7 Kitchen Organizing Tips

Get (and keep) your kitchen in top shape with these 7 Kitchen Organizing Tips! Simple tips and kitchen organizing ideas that will make your kitchen cleaner and easier to use!

Oh, January…don’t you just love the fresh start feeling of this month?! After the holidays, I, like many, feel the need to clean. And purge. And organize. So that’s what I do every January and what I’m working on right now. Since I spend most of my time in the kitchen I started there. When my kitchen isn’t organized and running smoothly, neither do I! So I’m sharing 7 Kitchen Organizing Tips and I hope you can find a little tip that inspires your kitchen organization!

Practical Kitchen Counter Storage

Keep your most used pantry staples like flour, noodles, rice and oats in easy to access jars on your counter. It’s nice to have these items within reach when in the middle of a recipe. Keeping these staples out on display can look nice too…I love the glass containers that I use in this image below (I found these glass bins at WalMart for ~$10 a piece)…they look nice and they are practical!

Get rid of the clutter.

Try to keep your kitchen counter space as free from stuff as you can. If I had my way I would put nothing on my counters, but that’s just not practical. So I limit the clutter to storage jars, my favourite cookbooks, a few pretty cutting boards, my trusty mixer and of course the coffee machine!

Create Storage if you don’t have any!

If you are low on kitchen storage, why not add a chest of drawers to the space? I keep this set in the eating nook of our kitchen and I have it filled with linens, napkins, napkin rings, candles, extra dishes and there’s even a drawer full of teas. It’s the best storage space and I love it!

Organize Your Pantry

If your pantry is organized, the rest of your kitchen will be organized. I like to put as much of my dry goods, like flour, sugar, salt, noodles, rice, oats, chocolate chips etc…into transparent food storage containers with labels. That way you can see easily see what you have at a glance. Mason jars work great too! This method also helps to keep a pantry less cluttered by getting rid of bulky boxes and bags. If you’re looking for some checklists for stocking your pantry, I’m sharing a Baking Pantry List here, and a Dinner Pantry List here.

I think it’s important to remember that an organized pantry has to work for you and doesn’t have to look like a magazine spread. Mine certainly doesn’t. If you want to see more pantry organization ideas, you can read that in this post here.

Declutter those kitchen drawers!

Again, this isn’t a magazine spread. My drawers are real life, and they get cluttered often and I’m constantly reorganizing them…which is just what happens with you live with 4 other people who use the kitchen. No matter what I do they just seem to turn into a junk drawer! To keep things as organized as possible I have added really simple plastic trays to the drawers that hold my cooking utensils and to my silverware drawers to help keep things in their places. Drawer dividers would work great too! You can read more about what I did this in this post here.

Make Fridge Mats for Easy Cleaning

A while ago I came across a website that sold coasters for the inside of your refrigerator. The idea being that if you have a spill, or your fridge needs a good cleaning, all you have to do is remove the mats and give them a quick wash in your sink…no huge clean-up of your entire fridge. Basically they are there to make clean up easy peasy. I wanted to buy them but I just knew that I could make them myself for half the price. So when I was in my local grocery store I picked up 6 pretty hard plastic placemats and got to work.

How to Make Your own Fridge Mats:

Purchase plastic place mats.
Measure each individual shelf and cubby and cut the placemats to fit. If one of the shelves is too big for one placemat, just cut 2 mats to cover the whole shelf.
If you want, you can also place smaller cut out mats into the cubbies in the door of the fridge (for the condiment areas).

Pare down.

The biggest tip I have to offer is to pare down! Get rid of things that you don’t need.

Get rid of plastic containers without lids.
Throw out expired foods in the fridge and pantry. Don’t forget your spice rack and toss out expired spices!
Donate dishes you don’t use.
Go through your coffee mugs! This is a big problem for me haha!
Keep items at a minimum on your countertops.
Clear out the clutter from the tops of your fridge and kitchen cabinets.
If you have large kitchen gadgets and small appliances that you don’t use, consider donating or selling them.
Don’t keep doubles or triples of things. How many pots and pans do we really need?

I hope you found some ideas here to help you with your kitchen organizing!

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Happy Organizing!

Note: This post was originally published in 2013. I have since updated it with new images and tips!

90 Comments

Hi! I just stopped by to check out your kitchen via iheart organizing. Love all that you’ve done! I have checked out the glass containers at Wal-mart as well and actually bought them, but was hesitant to use them for baking items since they didn’t have a seal around the lid. Have you had any issues with freshness, etc? I love the way they look!

So pretty! Love all the glass jars and labels (don’t labels make everything better? Ha!)

-Chaney (Came over from IHeart Organizing)

Nossa,sua cozinha é linda,sou apaixonada pelo seu estilo de cozinha,aqui no Brasil as cozinhas são diferentes,adorei as idéia das etiquetas nos frascos e na geladeira,também perdemos muito em nossa geladeira por ficar perdida lá dentro srsrs,já os placemates por aqui não usamos pois propagamos a ideia de que o ar refrigerado não corre por entre as prateleiras devido ao bloqueio que causa…Amei tudo em sua cozinha.

Placemats as fridge coasters! I’m smacking myself on the forehead for that clever idea. Why didn’t I think of that? I had seen those great fridge coasters too, and wanted them, but just couldn’t justify the expense. But some inexpensive placemats from Homegoods or Target? I can do that. I too label my fridge. And I too, live with a condiment hoarder. Where did you get the plastic bins in your fridge? I just found your blog through iheartorganizing and I love it.

Dropping by from I heart Organizing.

Loved your fridge–I too had an attack of organize-itis and labeled everything in my fridge. It makes you happy, doesn’t it?

I love the dresser in your kitchen. As I was reading the post I kept hoping you’d include a picture of it in reference to the kitchen. I’m glad you did!

Keep organizing!

Jenny

Everything looks so pretty and fresh! I love the colors and patterns on the place mats too!

Thanks for all the tips, Jo-Anna! I just dropped by from Thrifty Decor Chick after seeing your tip on using the placemats in the fridge – love it! I’ve been using an antique dresser in my dining room for all my linens for quite some time, though. It’s funny how folks see it there and say, “Oh, I never thought of doing that, but it’s perfect!” I like that yours is painted a pretty cream color – I haven’t decided what color to paint mine yet. I keep going back and forth between cream and a pale aqua color, but hubby is voting for the cream. We’ll see who wins once we move in 3 months :). Love your blog, BTW, I’m pinning your tips and subscribing!

Hi! I found you via iheartorganizing! LOVE your kitchen!! I have recently labeled all the shelves and bins in my fridge as well!! Crazy, yes. But it works!!! 🙂

-Monica
sparklesandplaid.blogspot.com

I’m over from I heart organizing. I love the idea of lining your fridge with place mats. So much easier to clean up spills. I totally agree with having a dresser for linens in the main living area. We have one and it works really well!