Do you feel like your kitchen is a constant drain on your time and energy? Yeah—we’ve been there too! But there’s no need to stress. These kitchen organization hacks will help you reclaim your time and space.
On a good day, your kitchen might be a source of great inspiration or perhaps, even culinary genius. (We all have those moments when we feel like Nigella at home, right?)
But let’s be real. Most of the time, it’s exhausting. Trying to keep your kitchen clean and tidy through the chaos of family life can feel like an impossible task. It’s enough to make you want to hide in the pantry, with a glass of wine and a packet of Oreos.
Whew. Take a deep breath, mama. If you’re wondering how to organize things to make life a bit easier, then we’re here to help.
Here are a few simple kitchen organization tips that will help you take control of your kitchen—plus you’ll save a bit of time and money too. What’s not to love?
8 Kitchen Organization Ideas
1. Create an organization system for spices
Spices are a funny thing. You generally have your staples which you’ll use almost every day, and then you have those odd spices that you buy for certain recipes… and then leave to collect dust in the cupboard.
This is not only a massive waste of space but also a waste of money.
The solution? Invest in a good-quality spice rack that lets you SEE all the spices you have at once. You can keep them in the containers they come in, or you could put them all into glass jars and create beautiful labels. (I don’t know about you but I always feel more excited about cooking when my kitchen looks beautiful!)
How you display them is up to you, but making sure they are all visible to you will help you use them all, and probably give inspiration for some fantastic new recipes.
2. Stack your pots and pans
Pots and pans cupboards probably rank just behind loose container drawers as most annoying and disorganized in most households. Riffling for pots, pans, and matching lids is not only frustrating, but it also contributes to your cookware becoming scratched and damaged.
Many organizing products provide easy and affordable solutions to messy cookware cupboards. Why not try putting the pans on a rack and stacking up the lids?
It makes much better use of vertical cupboard space, everything looks neat and tidy, and you’ll be able to reach for exactly what you need (instead of taking everything out and losing half your cookware to a roaming toddler).
3. Re-invent your pantry
If your pantry space is a mess, then who knows what is going on in there. Things could be going off at the back of your pantry while you buy the same product to put at the front. It’s annoying AND it’s a huge waste of time and money.
Do your future-self a favour and get organized now. There’s a huge range of products that can fit into your shelves and help take your pantry organization up a notch, from drawers and dividers to shelves and stands, and so much more.
Cupboards are all different shapes and sizes and require different things to organize best, so measure your space and then visit a storage specialty store to see all your options. This one-time investment is sure to save you hours of digging around the back of your cupboard, as well as the cost of replacing items you didn’t even know you had.
4. Clear your cleaning utensils off the counter
You know what will make you feel instantly better about your kitchen? Clear countertops.
Counter space is premium real estate in the kitchen, and creating a kitchen that looks organized and clean all the time is all about clearing that space. You probably have a few items such as your dish brush and other cleaning items which don’t have a home, and just live somewhere around the sink.
You can easily create a dedicated space within reach of your kitchen sink to store your brush and dishwashing liquid. Grab a shelf or a rack to hang above your sink and create a cute little place to keep them organized and off the bench. Having a place to dry your kitchen cloths will also ensure they last a lot longer so you won’t have to replace them as often.
5. Use a towel bar to hang and display your cookware
For larger items that are bulky like pots and pans, as well as items you use all the time like cooking and baking utensils, why not hang them? You can put them on the wall or on the sides of your bench to keep them organized and create a cool feature in your kitchen.
If you want to get everything hung up on a budget, you can create your cookware hanging rack with a towel rack and a few pants hooks. Just make sure you put it somewhere in your kitchen where it’s easily accessible and easy to put everything back. No more time wasted digging around your cupboards for the right pan.
6. Store your baking trays vertically
Ah … this is so simple but also SO good!
Baking trays, muffin tins, and cake pans are all different shapes and thicknesses which can make them quite tricky to store. An easy solution to this is just having them all stacked precariously on top of one another is to store them horizontally in a drawer that pulls out from your cupboard.
All you need is a box with dividers which you can stack your baking trays in, and which will fit into your cupboard. You can, if you’re a little bit handy, even put it on drawer rollers so that you can pull the box in and out with ease.
It’ll also mean you will always know exactly what you have so you don’t have to buy new trays every time you want to bake something different. (Been there, done that—which is why I had so many to organize in the first place!)
7. Put your trash can in your cupboard
Trash cans are not the nicest things to have on display in your kitchen. You can instead have it tucked away discreetly on the inside door of your cupboard with a trash can hanger that just sits over the cupboard door.
The very best place to put these is on the cupboard right under the sink, where a lot of the cupboard space is already used by the plumbing of the sink. There should still be just enough space to tuck away your trash can, leaving more space in your kitchen for other useful items, and creating a more hygienic and out-of-the-way place for trash.
8. Create a stackable fridge
How often do you let leftovers go bad in your fridge because you forget that it’s even there?
Fridges come with several great inbuilt organizational features like door shelves and shelves that pull out, but with a little effort, you can take yours to the next level.
Buy a few containers which can stack on top of each other when you can keep prepped or opened food, as well as portioned leftovers for quick meal options. This will not only save a lot of food from going bad because it will be so easily accessible, but it will also save you from the trap of ordering in because there is nothing to eat.
It will also feel incredibly satisfying, every time you open your fridge and gaze at your “insta-worthy” organization skills.
What are your favourite kitchen organization hacks? Let us know in the comments!