Kitchen Organization 101

An organized home is a functional home. And the heart of your home? The kitchen. Your kitchen is easier to keep clean and organized than you might think. We’ve compiled a list of some simple ways to keep your kitchen space free of clutter and full of space for what you need it for most.

Drawers

There several drawer designs in homes, but the general use remains the same. Use your drawers for smaller items that are used often. A great tip is to put whatever you’re storing close to where it will be used. For example, cooking spoons and spatulas would go by your stove, and silverware by your plates and bowls.

Many homeowners like to use drawers for their spices. This keeps them at an arm’s length when cooking, especially when they’ve been labeled to let you know what you’re reaching for.

Dividers and organizer trays keep like things together and make it easier to stop small objects from getting pushed into corners or underneath other items.

Pizza cutters, can openers, cheese graters, apple peeler and slicer, sifters, straws, food scale, thermometer, and more can all be tucked away into your drawers. Your plastic wrap, storage bags, and aluminum foil fit well into drawers, especially with organizers made for them. This is also a great place to put oven bags so they never get lost when you need them.

As a high-traffic area in the home, the kitchen is one of the best places to have a “junk” drawer: sticky notes, pens, pencils, matches, scissors—commonly used items that often don’t have a place to themselves can fit perfectly into a drawer like this. If you have children, a drawer for them to keep things they use often when they’re in the kitchen or nearby rooms can ensure they are never unprepared.

Cabinets

Your cabinets will keep the majority of your lesser-used appliances and cookware off your countertops. Just like with your drawers, having your cabinets zoned based on location is a great starting point to keeping organized. For example, your pots, pans, and food containers should be closest to your stove and oven.

Appliances you don’t use often, or perhaps use often but don’t want on your counters, are best tucked away in your here. This keeps them handy without unnecessarily taking up space when cooking or doing other work in your home.

Other items to house in your cabinets include: cups, mugs, water bottles, insulated bottles, bowls, plates, storage containers, and baking pans. To make organization easier, you can make the most use of your cabinet space with a cookware organizer, a pan divider, and other organizers based on what you’re planning to store there. You can even get attachments for your cabinet doors to hold the lids to your pots and pans. It can be a good idea to keep cords or chargers for certain appliances within the same cabinet you’re storing it in.

Lastly, if you have windows in your cabinet doors, you can show off your finest China or decorative pieces, since these will be on display from other parts of your home.

Pantry

Heading to your pantry, this is the best place for everything that doesn’t quite have a place in the main part of your kitchen. This is especially great for dry goods like snacks, cereal, and bread, or canned and jarred foods. Restocks or other refills can also find a place to fit here, especially if you utilize any dispensers, bottles, or jars or certain products.

The pantry is the perfect place to hide food, snacks, and more from your kids or pets. Pet food itself is usually kept here as well. Oddly shaped bowls, plates, and mason jars and serving platters can be stored here until the need for them arises.

Storage bins, pantry drawers, and containers will make your organization in this area of your kitchen more streamlined and keep everything in its place.

Refrigerator

Your refrigerator will hold both food waiting to be prepared and your leftovers. It has temperature zones for different foods, drinks, and condiments, which helps take some of the guesswork out of organization. Leftovers and prepared foods should be front and center to ensure they don’t get hidden out of sight. Condiments belong in your door, as this is one of the warmest areas and offers quick and easy access. Similarly to the rest of your kitchen, keeping like things together, such as dressings, will make finding what you’re looking for instant. Anything with a short shelf life should be organized toward the front, while foods that can keep longer can be put farther back.

Your vegetables, fruits, and meats should be organized into your drawers, which provide proper temperature control and humidity. Lower, colder drawers are for your meats, while fruits and vegetables belong in your crisper drawers. Crisper drawers, also called humidity drawers, usually offer temperature control or a way to adjust humidity levels, allowing to produce to stay fresher, longer. High humidity drawers mean that the vent is closed, preventing airflow; this is great for your thin-skin or leafy veggies. Low humidity drawers, meanwhile, have the vent open. This is perfect for fruits that emit high levels of ethylene, which would cause them to ripen more quickly than they can be eaten.

If your refrigerator has no humidity controls, prioritize your thin-skin and leafy vegetables. You can get bins for your high humidity drawers that have vents for the produce that wants low humidity. Ethylene-emitting fruits can also go elsewhere in your fridge if there are no other options.

If drawer space is sparse in your fridge, meats should always be placed on bottom shelves. This will stop any leakage contaminating your other foods.

Check the heights of your shelves and drawer size—this will impact what items will fit and what other types of storage will work best to increase efficiency within. Depending on the size of your refrigerator, to make the most of the space you have, you might try:

• Tiered shelving
• Food containers
• Turntables
• Refrigerator mats
• Drink organizers

One of the most important things to remember about keeping your refrigerator organized is to clean any messes as you encounter them. This will make more thorough cleanup easier in the future, and make sure nothing you take out has any mystery residue on it. Avoid food waste by cataloguing what’s there and what’s not, ensuring you don’t overstock on food or overfill your fridge.

Each kitchen and household has different needs, so it’s important to use this advice as a guideline to help find what works for you and gets your kitchen in the working condition that you want and need. We hope this helps keep the clutter down and the cooking good.

Outgoing links are not sponsored. Their inclusion is for illustrative purposes only.