If you are thinking about spending on a new kitchen or improving your current kitchen, use this time as an opportunity to organize the area. Subtle alterations to your kitchen will tidy it up, consolidate items, and free up space. However, if you are like most people, you are unsure how to organize your kitchen. Between kitchen storage organizers, roll-out trays, spice racks, and beyond, there are different ways to reinforce kitchen organization. Below, we provide helpful tips and tricks that make organizing your kitchen easier. Without further adieu, here is an inside look at how to organize the essential room in your home.

Tip #1: Organize the Kitchen Refrigerator

kitchen organization clean fridge
Kitchen organization can start with a clean fridge. photo: Simply Self Storage

Now that you are on the verge of kitchen installation or enhancing your existing kitchen with a remodel or DIY (do it yourself) cleanup, you must make this part of your home as organized as possible. Let’s start with one of the busiest areas of the kitchen – the refrigerator. The typical refrigerator is in disarray simply because items are often haphazardly tossed inside. Most people do not think carefully about putting items into the fridge as they are hungry or merely trying to keep the cold air inside the fridge.

The best way to tidy up your refrigerator is to position items used front and center for easy access. Group “like items” together throughout the fridge so you know exactly where to look. Try to position the items you use least often in the bottom drawers of the fridge and along the sides. This way, you can quickly and easily access the most popular items from the center portion of the fridge.

Tip #2: Mind Those Cleaning Products

kitchen organization cleaning supplies
Cleaning products are the key to organization and cleanliness. Photo: The Kitchn

Your family members are less likely to make a mess in the kitchen if it is perfectly clean. However, you might forget to clean the kitchen if the cleaning supplies are placed toward the back of a crowded cabinet.
You should store your cleaning products toward the front of the cabinet, so you see them each time you open the door. Furthermore, segment these cleaning products into groups in terms of their unique purposes. This way, when there is a need to clean part of the kitchen, you will be able to quickly and easily identify the cleaning product ideal for the job. Separate the cleaning spray bottles from the sponges, gloves, cloths, and other cleaning rags, and the prospect of cleaning your kitchen won’t be nearly as intimidating.

Tip #3: Use a Cutting Board Organizer

kitchen organization cutting boards
Organize all your cutting boards for ease of access and better storage. Photo: Serious Seats

There is no sense searching throughout your kitchen for the right-sized cutting board when it is possible to group them with an organizing tool conveniently. Cutting board organizers have advanced to the point that they can now accommodate cutting boards as well as cooking sheets, bakeware, pans, and pot lids. Your cutting board organizer will save plenty of space in the kitchen while facilitating access to cutting boards.

In other words, this essential item will make it that much easier to keep your kitchen well-organized. Opt for an organizer with several compartments to group all sorts of different items together inside the unit. These organizers accommodate cutting boards of various sizes as well as baking sheets, pans, lids, etc.

Tip #4: Pots and Pans Storage

kitchen organization pot pan rack
Look Ma! No hands! Photo: Taste of Home

Between roll-out trays that separate pot and pan lids, hanging systems, and beyond, there are all sorts of storage devices available for pots and pans. Plenty of homeowners are partial to hanging pots and pans, as this approach maximizes space while keeping the kitchen organized. In fact, you can make your pots and pans hanging storage device with simple S-hooks and some copper pipe. If you use a roll-out tray to organize and conceal pot and pan lids, you will free up considerable space.

Tip #5: Add a Baking Tray Rack to Your Kitchen

kitchen organization baking tray rack
Talk about multi-purpose!Photo: Well Done Stuff

Wouldn’t it be nice to let your cookies, cupcakes, bread, and other baked items cool on a tray conveniently? Position a cooling tray by the kitchen window, and it will speed up the cooling process. Just as important is that a cooling tray will prevent your baked items from sticking to the baking tray. When not in use for cooling baked items, this tray can also serve other purposes such as drying pots and pans by the sink, roasting vegetables, and washing off produce.

kitchen organization roll-out tray
Roll-out trays can be utilized in both the pantry as well as individual cabinets for more storage. Photo: Medallion Cabinetry

Tip #6: Pantry Organization With Baskets and Pull-out Drawers

Take a moment to think about all the items you have in your pantry. If you live with a significant other or a family, your pantry is filled with salty snacks, sugary sweets, and other sundries. It is effortless for this area to become a complete mess in surprisingly little time.

Organize your pantry with the addition of pull-out drawers and baskets. Similar items should be grouped and placed in such baskets or drawers for easy access. Leave the main shelves available for items you are most likely to use at a high frequency. This approach ensures you do not have to spend your limited free time sorting through a litany of items.

