Somewhat MM-related: how do you organize your kitchen?

hoffse · July 2015

The new kitchen is well on its way - we got a quote to refinish the floors that was under our budget, so we are proceeding with that. After that, all that will be left is installing the fridge/stove and installing the doors on the cabinets. We are probably going to be organizing our kitchen next weekend, and we want to take our time with it so it's done well and makes sense. Does anybody have special tricks/tips for how they do this? We have 6 very deep/wide drawers we'll be able to use for heavier items and plenty of high vertical space for the twice-a-year type items. We also have some shallower drawers that are quite wide and will probably need spacers to keep stuff from getting jumbled. After-market "kitchen organizers" can get pretty $$, so we're trying to get creative with ways to do it ourselves or on the cheap - think dollar store. We also don't want to do anything permanent... one of the reasons we got the really wide drawers was so we could change the organization layout in the future if we wanted.

hoffse · July 2015

Edit: One idea we had was to take some of those really shallow cardboard boxes from Costco next time we are there. The smaller ones might fit in the drawers to help us keep things organized. Free! And bonus - we could lift the boxes out of the drawers and keep things contained. I also thought about putting one on a pantry shelf where we will be storing oils and vinegar to help with any drips.

blondie42107 · July 2015

Our dinner/lunch plates, bowls, coffee mugs and flatware are very close to our dishwasher and sink. Makes unloading the dishwasher or doing dishes in the sink easy! Occasional use stuff goes up higher. Pots/pans and bakeware are closer to the stove, etc.

We have a bamboo flatware organizer that we love. Some of these as well... https://m.bedbathandbeyond.com/m/product/kitchen-organizers/104069?categoryId=12100

JoanE2012 · July 2015

We use our wide, deep drawers to store pots, pans, lids, etc. We have a wide shallow drawer used for baking trays, pizza tray and little things like rolling pin, etc. We have a corner cabinet has a two tier lazy susan that holds all of our smaller appliances (crockpot, blender, etc) -- one of my favorite cabinets for storage! We converted one cabinet into a hidden trash -- so happy to have the trash hidden. China is stored in a deep cabinet above the refrigerator as it's not used much (nor do we have the room for a china cabinet). Not sure what your pantry is like, but we have a 6 or 7 wire shelf organizer attached to the back of the pantry door. We use it to store all our spices, oils, etc. Love it!

AprilZ81 · July 2015

We have upper cabinets on two walls and lower cabinets in a u-shape.

Peninsula cabinet 1: extra tupperware, vitamins, extra drinks and junk drawer

Peninsula small drawer: silverware

Peninsula two drawer cabinets: tupperware and strainers

Peninsula cabinet: small kitchen appliances (Griddler, large crockpot, small food processor)

Corner Cabinet: entertaining supplies/platters that are used more often

Sink Wall:

Skinny cabinet has grilling supplies and cutting boards

Dishwasher

Sink Cabinet has cleaning supplies and dish washing supplies (drying mat, dish rack, soap)

Bank of shallow drawer has oven mits, dish towels, foil, cling wrap, ziploc bags, etc.

Corner Cabinet has pots, small crockpot, bakeware.

Stove Wall:

We have an electric stove and I keep the baking sheets/pizza pans in the drawer of the stove.

Shallow drawer next to the stove holds some bulky utensils/spoons/can opener

The cabinet has the pans in a pan rack

Canned goods are in the pantry cabinet at the end and cook books and cake & brownie mixes are in the top portion.

Upper cabinets on the sink wall:

Far end has the pyrex and corningweare baking/storage dishes and bowls

Skinny cabinet holds coffee supplies and mugs

Above the dishwasher is our glassware

On the other side of the sink we have the plates and bowls

Next to that we have a smaller cabinet that holds measuring cups and some specialty bowls (french onion soup crocks).

The upper corner cabinet is deep but doesn't open up like the lowers. I keep baking supplies up in there since I don't use them often (flower, sugar, oils, etc.).

I have another skinny cabinet next to the microwave that has spices, then the microwave, then another upper with spices and random items. Above the microwave we have a cabinet that has cooling racks and some mixing bowls.

The cabinets at the very top all hold entertaining items that we only use a few times a year like vases, cookie cutters and the like.

Erikan73 · July 2015

Try IKEA, they have drawer inserts that are adjustable. They are more expensive then dollar store, but you can adjust them over time as your needs change and they really utilize the space within.

blondie42107 · July 2015

We have found some great organization pieces at Ikea!

formerlyGDaisy09 · July 2015

Ours is a work in progress (on my list of things to tackle once the show i'm in closes and we're home for a few weekends before we have more weddings taking us out of town.

