How To Organize Kitchen Cabinets

Our kitchen cabinets are used for everything! Spices, dishes, canned goods, bowls, pots, medicine, and the list could go on. And for that reason it’s so easy for them to get out of control!

Having well organized cabinets will make your time in the kitchen a more pleasant one. You’ll be able to focus more on your family or guests, as you should be doing!

7 Easy Steps On How To Organize Your Kitchen Cabinets

Empty Your Cabinets

As you pull each item out this would be a perfect time to organize them into categories. Also check to see if anything is expired or old and toss them. Clean off your shelving and add liners if you haven’t already. If you have any food in containers, empty, clean, and refill them.

Map out kitchen

Now that you have everything sorted and cleaned, look at what you have versus how much  actual storage is in your kitchen. Could you combine certain items together to make more room for others? Could you reduce how many bowls and “lonely” lids you may have? 

Depending on the size of your kitchen, if you are the artistic type you can map out what you want, where, on paper. Or a little hack to organize kitchen cabinets, you can write on painters tape to label what you want where. You can easily peel off the tape once you put everything back in.

Make use of vertical space

Vertical space is so underrated because most of us don’t know how to use it. When it comes to your kitchen cabinets you can adjust shelves to put taller items or stack shorter ones on top of each other. You can add shelf maximizers, pan or pot lid racks, or store items on their side like a baking pan. A lazy susan or even a tiered lazy susan will really maximize vertical space.

Be creative

Think outside of the box! For example, you may not have enough cabinets but extra drawer space. If you can’t put your spices in the cabinet use a spice rack to layer them in your drawers. You can get a spice rack made specifically for drawers, online or at your local store. They come in all sizes and some are even expandable. And depending on the size of your drawers you can even put your pots, pans, and plates in them to free up your cabinets.

Another hack is if you need extra drawer space, you can buy mason jars or any other small utensil holder and put your cutlery on the counter. 

Put heavier items on the bottom

There is nothing more depressing than to open up your cabinet to see your shelves bowing in the middle. I know the feeling. To prevent that from happening always put your heavier items on the bottom shelf. Put your most used items either in front or the very next shelf up for quick access.

Organize by zones

“Organizing by zones” or “by activity” allows you to know where everything is at without having to go searching for it. This is my favorite part of the process. This is where you can add your personal touch and be more strategic.

If you have a coffee maker or nook, be sure to put your coffee cups above it. If you have a drawer below it add your coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or whatever else you enjoy drinking. 

Put your spices in a cabinet near the stove for easy access. Put your most used cups, plates and bowls in a cabinet nearest to the refrigerator. 

Now you have created your own personal flow in your kitchen.

Use storage containers/organizers

No, you don’t “have” to use containers to have an organized kitchen. Depending on what you use your cabinets for there are some benefits in doing so. The efficiency is worth the extra effort. 

For example, if you want to restock your cabinets full of cans one by one, go ahead. But wouldn’t it be easier to have a bin where you can store all your cans by kind and by date and easily maneuver them? You won’t have to take the unnecessary time, to pull out every can in order to put your older cans in the front and newer ones in the back.

You can put them in clear bins so that you can see them and easily push them forward to restock. This will keep your cabinets from looking cluttered and cut down on how much you overbuy at the store since you will know what you have.

One of my favorite cabinet organizers is a seasoning packet organizer because I can use it for other things.

I hope that these 7 tips on how to organize kitchen cabinets helps.