Follow our best tips on how to organize the kitchen and you will never have to feel exhausted and stressed when meal prepping!
Do you find yourself feeling exhausted already the moment you enter the kitchen to prepare a meal?
Have you ended up wasting money buying items that you already have simply because you could not find them?
Do you wish you had a bigger kitchen with all the extra storage space so you can just hide all the clutter behind drawers and cabinets?
If you are finding yourself answering “yes” to these questions, then it’s about time to start implementing a more organized system to make your kitchen work more efficiently for you!
But how do you start?
Let me tell you this – it will not be as easy as you think and it will definitely eat up a lot of your time but I assure you that it is very possible to have a tidy and organized kitchen!
Here are some handy tips and tricks to help you!
How to Organize the Kitchen
Let’s organize your kitchen, step by step!
1. Pull out and declutter.
The very first thing you should do is to declutter!
Pull out everything in your kitchen. I know this will just make a bigger mess but hear me out – you need to see everything that you own to get an idea of what you are working with.
To do so, you have to go through every item and do a declutter. Categorize these items into three groups: keep, donate, or toss.
Once you are through with the declutter, set aside the ones you plan to donate and dispose of the items that can no longer be saved. Now, you have the keep section left to deal with!
2. Clean
Take advantage of the fact that everything is out of your drawers and cabinets. Give your kitchen a nice cleaning!
This will make you feel like you are working on a whole new and fresh kitchen once you start returning the items to their places. And I must say, it’s a good feeling!
Clean all cabinets and drawers. Line them up with paper or cork linings so that the next time you do a general cleaning, all you have to do is replace those linings. It’s much easier!
Place scented sachets on the far corners of your kitchen cabinets to keep them smelling nice. But if what you want is only something that can absorb bad odors but odorless, fill sachets with baking soda instead of scented dried herbs.
3. Do the zoning method
Now before you start returning those on your keep pile, define the zones in your kitchen first. Grab a notepad and write down the items that should belong in each zone.
For instance, zone 1 will be cooking and you place items that you use underneath it such as pots and pans. Zone 2 will be preparation where you place items like cutting boards and knives. Zone 3 can be cleaning where you place down your cleaning items.
When you’re done with your list, gather these items by zones, and then start arranging them.
4. Move things out of the room.
For things that do not belong in the kitchen, keep them out of the room.
A lot of items can end up in the kitchen because it is usually the first place our household go to when they arrive home. As a result, they end up leaving their things there too like school bags, letters and paper works, and even keys!
Find a designated space for these items near the entryway of your home. This way, your family can simply dump their belongings there and show up in the kitchen empty-handed.
Another thing you should keep out of the room? Items that you barely use.
I am talking about items like your Wedding China set or souvenir cups and mugs. Either donate them or display them in a cabinet out of the kitchen. This will give you more storage space for the things that you actually use.
5. Position your kitchen items smartly.
Now that you know which items belong where, it is time to think smart about how you position them.
When it comes to positioning, always think about easy access – easily get what you need.
Here are some of the best tips!
- On using shelves and cabinets: Put the items that you don’t regularly use on the top shelves. Then place those that you use all the time in the lower shelves.
- On your cooking tools: Place them near the stove.
- When it comes to food storage, keep it near the fridge or near your kitchen island.
- Put your cleaning materials under the sink.
Again, always think about easy access.
More Tips on How to Organize Everything in the Kitchen
Here’s how to organize the usual things that you will find in your kitchen!
Kitchen appliances
Bring out the ones that you use every day.
For the heavy and bulky appliances, it is best to store these items in the lower cabinets for safety purposes. And for those that you only use for special occasions, store them away. These can even be in a separate room.
Doing this will help lessen the items in your kitchen countertops. Fewer items on the countertops means that you have more than enough space for preparing meals. Plus, this makes even a small kitchen look bigger.
Pantry
Just like the appliances, easy access is also the main goal here.
