How To Organize Just About Everything

Do your dishes and cups come tumbling out when you open your kitchen cabinets? If it's time to reorganize, you've come to the right place. The best way to figure out how to organize your kitchen is to think about how you use it. What items do you find yourself using every day, and which ones get shoved to the back of the cabinets? Toss out items you can do without and focus on making your cabinets functional, clean and attractive. Once you've organized your cabinets, you'll look forward to cooking in your kitchen again.

1

Remove everything from your cabinets. It's easiest to tackle an organization project when you're starting with a clean slate, and organizing kitchen cabinets is no exception. Go ahead and take out every last bit of kitchenware – your plates, glasses, mugs, pots, pans, and anything else you have stored in your cabinets. Lay everything out on your kitchen table so you can assess what you've got and what you need.^[1]
2
Decide what you can do without. You might have a collection of plastic cups you've picked up from restaurants, a dwindling pile of paper plates, an old coffee maker that no longer works, and so on. Now is the time to pare down your kitchen items to the items that you actually use. Getting rid of clutter will make it much easier to stay organized.^[2]
- If you discover that you actually need something, go ahead and buy it before you organize your cabinets. If you wait, it will be more difficult to find a good place for it later.
- Consider donating old kitchen supplies to a donation center, or having a yard sale to unload your wares. Knowing that your old items are going to a new home instead of a landfill may make it easier to get rid of the stuff you no longer need.
3
Clean the cabinets from top to bottom. Gather some good cleaning supplies and prepare to scrub every nook and cranny as well as wiping down the cabinet doors. Clean out all the crumbs, dried splashes and dust to get your cabinets ready for your dishes and other kitchen supplies. Cleaning your cabinets thoroughly will prevent bugs from taking up residence and keep your kitchen items fresh.
- If you prefer not to use a chemical cleaner, try using a solution of white vinegar diluted with a little water. This natural cleaning agent works well to clean kitchen cabinets. If you need a scrubbing agent, baking soda does the trick.
- If your cabinets are made from unpainted wood, take care to use cleaning supplies that won't damage them.
4
Line the cabinets with paper or cork linings. Fresh cabinet linings will help eliminate old odors and create a nice space for your kitchen supplies. You can choose among paper, vinyl, or rubber liners that come in a myriad of textures and patterns.
- Measure your cabinet floors and cut the liners to size, then insert them in the bottom of the cabinets.
- Some liners come with adhesive backings to help them stay in place on the cabinet floors.
5
Place sachets in the corners to keep your cabinets fresh. Scented sachets are useful to keep your cabinets smelling nice. Pick out a few of your favorite dried herbs and spices, such as lavender, rose petals or cinnamon sticks. Place the herbs and spices in small cloth bags tied or sewn securely at the top. Replace the sachets every few months, when their scent is no longer as fresh.
- Certain herbs and spices can be used to deter insects. Try sachets scented with eucalyptus, tea tree oil, or lemon oil to keep pests away.
- If you want to absorb bad odors without using a fragrance, place sachets filled with baking soda in your cabinet corners.
6
Buy organizers for smaller kitchen items. Now that your cabinets are clean and lined, it's time to think about how you might want to organize your items inside the cabinets. It's not completely necessary to buy organizers, but if you have a lot of little kitchen gadgets they can help to reduce clutter and keep things in their place.^[3] Consider buying the following items for your cabinets:
- A utensil organizer. Some kitchen drawers have built-in organizers for utensils, but many don't. If your drawer doesn't have one, it's worth picking one up for a few dollars.
- Teacup or coffee cup hooks. Many people install hooks under cabinets that overhang countertops as a way to store coffee cups, mugs, or teacups. Consider this option if you're a big coffee drinker and you want to have your cups easily accessible. This is also a nice idea if you have a pretty set of cups you want to put on display.
- Canisters for dry goods and other items. If you store flour, sugar, spices, and other food items in your kitchen cabinets (as opposed to using a separate pantry), you might want sturdy food containers. Choose containers with tight-fitting lids to keep insects and airflow out.

1
Lay out the items you plan to store. Arrange everything in stacks according to type. When you organize your kitchen cabinets, it makes sense to group like items together. That way everything is easier to locate, and you know how many clean items you have left and when you're getting low on a particular item.^[4]
- Group your glassware together, including water glasses, juice glasses, and other everyday glasses.
- Group your stemware together, including wine and champagne glasses. You might also want to store tumblers in the same space.
- Group your plates and bowls. Many people stack their salad plates on top of their dinner plates to save a little space. Group your bowls together as well.
- Separate fine china and seasonal items.
- If you have cabinets with glass faces, consider which dishes you want to store so they are visible. Your dishes can be both decorative and functional.
2
Place dishes you use most often in accessible cabinets. Assess which items you use on a daily basis and pick a large, accessible cabinet to store them in. You probably want to choose a cabinet that is located over the counter, rather than below it, so you won't have to bend over to reach the dishes you need most often. If your cabinets have multiple shelves, place your frequently used items on the bottom.^[5]
- Your dinner plates, salad plates, and cereal bowls probably fall into the "daily use" category. Go ahead and stack them neatly in the cabinet you have chosen.
- If you don't have room for large plates, you can use a dish drying rack as a plate rack on your counter.
- In a separate accessible cabinet, store your water glasses, coffee cups, mugs, and other items you use every day.
3

