These kitchen organization ideas are focused on maximizing space and finding storage solutions for all of your kitchen needs – from pots and pans to food storage bags. Great ideas if your kitchen is a cluttered mess!
Mount small shelves to outside of cabinets
These small, narrow shelves are a great way to maximize your storage space, and they’re perfect for holding frequently used spices.
A post shared by Debbie Sandler | Cleaning, Organizing, Home Tips (@alifebetterorganized)
Use shelf risers and cabinet baskets for extra storage
Maximize your cabinet space with a few handy organizers. These shelf risers can hold extra dishes and make different sized plates easier to get to. Or use under shelf baskets to store oddly-shaped dishes, water bottles, or cups.
A post shared by Jen Watson | Cleaning, Organizing, Home Tips & more. (@organizedandsimplified4u)
Repurpose office supplies for kitchen organization
- Magazine File Holders – Great for beautifully storing your past issues of Better Homes and Gardens, but also great for plastic water bottles, aluminum foil/saran wrap boxes, and canned vegetables. Buy a few magazine holders and line them up in your pantry for chic storage.
- Letter Sorters – Great for odd shaped, bulky kitchen tools. Find inexpensive letter sorters at thrift stores or garage sales, or buy organizers like the one pictured below to neatly store baking sheets, muffin tins, and cutting boards.
- Binder Clips – Use binder clips to clip together small seasoning packets (ranch mixes, taco seasoning, etc). Then hang the clipped-together packets on a command hook in the pantry. Office binder clips also make great chip clips!
- 3 Ring Binders – Organize recipes that you’ve torn out of magazines using tabbed dividers for different courses or cuisines. Or grab a cheap 3-ring binder and these recipe binder printables to create your own organized recipe book!
Use drawer dividers for food storage bags
Having lots of different food storage bags can take up valuable space in your kitchen drawers or cabinets, especially if you have all of the sizes: snack, sandwich, quart, gallon, freezer, etc. Instead of keeping the bags in the boxes that they come in, try this simple kitchen organizing idea with drawer dividers:
A post shared by Amanda Clark*Professional Orange County Organizer (@eversoorganized)
Organize spices into matching bottles
Use chalkboard labels and uniformly sized jars and canisters to take your spice cabinet from cluttered chaos to Martha-approved.
From Making Manzanita
Use insides of cabinet doors for storage
Think outside the box of your cabinets and drawers. Use the TON of space on the inside side walls, door backs, and the easily forgotten baseboards. These spots are valuable, and often overlooked, areas to hold kitchen necessities.
A post shared by Mariya – Chaos Cleared® LLC (@chaoscleared)
Make extra space in the baseboards
Maximizing your kitchen storage space is all about using every square inch of space – whether inside your cabinet doors, or even underneath your cabinets. This DIY toe-kick drawer is super handy for storing large, flat items like baking sheets or cutting boards.
Organize kitchen utensils and pots with pegboard
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but pegboard is having a moment. Usually reserved for retail stores or home garages, pegboard is crossing over to the world of kitchen organization also. And, why not?! Look how cute and handy it is for large and awkward items that take up a lot of cabinet space. And the greatest thing is, you can get cute baskets and hooks to customize it to your own needs.
Use storage bins and baskets for kitchen organization
Be on the lookout for any and all plastic, wire, or wicker baskets on sale. Then grab some cute labels (chalkboard stickies, decals, etc) and you’ve got cute pantry organization. You can even make your own DIY storage basket labels!
A post shared by Amy Wopperer | Professional Home Organizer (@simplifybuffalo)
Organize frequently used items on countertop trays
Decluttering kitchen counters is one of the most difficult jobs when it comes to organizing your kitchen, especially if you don’t have a ton of storage space. I like to corral frequently used cooking items like salt, pepper, garlic powder, and olive oil on a small tray to keep on the counter. That way, these ingredients are easy to access but still neatly organized together.
Transfer dry goods to matching jars
Flour, sugar, oats, beans… anything that comes in a bag can be taken out of its original packaging and organized in uniform jars or containers.
From Little House Living
From Living Sweet Moments
The same goes for dish soap and hand soap. Mismatched “Dawn” and “Softsoap” bottles can look messy. Take a cue from Small Stuff Counts and make these DIY soap dispensers to give your kitchen sink a more uniform and organized look.
From Small Stuff Counts
Organize the refrigerator with plastic bins
Refrigerator bins
are great for organizing random condiments, snacks, and other items that can make your fridge looked cluttered and messy. You can even use clear acrylic turn-table organizers to access dressings and smaller bottles easily.
Hang pots, pans, lids, and cooking utensils from a towel bar
Free up lots of cabinet space by hanging bulky items like pots, pans, and cooking utensils on a towel rack. Plus, with this storage solution your most used kitchen tools can be easily in reach. Just mount a sturdy towel bar, or buy hanging kitchen rail organizers, and grab some S-hooks for this easy kitchen organization hack!
Organize your plastic grocery bags
If under your kitchen sink looks anything like mine, you could supply your local grocery store with bags for the next few weeks. We use our grocery bags as liners for small trash cans, and with two kids, we go through a lot of them. If you do the same thing, keep your grocery bags neat and tidy with a simple grocery bag organizer that mounts to the inside of your cabinet.
Add a stove shelf for extra storage
Don’t forget about the often overlooked area over your stove top. Buy a stylish shelf made specifically for this area, or DIY one from wood and mount to the wall to store frequently used spices and oils.
Create other organizing systems to declutter the kitchen
Our kitchen ended up being the drop zone for backpacks, purses, mail, hats, shoes, etc…. until I got my husband to build me this DIY mudroom wall! Keep your kitchen nice and organized by having a designated area for items that are usually just dropped in the kitchen.
Adjust the shelves in your cabinets to maximize space
If your cabinets have adjustable shelves, take the few extra minutes to adjust them to the right height for your stuff. You will maximize space by minimizing the amount of wasted space above your dishes, cups, etc.
Organize kitchen knives on a wall strip
Free up valuable drawer and countertop space with a magnetic knife strip like these. Just be sure to install it somewhere that is out of the reach of little ones.
And there you have it… some of the best kitchen organization ideas to try right now if your kitchen is a hot mess. *And after you get your kitchen organized, be sure to grab my free printable kitchen cleaning checklists to get your space neat and tidy!
If you feel stressed out just thinking about the state of your kitchen, then try out some of these tips to organize the clutter. And, I’d love to hear your best kitchen organization ideas! Leave me a comment below and let’s exchange ideas so we can all get off the hot mess kitchen express! 🙂
