How to Organize Kitchen Drawers and Cabinets

Organize inside Kitchen Cabinets and Drawers

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Kitchen Organization Project

Hi friends! Happy New Year! I love getting all the things organized at the start of a New Year. Since the kitchen is the heart of our home and where we spend most of our time, I started there. My goal was to make everything in my kitchen functional and beautiful. I want to be able to find things in a moments notice, so having a specific and dedicated place for each item in my kitchen is a must. I also am sure not to hold onto things that just take up space. If I don’t need or use it, I don’t keep it.

Organization Process

As with any organizing project, I typically follow these important steps:

Completely empty the space and wipe it down. For the kitchen I emptied each drawer and cabinet one at a time.
Sort the items in the space into keep, donate, trash, and relocate piles. Get rid of anything you no longer need or want. If I haven’t used the item in a year or more I typically let it go.
Determine categories for the items that will remain in the space and designate a space for each. Use bins, trays, and dividers to organize items to give them all a home.
Purchase organizers for the space…be sure to measure first to ensure a perfect fit.
Line your shelves, drawers and cabinets with shelf liner to keep thing from sliding around or having the bottom of the shelf, drawer or cabinet get scratched or damaged.
Place the items back into the space in an organized way.

Organizing Cabinets and Drawers

When it comes to organizing kitchen cabinets and drawers, I recommend you empty them one at time so the project does not become overwhelming. I did all of my kitchen cabinets and drawers over the course of three days.

I suggest making a list of categories for items in your kitchen cabinets and drawers so you can place them strategically.

Typical categories for kitchen cabinets and drawers include:

Utility- pens, pencils, tools, medications, etc.
Eating- utensils, plates, glassware
Cooking- pots, pans, bakeware, cooking utensils, cooking gadgets, appliances, spices
Food Storage- bags, wraps, containers, etc
Cleaning- dish towels, sponges, supplies, etc.

Ready to see my organized kitchen cabinets and drawers and the categories I use for each? Let’s do it!

Kitchen Drawers

Beginning with the kitchen drawers, I went through each and every one of them one at time. I purged so many things I no longer need or use. I also replaced old and worn out items with new items. Some things I got rid of from my kitchen drawers included old disheveled dish towels and pot holders, expired and unused spices, anything I had multiples of, broken items and gadgets I’ve never used or have no clue what they are used for.

My favorite thing about this kitchen is the amount of drawer storage we have. I prefer drawer storage over cabinet storage and we have a total of 25 awesome drawers in various sizes and depths in this kitchen. To keep things neat, tidy and organized in my drawers, I use a variety of my favorite acrylic organizes and mix and match them to fit each drawer perfectly. Check out my favorite organizers in my organization boutique.

Utensil Drawer

The first category I want to share is utensils. I relocated our utensil drawer from a large drawer to a smaller drawer to the right of the stovetop. I used clear acrylic drawer trays to sort the utensils by type. Previously, my utensils were in a much larger drawer with other kitchen utensils. I like them housed alone in this smaller drawer much better.

Spice Drawer

The drawer on the opposite side of the stove is where I store my spices. I also pared this drawer down to a smaller drawer from a larger one. I realized that I didn’t even use most of the spices I had on hand. So I gave myself permission to donate the spices I never use and tossing the expired ones. Did you know spices expire? I had no idea until a few years ago. Once upon I time I owned spices that were ten years old. That is kinda crazy!!!

I went from four full spice drawer trays down to one! I love these segmented spice trays though. They fit in a drawer perfectly and keep a standard size spice jar perfectly in its place. Beside the tray I had enough space to store my wooden cooking utensils. I love this set because they are dishwasher safe!

Kitchen Gadgets

The large drawer to the left of the spice drawer is where I store all of the kitchen gadgets. I have the whisk, tongs, ice cream scoop, shredder, pizza cutter, can opener, apple slicers, cheese knives and serving spoons in here using a combination of 5 and 6 section acrylic trays, as well as rectangular and square trays to fit the drawer perfectly and offer each gadget a place of its own.