Tip #7: Pull-out tray/Roll-out Trays and Shelves

Roll-out and pull-out trays are the perfect kitchen organization tools. Add these handy items to your kitchen and you will find they de-clutter this vital room of your home. These handy trays enhance accessibility and provide extra storage space.

Use your mind’s eye to envision yourself baking a delicious lasagna in a casserole dish. You pull out a container with your spices and other baking ingredients. These items are organized into similar groups rather than randomly positioned in the cabinet. You then pull out a cutting board from above your silverware drawer and start chopping up the ingredients. It simply does not get more convenient or organized than that.

Tip #8: Make use of a Utensil Organizer

kitchen organization utensil organizer
Sort your forks, spoons, knives, and other eating utensils. Photo: Easy Get Product

If you are like most other homeowners, you have more than your fair share of silverware jumbled together in the silverware drawer. In short, this is not the best approach to maintaining an organized kitchen. Each type of utensil and cookware should be organized with similar types in easily accessible spaces.

It will prove that much easier to keep silverware organized adequately with a utensil organizer. This organizational device empowers you to conveniently position similar types of utensils with one another so you know exactly where to look when you need something specific.

Tip #9: Devise a Plan for the Storage of Essentials

If you are looking for ways to organize kitchen cabinets or searching for ways to arrange kitchen cabinets, you are not alone. Just about everyone has overloaded kitchen cabinets with an abundance of sundries. However, no one seems to be quite sure as to how to consolidate sundries in a logical and orderly manner.

Organizing kitchen cabinets is easier than most assume. Kitchen essentials should be organized into their proper places within wall cabinets and other designated spaces in the kitchen. Cups and glasses should be grouped with one another. Dishes should be on their appropriate shelf space within cabinets and so on.

Designate a storage space for every piece of cookware and dish that range from mixing bowls to pots, pans, and so on. Communicate these storage spaces to your family members and roommates so they know exactly where to put them for easy access. When in doubt, add kitchen cabinet organizers that specify specific spaces for each type of item.

Tip #10: Clean Inside of Cabinets

Keeping the outside clean is important, but the inside is just as, if not more essential. Photo: Signature Maids

Think back to the last time you cleaned out your kitchen cabinets. If you are like most people, you have not cleaned the interior of these cabinets in quite a while. Furthermore, the items within cabinets may not be appropriately grouped. This is your opportunity to position similar items near one another in a logical order.

Be sure to clean the interior and exterior of your kitchen cabinets at least once every couple of months. This way, the dishes and other items you put in your cabinets will remain perfectly clean. Furthermore, you will be that much more confident eating off your plates, knowing they are stored in a well-cleaned cabinet.

Tip #11: Use a Spice Rack

kitchen organization spice rack
Rather than having jars scattered everywhere, use a spice rack to organize them all.
Photo: Crate and Barrel

If you do not have a spice rack in or near your kitchen, you are not alone. You probably have at least half a dozen or more spice bottles in your kitchen. Why bother sorting through these spice containers each time you cook a meal when you can keep them properly organized and easily accessible with a spice rack? Ideally, the spice rack will feature labeling along with a turntable so you can quickly find the spice you are looking for and add it to your dish. Big changes can come in small hacks for kitchen organization

kitchen organization lazy susan
The storage turntable for your storage needs. Photo: Harbor City Supply

Tip #12: Eliminate Counter Clutter With a Miniature Lazy Susan

Do you remember those chic wooden lazy susan tables that were popular in the 70s? The miniature versions of lazy susans have proven quite helpful in kitchens. Add a small lazy susan to your kitchen and put all of your random kitchen sundries onto to reduce clutter.

If you do not want to spend on a lazy susan, put an old cake stand you no longer use on the counter to group your kitchen sundries together in one convenient area. This way, all those items that rarely, if ever, make it off the top of the counter will be consolidated into one space. The best part about lazy susans is they spin around with a flick of the wrist, providing easy access in mere seconds.

Kitchen Organization is Possible

Anyone can utilize kitchen organization with relative ease. You do not have to shell out thousands of dollars or invest dozens of hours in bringing out the best in your kitchen. Save the big bucks for kitchen renovation and construction. Get creative with the organization ideas detailed above your kitchen will be much tidier. Now that we have shown you how to organize your kitchen, it is time for you to “will” your organized kitchen. Implement our tips listed above, and your kitchen really will look and feel that much more organized.