Kitchen Cabinet Organization Tips and Ideas

So have you been basking in the glow of a more organized kitchen? So far this month, we’ve decluttered our kitchen countertops, and organized all of our food storage areas. That brings us to kitchen cabinet organization week.

The Kitchen Cabinet Organization Process

 The #1 cardinal rule when it comes to decluttering and organizing your kitchen cabinets is to focus on only one cabinet at a time. Even if you’re feeling super ambitious, please resist the urge to tackle all of your cabinets simultaneously.

I find that it’s a recipe for disaster and can quickly become overwhelming. Trust me, you’ll be shocked at how much stuff you’ll pull out of just one set of cabinets.

With that being said, go ahead and grab your decluttering kit.

Step 1: Evaluate the Kitchen Cabinet

The first step in the kitchen cabinet organization process is to determine up front what categories of items should live in each cabinet. Refer back to my Organize Like a Pro post to review the guidelines for assigning homes for your items during the organizing process.

Common kitchen categories (or zones) include:

• Food preparation (cutting boards, colanders)
• Cooking (pots & pans, bakeware, spices)
• Clean up (cleaning products, dish towels, sponges)
• Eating (plates, glassware, utensils)
• Food storage (plastic ware, plastic wrap, aluminum foil)
• Utility (candles, tools, pens & pencils, medications).

Once you’ve set up your kitchen zones ahead of time, you’ll know what items to sort into the Relocate pile during the Sort/Purge step.

If you’re going to be doing some significant rearranging of the contents of your cabinets, use Post-It notes to temporarily label each of the new zones so that you don’t forget what you decided later on in the process.

2. Empty Out and Clean Kitchen Cabinets

Remember that we’re killing two birds with one stone in the process (spring cleaning the kitchen + organizing it’s contents). So now’s the time to empty out those cabinets and give them a thorough wipe down.

Take out every single thing? you ask. Yes. Every. Single. Thing.

3. Sort and Purge Contents of Kitchen Cabinets

Start sorting items into Keep, Trash, Donate/Sell, and Relocate piles using a list of purging prompts to help you with the decision-making process. You may also find it helpful to refer to my list of “no brainer” items to toss during the kitchen declutter process.

Look for duplicates, broken/damaged items, containers with missing lids, & things you never use or didn’t even know that you owned (don’t laugh – it happens.) If space is limited in your kitchen, strongly consider relocating those seldom-used seasonal items that you’ve decided are worthy of keeping to another area of your home.

Once you’ve tossed the trash, put the donations in the car, and relocated those items that don’t meet the criteria you set during the Evaluate step, it’s time to turn your attention to those items you’re keeping.

Sort these items into categories that make sense to you.

Common kitchen cabinet (or drawer) categories of items that are located in either the kitchen cabinets/drawers include:

• Dishes & bowls
• Glassware, cups & mugs
• Pots & pans
• Bakeware
• Serving pieces
• Small appliances
• Paper goods
• Food storage containers
• Spices
• Cleaning supplies
• Tools & utility items.

Step 4: Organize Kitchen Cabinets

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Time for the fun part!

This is when you’ll be putting the items in the Keep pile back into the cabinets. Of course, you’ll be following those basic organizing principles that we’ve referred to over and over again during the past few months. I’m sure you could recite them in your sleep by now.

Be sure to maximize your cabinet storage space by using solutions that take advantage of vertical space and help you to access items stored in those deep cabinets.

For example, you can use a bakeware organizer to create vertical storage in the cabinet that houses your bakeware zone:

Use baskets to keep items within the same categories together (and separate from other categories). Corralling small items together in baskets also prevents these items from being lost in the back of the cabinet.

Don’t forget about labels! In this utility cabinet, for example, we use labels to identify where the various subcategories of items live (e.g., candles, tools, flashlights, etc.)

One last piece of advice — if you don’t already have the luxury of glide-out shelving built into your lower cabinets, consider installing one of the DIY glide-out shelf options.

This small investment will pay you back a million times over, consider what a world of difference it makes in increasing accessibility of those items stored in the back of your lower cabinets.

You know I must be obsessed with a product if it made the cut for my Top 10 List of Organizing Products. If this project is just not in the budget, check out this inexpensive organizing hack for transforming your lower cabinets into drawers. It’s genius!

I’ve curated a whole heap of genius kitchen cabinet organization hacks over on my Pinterest Kitchen Organization board as well.

Need a few products to complete your kitchen organization project? Shop from my curated list of favorite organizing & storage products.

Step 5: Schedule Regular Kitchen Cabinet Maintenance Sessions

Plan to go through this process on an annual basis to keep your cabinets in ship shape. It’s helpful to schedule your kitchen cabinet organization maintenance in conjunction with your spring or fall cleaning.

Your Kitchen Cabinet Organization Assignment

{Repeat this process for each cabinet in your kitchen}

1. Determine the categories of items you’ll store in the cabinet
2. Empty cabinet & give it a thorough cleaning
3. Sort items into Keep, Donate, & Trash piles
4. Explore options for maximizing storage & containing item families (if necessary)
5. Put items in your KEEP pile back into the storage space using basic organizing principles
6. Schedule a yearly appointment in your calendar for decluttering and organizing kitchen cabinets

Related Posts

Check out a few other posts that you may find helpful as you complete this week’s assignments:

• A Kitchen Speed Decluttering Tool
• No Brainer Things to Toss During Your Kitchen Decluttering Session
• Kitchen Organizing Products I Can’t Live Without
• Kitchen Countertop Organization
• Kitchen Drawer Organization

After you’ve completed this week’s assignment, share a photo of the items in your toss pile OR a photo of one of your newly organized cabinets on Instagram (use the hashtag #ORGANIZEANDREFINECHALLENGE and don’t forget to tag me).

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This post is part of the Organize and Refine Your Home Challenge