Dish Towels and Oven Mitt Drawer

The larger drawer next to the utensil drawer and nearest the oven is now my dish towel and oven mitt drawer. I used to keep the dish towels in a really small narrow drawer that was always over stuffed and hard to keep things folded. Having them in a bigger drawer and locating it next to the oven makes so much sense to also store the oven mitts in here too. I ended up discarding all of my old stained and ratty towel and oven mitts and pot holders. I replaced them with these pretty blue and white dishcloths and pot holders.

Food Storage Drawer

Just under the Dish Towel drawer I have a set of deep drawers. This is where I store my food storage container. I like using glass containers for food storage since they are both microwave and oven safe. Food doesn’t leach into the glass like it can with plastic food storage containers.

I love the divided food storage organizer I have since it has slots for lids and also fits the containers nicely so they don’t slide around in the drawer. There is enough space beside it for larger containers as well.

Kid-Friendly Dishes

I have three kids and since they were very little I made their kid-friendly dishes easily accessible to them. No one wants kids climbing on counter tops to reach bowls, plates and cups. I keep the dishes that are designated for kids in the very bottom drawer below the food storage containers. I use unbreakable melamine plates and bowls and acrylic cups for the kids. Deep drawer bins are perfect for sorting the bowls and cups and to keep them in place inside the drawer. We have outgrown the colorful divided dish phase so I chose these unbreakable dishes since they are so pretty. They double as our outdoor entertaining dishes as well.

Mixing Bowls and Baking Dishes

In the deep drawers below the kitchen gadget drawer I store the ceramic mixing bowls and baking dishes.

Small Appliances and Strainers

In the very bottom drawer I keep a few small appliances like a food chopper and waffle maker along with large strainers.

Pots and Pans

Just below the stove, I have two deep drawers where I store all of my pots and pans. I should also mention we have two garbage/recycling drawers on either side of these drawers.

My husband was so sweet to gift us with a new set of pots and pans for our 44th birthdays! We were born a week apart and have celebrated together since we met 20 years ago. The hammered copper set he surprised me with is so beautiful and fits our style perfectly. I also love the white set that I collect and add to as I find good deals. The drawers are large enough that the pots and pans can fit inside with their lids on them.

Inside the drawer with the white pots, I keep a deep drawer bin for larger, less used cooking utensils, a spoon rest, and a cute dinner bell.

Bags and Wraps

Continuing my way around the kitchen to the drawers on the peninsula. The first drawer in this section is where I keep the various sizes of zip storage bags, wax paper, foil and plastic wrap. I like to use long individual drawer bins to sort the different sizes of bags and to hold the boxes of plastic wrap. I remove the baggies from their boxes for quick and easy access.

Baking Drawer

The next drawer holds all of my baking supplies and utensils. I’m not into baking that much, but my daughters love to make cookies, cakes, and cupcakes all the time. I keep these baking tools on hand for them.

Outdoor Grill Utensils

The next drawer houses all of our outdoor grill utensils, drip pans, and s’mores and shish kebob sticks.

Utility Items

This drawer is similar to a “junk drawer” but it is far from a junk drawer. I keep all the supplies I need to access regularly in this drawer. I love using a variety of acrylic tray dividers to keep the items neat, organized and easy to find. To my kids, this is my “mommy” drawer. They have control of the entire house and its contents, but this is my one space that I want control of. It’s my COMMAND CENTER…and boy is it pretty!

Tool Drawer

Below the utility drawer is a drawer for basic household tools. I like having these here for easy access rather than in the garage with the other tools.

This year I bought myself a set of tools- in pink of course! I use a variety of acrylic drawer organizers to keep it all tidy.