Categorize your food items. Apply zoning too! Have baking products on one shelf, chips on one shelf, cereals and oats on one shelf, and so on.
Also check the expiration dates. Keep all food items with a closer expiration date upfront so that you easily see them and get to use them immediately! For a detailed discussion on pantry organization, visit our post – How to Organize the Pantry.
Coffee and tea
Coffee and tea come in a lot of varieties and most of these items come in small packets that could spread around in your kitchen cabinets.
Keep these items in a basket or clear plastic container on the countertop, beside the coffee maker and water heater.
Position these items on the far edge of your countertop so that when anybody wants to grab a cup of coffee, it’s so easy to get one, and you will not also be disturbed when you’re prepping or cooking.
Bar items
Bar items like wine, alcoholic drinks, wine glasses, beer mugs do take valuable kitchen storage space.
If you have the space, install a “mini-bar” in the living room instead. Simply get a cabinet with a countertop or a rolling kitchen island for that purpose.
Cleaning supplies
As mentioned earlier, cleaning supplies are usually stored under the sink. If you have pets or small children in the house, consider putting a lock on that cabinet for childproofing.
If you do not have storage space under the sink, store your cleaning supplies in a cabinet above the sink. Just make sure that you never store cleaning supplies and food items on the same shelf.
If a cabinet has more than one shelf, the cleaning supplies should always be on the bottom shelf in case of spills or leaks.
Consider investing in uniform, clear containers.
What makes kitchen items hard to arrange is because they come in different sizes. If you have the budget, invest in uniform and clear containers so that you can easily arrange and stack the items in your cabinet. You can easily find these containers at Amazon, in the dollar store and in container stores.
The best thing about having clear containers is that you immediately see your stock when you open the cabinet or pantry doors.
Invest in organizing products.
You can double up your storage space when you have organizing products such as racks, stackable drawers, lazy Susans, tension rods and baskets! These items can help you maximize your storage space and most of them are incredibly cheap too.
I have seen a lot of tiny kitchens that can store so much more because their owners invested in space-saving organizing products. These could easily work for you and make your life a whole lot easier too!
Assign a home for everything
You probably know by now that the most important part of keeping things organized is that there is a designated home for every item. Otherwise, you will end up with a junk drawer for the items that do not “belong.”
And this is true for every room in the home, not just in the kitchen.
So once you start arranging your kitchen items, find a spot for everything and make sure that everything gets returned to its rightful place after it is used.
Declutter and clean regularly.
When you already have a well-arranged and organized kitchen, I bet you will start feeling proud and eager to start cooking!
Just remember that the job does not end there. You still have to maintain this organized arrangement so that it stays this way longer.
The only way to do this is to make it a habit to declutter and clean your kitchen. Many homemakers do this every two to three months, but you can go more or less than that, depending on what’s needed in your kitchen.
It’s a good practice not only to keep things neat and tidy all the time but also to purge your food supply of expired products.
Enjoy your kitchen!
The kitchen is one of the most used rooms in the house so it is understandable if things can get chaotic in there. So don’t be too hard on yourself. Enjoy cooking in your kitchen!
Just don’t tolerate it being a mess all the time – after all, the kitchen is the place where you prepare your food, and we both know it’s not fun when we can’t find what we need.
But with these tips on how to organize the kitchen, I am confident that you will end up with a better looking and more functional kitchen that you can really enjoy!
Looking for more kitchen organization tips? Check these out!
- 51 Clever Storage Hacks to Maximize Small Kitchens
- How to Organize Kitchen Cabinets : 26 Smart Storage Tips You Can Start Today
- Life-Changing Pantry Organization Ideas
Need to declutter your kitchen? Download our FREE printable checklist!
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Hello! I liked the advice about keeping the cleaning supplies under the sink so as to separate them from food. As part of a cleaning service company you can never trust 100% that your cleaning supplies won’t spill all over the cabinet so it’s best to play safe here.
Thank you for the article!