Get creative with what containers you have at home. Use canisters (like a large glass jar from pickles) to store dry goods in your kitchen pantry. Berry boxes, jam jars, and similar food containers can be wiped or washed out as well.
16. Add dividers to give cabinets order
Utilize cabinet dividers to keep the kitchen knickknacks in their place. Measure canisters and containers to make sure everything will still fit—there’s nothing worse than buying something that makes your kitchen organization woes worse!
17. Use pull-out shelves
For a kitchen cabinet that’s a bit awkward—perhaps it’s really short or super deep—add functionality with a pull-out drawer organizer combined with a pot rack to reveal neatly stacked cookware. You won’t ever have to crawl into the cabinet to grab a pot from the back or avoid a cacophonous avalanche that comes with looking for an errant pot lid.
18. Rack and stack baking sheets and cutting boards
The same principle with pot racks applies to baking sheets and cutting boards. Stop piling up sheets in the oven and arrange them neatly so you don’t have to shuffle the deck before baking the next batch of cookies.
19. Organize lids with dividers
A kitchen cabinet with a bevy of lids might as well be chaos. Keep them all in one place with dividers, which you can also use for all those insulating sleeves you’ve collected over the years.
20. Employ a lazy Susan for a kitchen cabinet or countertop
Even if you have a spice rack in your kitchen cabinets, no one wants to take out every bottle and tin just to find the paprika. For those oft-used spices and condiments, place a lazy Susan on a countertop or kitchen cabinet to shorten the search.
21. Use a divider to stack pots and pans
Although it might seem like a half-step above just piling everything on top of one another, using a divider for pots and pans will help make everything easy to find—plus, you’re less likely to start a kitchen cabinet avalanche. Cabinet dividers can also be used to stack cutting boards, oven pans, and all the cheeseboards you’ve been gifted for every occasion since college.
22. Add a rolling can holder
Cardboard can holders hold their shape for about as long as it takes to get from the grocery store to the kitchen. But at that point, it’s anyone’s guess as to when they’ll pop open and release a cascade of aluminum cans. Avoid that hassle—and the unsightly look of a torn-up cardboard box in your fridge or cabinets—with a polished version that will last forever.
23. Use risers to get more storage in each shelf
Take advantage of that empty vertical space by placing risers in cabinets. This will help keep items separated so you don’t have to try to pick something out of the middle of a huge stack.
24. Make use of cabinet doors
The inside of your cabinet doors is filled with storage possibilities. Install hooks to store pans, lids, or serving and measuring spoons, or add a slim rack to stash pot lids or boxes of foil and plastic wrap. Sure, you might have to inch back the contents of your cabinets just slightly, but you’ll be happy to do it when you open the door and see this supremely organized situation.
Step 5: Open up kitchen drawers
25. Keep cutlery from rolling around
Every time you open a cutlery drawer, the silverware gets jostled unless you have something keeping it all in place. Invest in nice drawer dividers to keep everything together for easier table setting, or grab a utensil holder that looks chic and orderly.
26. Stick the knives
The last thing you want is to cut yourself when you’re digging for a knife. To avoid that fate, get a countertop knife block, a knife divider for the drawer, or a magnetic strip to show off the best chef’s knives.
27. Place clingy liners in drawers
Beyond silverware, kitchen tools—like whisks and spatulas—aren’t usually uniform pieces that can be stacked on top of one another in a drawer divider. Using a clingy liner can help keep gear in place.
28. Invest in a label maker
A kitchen in order means that the cabinets are also organized, especially when it comes to food storage containers—you can’t rely on sight or smell to distinguish all-purpose flour from cake flour. Keep a label maker on hand, perhaps in an organizer storage bin for odds and ends that find their way into a kitchen drawer.
Step 6: Look up
29. Step up with a ladder
Maximizing cabinet organization means using the upper cabinets and even the space above. But unless you’re tall enough to be in a basketball league, how do you reach anything you put up there? With a step ladder, of course. Look for one thin enough to slide into the space between your fridge or oven.