Store fine china and fragile items higher up. Upper cabinets or top shelves of cabinets are the place to store items you want to keep safe. Your nicer china, stemware, fragile casserole and serving dishes, and other such items should be carefully arranged higher up, out of easy reach.^[6]
4
Stack pots and pans in lower cabinets near the stove. Everyone's kitchen is different, but in many cases the lower cabinets (below the counters) are perfect for pot and pan storage. These items are often heavy and clumsy to stack, so it makes sense to store them slightly more out of the way and in a place where you won't have to lift them too high. Place the pots and pans you use most often in the lower cabinets that are easiest to reach. Place pots and pans you use less often on the lowest shelves or toward the back of the cabinets.^[7]
- You might find it easier to organize your pots using a pot rack you can hang on the wall next to your cabinets. This prevents you from having to stack them.
- Some people place pots on top of the cabinets themselves. If your cabinets don't reach the ceiling, you can consider the cabinet tops a suitable storage area.
5

Organize utensils in a flat utensil drawer. Place your utensil organizer in one of the wide, flat kitchen drawers that is most easily accessible. Arrange your utensils so that the forks, spoons and knives are each kept separate.

1

Find a place for appliances. Appliances you use every day should probably be kept on the kitchen counter, but you may have other occasionally-used items – a waffle iron, a juicer, a food processor, and so on - that you need to store in a cabinet. Place them in an out-of-the-way shelf or on top of the cabinets. You'll be able to get them when you need them, but they won't be in your way.
2
Store food in its own cabinet. If you plan to have a food and spice cabinet, choose a space that's slightly separate from the rest of your kitchen supplies. It wouldn't do to have cereal and spices spilling out onto clean dishes, so you want to make sure food items have their own designated area.^[8]
- You could also have a separate spice cabinet. Extracts, herbs, and other small items also have a place here. It all depends on what you like to use when you cook, and what you prefer to have within easy reach.
- You may choose instead to have a spice drawer. If this is the case, line the drawer well with a disposable liner that you can switch out when it gets soiled with stray spices. Set up your spice containers inside the drawer.
3
Designate kitchen drawers for oft-used items. Most kitchen cabinetry sets have a row of drawers for storing supplies that don't belong in the cabinets. Every home cook uses these drawers differently. Take a look at your kitchen supplies and decide how you can put your drawers to best use.^[9]
- Kitchen essentials like can openers, potato peelers, microplanes, and garlic presses are usually stored together in the same drawer.
- If you bake a lot, you might want to have a drawer just for measuring cups, measuring spoons, and other baking supplies.
- Consider designating a drawer for kitchen towels and oven mitts.
- You may need a drawer for food storage containers and other items like aluminum foil and plastic wrap.
- You might want to make a "junk drawer" for the odds and ends that don't fit anywhere else – stray pens, rubber bands, coupons, recipe cut-outs, and other useful things.
4

Place cleaning supplies under the sink. The area under the sink is a convenient place to store everything you need to keep your kitchen spotless. Trash bags, cleaning solutions, rubber gloves, extra dish soap and detergent, extra sponges, and so on can be found in this spot in many people's homes. Don't use this area for food or kitchenware storage if you're also storing cleaning supplies there.

Add New Question

Question

What is a good home fragrance that I can place in my cupboards so they smell fresh?

Try cedar, sandalwood or anything that would interact transparently with the cabinetry.
Question

I have a place setting for 16 and I can't get all of it on the designated shelf. Would putting the excess plates on the top shelf be appropriate?

If you don't have the room anywhere else, the do that and make it look good.
Question

How do I store lots of things in a small place?

You could try putting some little shelves in, or buying boxes with little compartments that stack - such as those used for nuts and bolts etc. You can find these at hardware or craft stores.
Question

How do I organize food in cabinets?

You can do it by doing different sections like canned, fruits, vegetables, and seasonings.
Question

What items should I store on the higher shelves in my kitchen?

Fragile or fine china, or items you don't use often, like waffle irons, popcorn makers, etc.

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Consider space-saving items like stacking shelves and organizing racks to maximize the kitchen cabinet space.
When washing the cabinets, always test the soap and water mixture in an inconspicuous area to make sure that the mixture doesn't ruin the finish.
Check your cabinets periodically to make sure that they remain organized according to your plan.
You can apply cockroach repellent tablets and ant repellent powder to your cabinet or you can go for a pest control treatment once in every 6 months.

Things You'll Need

Soft cloths for dusting and cleaning
Mild dish-washing soap and lukewarm water
Contact paper or cork to line cabinet shelves, if desired
Containers

About this article

Article SummaryX

If you're struggling to organize your food cabinets, place foods like flour or sugar in sturdy containers, and stack them to keep them out of the way. Alternatively, store cups with handles or pan lids by hanging them from hooks below your cabinets or on your walls. To organize your cutlery drawers, purchase a cutlery organizer and sort knives, forks, and spoons into their own compartments. You can also try storing plats or food storage containers in racks on the counter. Finally, no matter what you need to organize, make sure to clean the cabinets before putting your items away! For tips on storing appliances and food in your kitchen, read on!

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