Helpful Kitchen Cabinet Organization Solutions

Our Winter Home Organization Challenge continues in the kitchen! Today I’ll share my helpful kitchen cabinet organization solutions!

Let’s get started! 

Use the 6/P Strategy to Organize Your Kitchen Cabinets

I developed a strategy that makes organizing any space very simple.  Just follow the following six steps that start with the letter “P” and you’ll be organized in no time!

Use my handy printables to help you organize your kitchen! They’re free if you sign up for our email here!

Prepare

Set up your kitchen with a trash bag, a cardboard box, and a laundry hamper. Clear everything off of your kitchen table.

Purge

Remove everything from your cabinets and sort all of the items into one of the following categories:

• Trash-put any item that is worn out or broken in the trash bag
• Donate-put items that you no longer use, but are in good shape, into the cardboard box to donate
• Relocate-put any items that don’t belong in kitchen cabinet into the laundry hamper
• Replace-items that need to stay in the kitchen cabinets should be placed on the kitchen table. Put like items together into categories. 

Polish

Now is the perfect time to deep clean your cabinets inside and out. Consider adding shelf liners.

Personalize

Personalize the kitchen to meet your needs by asking yourself the following question:   

1. What items do I need to make or purchase to contain items inside the cabinets?

PLACE

Now it’s time to place items back in your kitchen cabinets in an organized manner.

• Discard the trash bag you filled up!
• If you have items to donate, don’t wait around, take them to the donation center soon!
• If you have items that belong in another room, deliver them now.
• Replace the items on your kitchen table and put them in a cabinet closest to the area you will use it.  For example, put pots and pans near your stove.

Put Back

If you want to keep your kitchen organized, you have to put things back in the cabinet you designated it to go in!

HOW I ORGANIZED MY KITCHEN cabinets

Are you ready for my helpful kitchen cabinet organization solutions?

The very best way to organize your kitchen cabinets is to incorporate zones. Your kitchen will function more efficiently if you store like items together. Here are the zones I use in my kitchen:

• Dish storage zone
• Food storage zone
• Meal prep zone
• Cooking zone
• Baking zone
• Cleaning zone
• Beverage zone

Let’s take a look at each of the zones!

Dish storage zone

This cabinet holds the plates and bowls I use daily. It is located close to my kitchen table.

Beverage zone

Here are our everyday cups and glasses. It is above the coffee maker and beside the refrigerator!

The white wire shelf allows me to stack the coffee cups, which automatically doubles the storage! Take advantage of vertical space whenever you can!

This cabinet contains our smoothie machine and accessories, water pitchers, coffee pods, tea, and lemonade. I also store vinegar to clean the coffee machine here.

I love the black wire mesh coffee pod holder! Next to it, I have a clear-tiered holder for my tea boxes.

Food storage zone

I keep all of the items I need for food storage in this cabinet.

One of my favorite organizers holds the lids for my glass dishes. It keeps them separated and upright, so it’s super easy to find the lid I need!

Meal prep zone

I store all of my measuring cups and bowls in this cabinet. I do meal prep below this cabinet, so it’s a very handy place to have them!

This cabinet contains spices, oil, vinegar, and items I use regularly when prepping meals. I’m so excited about this new spice organizer and will tell you more about it in the next section!

We have a tall, skinny cabinet that is the perfect size for my cutting boards.

I use an office incline file sorter to keep the cutting boards upright and separated. I always search my house for items I can use before I go out and buy new organizers! Who says you can’t use an office organizer in the kitchen!!

My trash and recycle cans are hiding in this cabinet! I just love how they slide out, super functional!

Cooking zone

Below the stove is a cabinet that holds all of my pots and pans. The organizer on the left is new and I’ll tell you all about it in the next section.

To the left of the stove is a cabinet that holds the lids for my pots and pans. As you can see, I used another file sorter, along with a specialty organizer, to store the lids.

Baking zone

All of my baking pans live in this cabinet. I keep my mixer and its attachments in the basket. I don’t bake as much as I would like to!

small appliance zone

I keep most of my small kitchen appliances in this cabinet.

Cleaning zone

I use the cabinet under my sink to store cleaning and dishwashing items. A cookie jar contains my dishwasher tabs!

A lazy Susan works great in this space. I just give it a spin to grab the cleaning product I need!

HOW I PERSONALIZED MY KITCHEN cabinets

The personalization step is very important when you organize. What works for me and my kitchen might not work for yours. I had three problems in my kitchen! Keep reading to see what solutions I came up with!

New pots and pan organizer

This year I purchased two new nonstick skillets! I don’t want to scratch the nonstick surface by stacking them.

As you can see in the picture above, the cabinet was getting crowded! So I decided to invest in another pot and pan rack that would make better use of the vertical space inside the cabinet.

I like this organizer because you can use it in three different configurations based on your needs!

At first, I didn’t think I was going to like it because it seemed a bit flimsy.

After I put it together and placed the pans on it, my fears subsided. It works great and makes good use of the vertical space!

New spice jars and rack

My old Kentucky home had a spice rack built into the pantry. So when we moved, I didn’t have a place to store my spices. I decided to put them in a drawer.

It looks nice, and it worked ok, but a few problems developed. First, I could not see or reach the spices on the back row. I had to remove the row in front of it to get to the spice I needed!

If you look closely at the drawer you can see that spices spilled out of the containers. Apparently, I did not always close the containers properly! So, I decided there had to be a better solution!

After doing some research, I decided on this spice rack with matching jars! I can see every spice I own and can easily reach it when needed! I also like that the lids screw-on instead of flipping open and closed, no chance of accidentally leaving it open!

You can order the rack with square or round jars. I chose square jars! It comes with tons of stickers and even some blank ones. It also comes with a funnel so you can easily transport the spice from your jar to the new one. I’m so happy with this purchase!

Paper towel holder hack

Earlier I was telling you how I love that my trash and recycle bins can be pulled out. Behind the cans is a small shelf where we store kitchen trash bags. Sounds great but it’s hard to reach the bags behind the trash cans.

I saw a hack where you take a roll of garbage bags, pull out the center bags, and place them on a dowel rod. Then they unroll like paper towels.

Griffin had this paper towel holder in his college stuff, so I snagged it and zip-tied it to the shelf. I did not remove the center bags. Instead, I pushed the roll down onto the paper towel holder. It holds the bags up high enough that they are easy to reach.

I know it looks weird, but it works and nobody will see it behind the trash can!

I hope my helpful kitchen cabinet organization solutions have inspired you to organize your kitchen this Winter! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Blessings, Donna and Rich

More Organizing Inspiration

• How to Organize Your Kitchen Using Zones
• Organize Your Kitchen Pantry
• How to Organize the Pantry
• Organize Kitchen Cabinets and Drawers
• Six-step Strategy to Organize Any Space in Your Home

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