Every household uses its kitchen differently. Some people cook elaborate and lavish meals regularly, while some opt for quick and efficient meal prep. However you use your kitchen, you can reduce stress and clutter, as well as save energy by organizing your kitchen to work for you, rather than against you.
With food, appliances, cooking utensils, food storage containers, cutting boards, glassware and more, there’s a lot to balance when organizing your kitchen. The key to wrangling the chaos is considering what you have, how you typically use your kitchen and optimize your space’s layout to suit your needs.
Stop spending half an hour searching for your garlic press and create a more chic and pleasant environment with a bit of planning and some budget-friendly kitchen storage and organization solutions.
Store the utensils you consistently use, such as tongs, spatulas and wooden stirring spoons, where you use them the most — likely around the stove.
Place your utensils in a utensil caddy or a drawer near your stove. This way, you won’t have to reach across hot food or walk to the other side of the kitchen while cooking.
You can place essential kitchen tools that see slightly less use, like your vegetable peeler, potato masher, can opener or garlic press, in a drawer.
Store spices in a cabinet you can easily access while cooking, such as near the stove, but not directly over the stove. The heat from cooking causes spices to lose their flavor more quickly. You also shouldn’t keep your spices in a countertop spice holder. You should store dried spices in a cool, dry place outside of direct sunlight.
To organize your spices in a cabinet and make them easy to see and grab as you cook, invest in a tiered spice rack. Store your most-used spices at the front of the rack and the ones you use less often further back for ease of access.
If your pantry is a chaotic zone of random packets of oatmeal, extra bottles of condiments and toppled boxes of pasta, it’s time to reclaim your space.
The key to an organized pantry is for everything to have a clearly marked, distinct place to live. Pantry items can quickly become jumbled and crowded together, so the best way to keep everything neat and organized is to line your pantry shelves with baskets.
These wooden baskets are especially aesthetically appealing. If you have many different kinds of products in your pantry or share your pantry with multiple members of your household, it may be more practical for you to invest in wire baskets to keep everything visible. Wire baskets make it easy to see what you have and what you need to restock and can hold everything from canned goods to dry goods to produce like garlic or potatoes.
Keep products like rice, oatmeal, nuts and flour organized in large glass jars to save space and create a cohesive look in your pantry.
Label all of your jars with their contents. Create separate shelves for breakfast foods, canned goods, rice/pasta dishes, baking ingredients and snacks.
Are you tired of searching for the correct size food storage container every time you need to store leftovers only to trigger an avalanche of lids? The first step to taming your storage containers is to take inventory of your collection. Pull every meal prep item you own out of the cabinets and lay your whole collection out on the floor. Throw away any containers with lots of stains and cracks or with ill-fitting or missing lids.
Next, find a designated cabinet for your food storage containers. Decide if you want to store your containers with the lids attached (such as if you have a stacking food container collection) or if you’ll keep them in one stack and the lids separately. Purchase a lid organizer tray that allows you to divide and separate your lids by size and shape and store them upright to avoid your food storage devolving into chaos.
To keep your kitchen feeling open and organized, it’s generally best to keep your counters as clear as possible. Clean, bare countertops make a kitchen feel very neat, so most items should live inside a drawer or cabinet. This includes appliances like blenders, toaster ovens and food processors. If you don’t use it every day, stow it away.
You’ll likely want to keep some items on your counter, depending on how you use your kitchen. To keep your countertops looking polished and organized, ensure that anything you save on your counter has a designated spot.
Keep your cooking essentials, like salt and pepper, vinegar and olive oil on a wooden turntable or tray to keep them accessible and tidy.
Keep fruits in a produce bowl, or take advantage of vertical space and get them off the counter by placing them in a hanging fruit basket.
To create a polished look, add a few canisters of dry goods like pasta, rice and legumes on your counter. Pick canisters that double as decor and accentuate the other tones in your kitchen, such as canisters with wood or silver lids.
Tame your kitchen sink area by moving your sponge, scrubber and dish soap into a tray next to the sink.
If making a cup of coffee or tea in the morning requires pulling the items you need from all corners of your kitchen, then you’re starting your day stressed. Simplify your routine by creating a coffee and tea station.
Store tea bags in a tea organizer and recycle the boxes they come in to save space and beautify your collection.
Transfer your coffee into a container to keep it fresh, like a coffee canister.
This three-tier shelf will keep everything you use to make your coffee neat and on display. Store filters and stirring spoons and sugar on the shelves, and store your coffee maker and electric kettle below to create a functional station. Hang your mugs nearby on a mug tree.
Without a designated place for the items in your kitchen, items will become strewn across the counters or stuffed into random junk drawers. Therefore, you must consider everything you keep in your kitchen and make sure you’ve accounted for where you’ll store it.
Inside drawers, keep items tidy and organized by utilizing bamboo drawer organizers. Add one to each drawer in your kitchen to ensure no drawer devolves into a junk drawer.
Are random corners in your kitchen stuffed with plastic bags you’re planning to reuse? Take those bags out from under the sink and place them in a bag dispenser to keep them organized and available for use when you need them.
If you have available wall space in your kitchen, hang up some floating shelves above your counters to free up space and store mugs and extra dishes, utensils, cookbooks and plants.
Cooks Standard Wall Mounted Wooden Pot Rack
You can add charm to your kitchen, free up cabinet storage space and make your pots easily accessible with a hanging pot rack.
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Home Styles Off-White Kitchen Cart with Stainless Steel Cart
Add storage space with a rolling kitchen cart. This cart fits nicely next to a stove or counter and provides storage for everything from mixing bowls to spices to fruits and vegetables.
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Over The Sink Dish Drying Rack
If you wash dishes by hand and don’t have space on your counter for a large drying rack, this over-the-sink drying rack makes excellent use of vertical space in your kitchen and makes doing the dishes more efficient. Store plates, bowls and glasses on top and store the supplies you use for cleaning below.
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Evelyn Waugh writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
