Finding what you need in your kitchen drawers can be a nightmare. Messy drawers can turn a simple kitchen task into a stressful ordeal, but it doesn't need to be that way. With the right items to organize kitchen drawers, everything you need will be easily accessible.
When you have just a couple of kitchen drawers to organize, it's relatively simple. But, when your kitchen has a larger number of drawers than average, including several deep drawers, you must find creative ways to make use of the space.
Before you start organizing your kitchen drawers, have a clear-out. We all have those wonky utensils with broken handles that we're holding onto just in case, but now's the time to get rid of them. Sort through your drawers and get rid of unnecessary duplicates (no, you don't need five lemon zesters), broken items and anything that you never use. Anything you don't need can be donated, recycled or thrown in the garbage, depending on its condition and what it's made from.
Shallow kitchen drawers are most commonly used to hold utensils and other small items, such as baking paper, food bags and cloths for cleaning and drying. However, with the right organizational solutions, you can make the most of the space and keep your drawers neat with everything inside easy to see and access.
Utensil organizers sit in your drawers with a range of compartments to hold different pieces of flatware and larger utensils. Expandable options, like the Pipishell Bamboo Expandable Drawer Organizer, help you make the most of the space in your drawers by expanding to their full width. That said, you still might not find you have enough space in one drawer for all your flatware plus your larger utensils. In this case, you can maximize space by using a compact cutlery organizer for your knives, forks and spoons alongside a larger organizer for your bigger utensils, like spatulas, whisks, ladles and wooden spoons.
If you find that the convenience of pod coffee is hindered by having to rummage around for the flavor or coffee type that you want, consider turning one of your drawers into a coffee pod drawer with the help of the right organizer. The Polar Whale Coffee Pod Storage Organizer comes in a range of sizes to fit most drawers. It's a breeze to use — simply fit your coffee pods into the recesses provided and you'll easily be able to read the pod type off the lid. No more searching through messy drawers full of loose coffee pods.
When you don't have space for a spice rack or prefer to keep a clutter-free countertop, where do you keep your spices? Although you can keep them in cabinets, it's hard to access the back rows of herbs and spices and you can easily forget what you've got in there. Instead, use a drawer spice organizer, like the Lynk 4 Tier Steel Spice Tray Drawer Organizer. It's expandable between roughly 14 and 26 inches wide and can hold four rows of jarred herbs and spices. It fits any drawers that are at least 3.25 inches deep, 16.5 inches long and 13.25 inches wide. This is a great way to store spices since you can easily see and access each jar.
Deep kitchen drawers give you more space to work with, yet they can feel less versatile and not all that useful without the right organizational items. Sure, they're big enough to fit pots, pans, plates and bowls, but you often need to stack them awkwardly, making things hard to access and leaving them looking messy. Luckily, you can find plenty of options to help you organize your kitchen drawers.
The trouble with storing things in deep kitchen drawers is that you need to stack thinner items, like plates and baking sheets, on top of one another. This allows you to fit more in each drawer but makes it tricky to access anything not at the top of the pile, taking more time to find what you need and resulting in messy drawers. When you use drawer dividers, however, you can make individual compartments to store items upright, rather than stacked. It makes it much easier to grab what you need without rummaging through your drawers and keeps your drawers looking neater since you won't be constantly moving items around inside them.
Peg systems — such as the Rev-A-Shelf Wood Peg Board System for Deep Drawers — consist of a base that sits in the bottom of a drawer that has a series of holes in it, into which you can fit the included pegs and other attachments. The standard pegs are great for organizing drawers to better fit mugs and crockery, while you can also buy additional metal attachments to easily stack pots and pot lids, though this is also possible with the standard pegs. They're great for making the most of the space in deep drawers and come in a range of sizes, so you can select one to best fit the dimensions of your kitchen drawers.
Use storage bins to create a produce drawer for fruits and vegetables that don't need storing in the fridge, such as potatoes, onions and avocados. These bins keep different items of produce separate and allow you to more easily store piles of product that don’t typically stack. This is a great way to utilize space if you have an unused deep drawer, freeing up space in your cabinets or on the countertop. You can also use them to store any other small items that you don't use often or haven't found a better way to organize.
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Lauren Corona writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