You can give me all the tools, but Command Strips and Hooks are my thing. I live and die by these for hanging all the things in my home. I use them to hang garland during the holidays and wreaths on the door. The 16lb. Command Strips are also my go-to hanging device before putting a single nail in my wall. My actual goal is to live a life without having to patch a single hole. Ha Ha…but if you know me well I really try!

Electronics Drawers

I keep all of our extra charging cords, ear buds, back up batteries and my label maker and label tape in the next drawer. I recycled old containers the once held Extra brand gum to hold the earbuds and small charging accessories. Q-tips brand also has a smaller version in the travel section at most drug stores. Keep them all because they are so handy to store so many things.

Entertaining Drawer

The last drawer in this section is reserved for my entertaining items. I keep plastic utensils, various toothpicks, straws, and charcuterie tongs and spreaders in here.

Kitchen Cabinets

After the drawers were purged and organized, I tackled my kitchen cabinets. I have a few zones in my kitchen with cabinets. The back wall, the peninsula, the island, and the espresso bar wall all contain cabinets.

Upper Cabinets

I don’t have a ton of upper cabinets. I only have two main cabinets on the back wall. The one nearest the oven wall is where I store all of our everyday dishes. I use one side for all of our drinking glasses and the other side for plates and bowls.

The cabinet on the opposite side as the everyday dishes is where I store our toaster and blender. We use these two appliances a lot but I don’t like to keep them out on the countertops. Having them in this cabinet makes them easily accessible. There is an outlet just below the cabinet so we can plug them in, use them, and easily put them away. I keep a cutting board hanging on the inside of the door to cut fruit for smoothies that we throw in the blender.

To the left of this cabinet is our microwave, so I keep our popcorn bowls in this cabinet as well.

I have a set of chafing dishes that I keep in here. I don’t use them a lot but they come in handy when entertaining to keep food warm.

Above our double ovens, we have this nifty cabinet with built in sorters to keep all the baking pans neat and accessible.

Range Cabinets

There are two small cabinets on either side of the range. These cabinets are built in as part of the hood design. I imagine these small cabinets were designed to store spices and oils and such for cooking, however I am using them to hold our knife block and cooking utensils.

Our knife set was previously in the drawer below this where the utensils now live. I decided to try using the knife block that came with the set and it fit perfectly in this cabinet. This white knife set is so good! I have given these as gifts because they are pretty and affordable. There is also room beside the knife set for measuring cups.

In the cabinet on the other side of the range I used a Lazy Susan that has storage in the center. This is perfect for holding my cooking utensils and also salt and pepper.

Lower Cabinets

The lower cabinets in our kitchen are mainly located on the peninsula. We have two small lower cabinets on the back wall and three on the island.

Inside one of the small cabinets on the back wall I keep our reusable water bottles. I store these using acrylic wine rack storage organizers. These are stackable and keep the water bottles in place and allows us to easily see what we have.

The small cabinet on the opposite side is located under the coffee pot and our medicine drawer. I keep back stock of coffee creamer and sweetener in here. I also use a Lazy Susan to hold larger vitamin and supplement bottles that don’t fit in the drawer.

The Peninsula

The Peninsula has three sets of cabinets. I keep all of my entertaining dishes in these cabinets. I have a large collection of white serving platters and cheese boards that I love. The cabinets are organized by type and shape. The first cabinet holds smaller dip and condiment bowls on a wooden Lazy Susan in order to reach them easily and the Lazy Susan doubles as a cheeseboard. On the shelf below that are my larger rectangular serving platters.

The next cabinet is where my larger serving bowls and square platters are stored.

The last cabinet is where my cheese boards and cutting boards are organized. I use a lid organizer for the smaller boards and rectangle platters. It helps that they slide in rather than stack.

Espresso Bar Wall

This section of cabinets holds a lot of lesser used items and our most used items…our coffee mugs! I keep the mugs stored on a mug tree for easy access. I placed the mug tree on a Lazy Susan so it turns easily in the cabinet so we can reach the mugs in the back. This system works great for us!