30. Start hanging up cooking gear
We’ve already looked at the space in and above your upper cabinets, but what about the rest of the ceiling? A pot rack hung from your ceiling can take advantage of otherwise wasted vertical space, and any frequently used tools that happen to have holes in them—slotted spoons, rubber spatulas, and the like—also make good candidates. Just avoid using anything that is heavier than what the rack is rated to carry or anything sharp or potentially dangerous, such as knives and kitchen torches.
Step 7: Don’t forget to organize your fridge
31. Wine-bottle holder for the fridge
Wine bottles might look great on the bar cart, but you probably prefer drinking chilled white wines, rather than those that have sat at room temperature. However, unless you have room to stand them upright, you’ll need a wine bottle holder to not only keep them organized but also prevent them from rolling out and shattering, which is the number one way to kill the vibe.
32. Adjustable fridge drawer storage rack
Similar to kitchen cabinets, fridges tend to have a lot of lost vertical space and not a lot of ways to adjust the shelf heights. Luckily humanity has come up with insertable drawer storage racks, which take advantage of the space under a fridge shelf.
33. Stackable fridge bins
If you don’t necessarily need more vertical space, but you need to keep similar items grouped together, consider stackable fridge bins to keep like items together. No more looking for that chunk of cheddar.
34. Add a paper towel holder
Place a magnetized paper towel holder on the side of the fridge to clear up the valuable real estate that is the kitchen counter.
35. Implement the side for extra storage
Besides being very easy to install (just stick it there), a magnetic shelf is also, of course, removable: perfect for renters.
Step 8: Work double duty with what you have
36. Find a use for sentimental items
“It doesn’t technically belong in the kitchen if it’s a sentimental item [because] if you’re not using it in the kitchen, then it’s not a kitchen tool,” Cattano says. She notes that this applies to items that are kitchen-related but you never actually use for culinary purposes. Take advantage of nostalgic pieces that could hold things. If you rarely use your grandma’s glass gravy boat, use it as a candy bowl to encourage guests to eat all the sweets and snacks you want out of the house.
37. Place stand mixer attachments in the bowl
Unless you have every accessory, the basic attachments that come with a stand mixer can all fit in the mixing bowl. And since stand mixers tend to take up quite a bit of counter space, this can help reclaim the territory in kitchen drawers. Line the bowl with a clean dish rag to prevent scratches.
38. Use glass storage as cookware
Plastic food storage containers, like Tupperware, can’t be put in an oven since they’d melt. But glass storage containers can double as bakeware—or even work triple duty as bowls—if your kitchen cabinets are lacking space.
39. Multitask with glassware
If you’re tight on space for glassware, think about using Ball glass mason jars as both storage and extra cups for unexpected guests (and their plus ones). Cheugy? Admittedly yes, but no one will complain once it’s in their hands and full of beer.
40. Removable over-the-sink dish rack
Counter space is always at a premium, but there’s an easy fix: Get a dish rack that fits over the sink. The best part is that you won’t have to worry about residual water spilling out onto the counters.
Step 9: Take advantage of the weird spots
41. Stick magnetic hooks on the fridge
Dish rags, seasonal kitchen towels, and oven mitts can all find a new and easily accessible home on the front or side of a stainless steel fridge. And instead of losing cutesy measuring spoons in your kitchen drawers, you can also hang them from the hooks.
42. Get a storage cart
If you really don’t have a lot of kitchen storage options, but you have a weird closet down the hallway that doesn’t do much for you, get a little cart. You can add storage bins, uncommonly used kitchen utensils, or spare linens, and roll the cart into the kitchen when you need it. It’s not as convenient as closet storage in the kitchen itself, but it’s great for anything you aren’t using every week.
43. Hang mug hooks strategically
Cattano suggests screwing mug hooks into the bottom of kitchen cabinets to utilize that empty space between the cupboards and the countertops. That’ll make your coffee mugs all the more accessible during the morning caffeine ritual—plus allow you to show off that DIY mug you brought back from the paint-your-own pottery place.
