How To Organise Your Kitchen The Right Way

The organised kitchen: everyone wants one, but very few of us have actually pulled it off. The truth is, organising your kitchen isn’t always easy. At least, it wasn’t until now!

We have compiled some of our best kitchen organisation tips to help you get started on your odyssey against kitchen clutter. In our experience, a point in the right direction is all you need to master the kitchen domain and reclaim space you didn’t even know you had.

1. Take inventory

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of your kitchen organisation, you are going to need to take stock of what you have and get rid of things you don’t use anymore. This is always the most interesting part of the project too; often you’ll come across things you had completely forgotten about.

Consider donating or gifting items you don’t want that still work or haven’t been used, and then toss out anything broken! You can do this with food too – donate anything still safe to eat to a local food bank or food drive, compost what you can, and throw away anything else.

You’ll not only get a better idea of what you have on hand, but you’ll also free up plenty of space and potentially save a few dollars on Christmas and birthday gifts!

2. Store things elsewhere

What if, while clearing the space, you come across something broken but sentimental? Or something you use only once in a while, but would still like to have to hand? You might want to look at storing them elsewhere, such as another room in the house.

If you’ve got a lot of non-perishable items that you can’t bring yourself to get rid of, consider looking into a storage unit. Self-storage solutions are ideal for freeing up space and keeping things that you might not use very often but aren’t ready to let go of quite yet.

Try storing things you’re unsure about out of sight for a few months – if you haven’t thought about them or needed them in that time, you might find it easier to let go.

3. Use containers

You’ve likely seen it all over Pinterest and TikTok – rows and rows of clear plastic or glass containers, filled with every snack, ingredient, or garnish you could ever need. You can pop them in your cupboard, your drawers, even the fridge!

The good news is that it’s not just aesthetically pleasing. It’s also a fantastic way to manage your space. By taking items out of the packaging and organising them into a system of matching, labelled containers, everything becomes a little more uniform and can be arranged to make the most of the space.

Plus, you’ll find it much easier to see how much of an item you have and decide when it’s time to buy more. Who wouldn’t want to save time, money, AND space all at once?

4. Group your items

Organisation is all about order; maintaining order in your drawers, cupboards and cabinets is essential. It’s easy too – simply stick to a theme. If you have a drawer for baking utensils, make sure that’s all you keep in there. Ordering everything effectively like this will allow you to access it all easily when you need it and store it again easily when you’re done.

5. Keep track

Once you’ve grouped your items and have found a space to store them, look at ways to display them so that you can actually see what you have. Not only will this make things easy to locate, but you won’t find yourself scrambling to find a potato masher only to end up buying a new one before losing THAT one in the same drawer.

6. Hang items

When you are perusing kitchen organisation tips, you may notice that they have one thing in common: they all start from the ground up. So, what does that mean for you? It basically means you should identify things that occupy the most space and work out how to address them.

Let’s look at mugs, for example. Because of their handles, they are pretty cumbersome items to store. But there is a solution! If you hang mugs using small hooks, you can turn their weakness into their strength. Hanging mugs look great and they open up an abundance of shelf space for you.

If you find you have a similar problem with wine glasses and other stemware, you can find hanging options for them too, freeing up that lower space for other items.

Another hanging solution is to install hooks around the kitchen, below the cupboards. You could hang utensils, tea towels, or even bunches of herbs there – anything you might need often, or that appeals to your aesthetic.

7. Make the most of the space

When it comes to kitchen organisation tips, the best ones always draw on the principles of space utilisation. Kitchens are always full of stuff, so you don’t want any potential storage space going to waste. One area that we often see being underutilised is the space above the range hood. There’s almost always room for another cabinet up there, and every inch of storage space counts!

Another often unused spot is your doors. You can find hanging storage solutions for cupboard doors or even for the kitchen door itself. These are great spots for storing fruit that doesn’t need to be refrigerated, or everyday items like shopping bags and tea towels, and will free up much needed cupboard space.

8. Pull out pantries

We can’t always organise appliances and cabinets perfectly. Often, space utilisation is impeded a little by the actual layout of your kitchen. Although you can’t always easily change the layout of the kitchen, you can work around it. And pull-out pantries are among the best kitchen organisation tips for this. They can slot into even the most narrow of spaces, and they look great.

You can pick one up ready-made or go full DIY and update the space yourself with a project that will fit your needs exactly.

9. Buy your own island

No, we’re not talking about your own secluded billionaire’s paradise in the Caribbean – though that might be nice!

Portable islands are becoming increasingly popular as a way to increase both storage and work surface area. Varying in size and material, they range from relatively inexpensive to top of the range – or you can, of course, make one yourself! A portable tool cart will do the job just as well, especially if you can customise it to suit your space and style.

And the best part is, when you’re not using them, you can simply wheel them out of the way!

10. Think outside the box

Don’t overlook the role of creativity in your kitchen organisation project. Most of the time, the best storage solution is a creative one.

For example, a strategically installed towel rail offers a great hanging space for bulky kitchen items like pans. And with lots of decorative rail styles to choose from, nobody will think twice when they look at yours. Place a few close together and you can even form a makeshift shelf, perfect for storing pots and pans that can’t be hung.

Repurpose an old Lazy Susan and make accessing items in those difficult corner cupboards a breeze. Use an old filing rack to split up and organise your oven and baking trays. Even a shower caddy can find a new lease of life as a kitchen aide – simply hang it on the back of the kitchen door, instead of in the shower!

References

• Brittney Morgan, Kelly Allen, and Medgina Saint-Elien, 2022, “42 Genius Tips (And Products!) for the Most Organized Kitchen Ever”, House Beautiful
• Caitlin Sole, 2022, “25 Clever Ways to Repurpose Household Items for Organization”, Better Homes & Gardens