I'd start with putting things near where you think you'll use them and go from there. you're probably going to end-up re-arranging a few times before you settle on what works for you. I've got lots of gadgets in my kitchen and my counters are not as deep as I'd like them to be, finding homes for things with easy access when I want it has been tricky, I've probably rearranged things 4-5 times and I'm still not completely happy...or rather it's still not set-up in a way that encourages H to put things away properly. my big headaches are my tupperware (of course), and the cabinet I have my pots, pans, and mixing bowls in.

don't buy any organzers until you're actually in the process of organizing things. I've found a lot of things at TJMaxx that have solved more problems than organizer systems.

brij2006 · July 2015

I use the small plastic squares and rectangles you find in the storage section at the dollar store. They're the ones with holes in the sides. You could also just use tupperwear type containers that you no longer use or are stained.

Sometimes I will stack these on top of each other as well. One of our deep drawers has 3 stacked on top of each other. Bottom one is my cake decorating items (use 2-3 times/year), then middle are sprinkles and food coloring, and top one has measuring spoons in it.

I also have a couple of racks that go underneath the sink. They're the ones you would buy to put in the bottom of a locker at school. We put items we don't use as often under them, then everyday items like dishwasher tabs, counter top spray, and sponges on the shelf itself.

hoffse · July 2015

We're going to hopefully be putting the kitchen back together (mostly) this weekend, so I think I'll have a better sense of it once I see how much space we've actually gained.

I tested a few items over the weekend, and simply by having our cabinet guy build fewer large cabinets (vs. many smaller cabinets) we've gained a ton of space. Seriously, the place where we store plates, bowls, etc. now will require one shelf. In our old kitchen it required two shelves because we lost so much space due to cabinet box walls and spacers.

We're going to be in Atlanta next week, so I might try to swing by the IKEA. I don't want to go overboard, but we will need some way to organize the kitchen gadgets, at minimum. Those drawers are 33" wide, and it's going to quickly turn into a mess if we don't add dividers.

Erikan73 · July 2015

When you go to IKEA make sure to have the inside measurements of your drawers and cabinets. This way you'll know right away if things you see there will work or not. Nothing worse then buying something that is difficult to return only to find out it doesn't work or to pass on something that would be perfect because you aren't sure of your measurements

hoffse · July 2015

Erikan73 said:

When you go to IKEA make sure to have the inside measurements of your drawers and cabinets. This way you'll know right away if things you see there will work or not. Nothing worse then buying something that is difficult to return only to find out it doesn't work or to pass on something that would be perfect because you aren't sure of your measurements

Smart! Good tip

MommyLiberty5013 · July 2015

Try the Target One Spot for plastic bins. They have them cycle in and out every few weeks/months. They will either be $1 or $3.

GingerPuppy · July 2015

We ordered most of appliances online from http://www.gerhardsappliance.com/ge-cafe.htmlVery happy with the quality of items and a price.

hoffse · July 2015

Well the IKEA thing probably isn't going to work next week because I moved our flight to France up and have to be at the airport a couple hrs earlier than originally planned (no charge to change flights! Couldn't believe it).

I think I will check out Target, the Dollar Store, and maybe BBB this weekend to see if I can find an inexpensive but effective way to organize the big utensil drawers. The other cabinets/drawers can probably wait until we have a chance to get to IKEA.

In other news, the doors to our cabinets are going on today! I'm so excited to see them! Floors are being refinished early Thursday morning and then the fridge and stove are going to be installed Friday afternoon. Everything else is done. So our 5-day reno has turned into an 8-day reno (spread over 10 days), but still... can't complain about that. Besides, the big reason for the delay was the floors and that's something we decided to do last week after seeing the damage from the old appliances.

I'm excited to start putting the kitchen back together again over the weekend!

simplyelise · July 2015

My parents have nice big drawers like yours, and my mom has some rubbermaid 6" x 15" baskets that she uses to separate out wooden spoons, slotted spoons, spatulas, rubber scrapers, etc. She's got all her cooking ones by the stove, all the baking ones over under the large work space, and all the gadget-y items in another big drawer that's a bit more out of the way.

Personally, I like to have a drawer for spices if another more convenient spice storage option isn't available. Right now I've just got them laying in the drawer, organized by size. But I'd like to get some of the in-drawer spice organizers eventually.

Somewhat MM-related: how do you organize your kitchen?

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