to solve that issue and my best solution is to invest in a blind corner pull-out. They make them in wood or metal. I found this one HERE that looks like a good value for the money. 

Back of Cabinet Doors

The back of a cabinet door is also valuable real estate that can house pot lid holders, towel racks, holders for aluminum foil and wraps, and a spice rack.

They make the most amazing baskets and bins designed specifically for the inside of the cabinet door. 

Open Shelving and Glass Door Cabinets

These two things are a genius way to keep things organized. I have both and why is it that things people can see, I seem to always keep them neat and organized! 

Maybe I should take the doors off all my cabinets??

Something to think about!

Pantry Storage

My pantry which was an Organizing Grand Prize Winner at Taste of Home, is my pride and joy. My pantry shelves stay pretty organized but it’s that time of year when it needs a bit of a going over.

I keep most of my dry goods in labeled glass containers so they look consistent and orderly. I realize that not everyone is going to take the time to take things out of their packages and put them into containers. That’s where bins and baskets become a good option to contain like items together. 

There are several very great storage options for canned goods but all of them are too deep for my pantry so I keep my canned goods organized and stacked with similar items. i.e. tomato products together, soups together, canned vegetables together. 

You can read about how we made the space under our stairs, our pantry, and much-needed storage space – You can find it HERE

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Under the Kitchen Sink

The cabinet under my kitchen sink is somewhat organized but I know there are things in there that I never use. 

It’s time to pitch old products and clean that area well. I have two pull-out shelves under my sink one on the left side of the drain pipe and one on the right. 

If I get rid of some things, the good news is that I will be able to fit cleaning supplies that are in my laundry room and should be in the kitchen. 

While you are organizing, you may see things that you want to change, fix, or purchase.

Start A To-Do List

This will be a very helpful way to get things off your mind and organized in one place, to work on at another time.

There are To-Buy and To-Do printables in the ebook in my FREE Resource Library.

Remember that if you don’t love it or use it * Remove it from your home!

Decluttering is the key to being truly organized.

Being Realistic

It’s important to be realistic. No one’s space and home are always perfect! Organizing your house also doesn’t happen overnight. Many of the people who organize with me have been organizing every February and September.

They are working on one area of their house at a time.

There is always something that needs work in my home and because I have a system, it doesn’t take me long to get things looking much better. 

​I want to share with you a picture of my pantry last week and after I took an hour to straighten it up.

Social Media has created a culture that can make you feel very inadequate. I certainly don’t want to add to that. I think it’s important to show what life looks like in my house, just like everyone else.

Conclusion

I hope this is helpful with some kitchen organizing ideas and tips that you can use in your home to make being in your kitchen more enjoyable.

I cook almost all of our meals so my kitchen gets a workout. When it’s organized, preparing meals is even more enjoyable.

To read about the renovation that completely changed my small kitchen into what it is today – You can find it HERE.

Happy Organizing!

Peace and Love,

P.S. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or want to share some of your favorite organizing tips.

You can also email me Lynn@livinglargeinasmallhouse.com if you have any questions at all. I love mail!

Remember to post on Instagram with the hashtags #livinglargeorganizes.

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