Simple Ways to Organize Kitchen Drawers

Welcome to the 2022 Winter Home Organization and Improvement Challenge! The first space I’ll be tackling is the kitchen. There’s a lot to do in this space, so I am going to break it down into smaller sections to make the job easier! In the coming weeks, I’ll cover cabinets, pantry, and fridge/freezer organization. Today I’ll begin by sharing simple ways to organize your kitchen drawers!

Let’s get this challenge started!

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Table of Contents

Use the 6/P Strategy to Organize Your Kitchen Drawers

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

A printable listing six steps to organize your kitchen drawers.

1. Prepare

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

2. Purge

Remove everything from your drawers 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 the kitchen into the laundry hamper
Replace-items that need to stay in the kitchen should be placed on the kitchen table, put like items together into categories

3. Polish

The drawers are empty so give them a deep clean inside and out. Consider adding liners inside the drawers.

4. Personalize

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

What items do I need to make or purchase to contain items in the drawers?

5. PLACE

Now it’s time to place items back in the kitchen drawers in an organized manner. Don’t forget to:

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 all items on your kitchen table. Put each item in a drawer that is close to the area where you will use it. For example, put eating utensils in a drawer close to your kitchen table. When it’s time to set the table, you don’t have far to go!

6. Put Back

If you want to keep your kitchen organized, you have to train yourself, and your family members, to put items back in the drawer you designated them to go in!

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HOW I ORGANIZe MY KITCHEN drawers

The majority of my kitchen drawers look the same as they did last year! However, I did have a couple of drawers that were not functioning well for me!

Let’s start with the drawers that are working well then, I’ll show you how I personalized the ones that weren’t working for me!

Eating utensils and dish cleaning Drawer

This drawer is inside my kitchen island which is right beside the sink.

How to organize gray and white kitchen towels and dishcloths in a kitchen drawer.

The right side of the drawer holds my towels and dishcloths. They are in perfect reach from the sink!

A utensil tray with divided sections showing how to organize knives, forks, and spoons in a kitchen drawer.

The left side contains brushes I use when I’m washing dishes and cleaning the sink!

This is the closest drawer to my eat-in kitchen table so it’s the perfect place to keep our eating utensils. Makes setting the table or the kitchen island a breeze!

meal prep drawer

This drawer contains items I use when preparing a meal! Most of the tools are for cutting, chopping, slicing, shredding, and mincing!

Do I need to put a warning label on this drawer? It does contain dangerous items, so please use them at your own risk, lol!!

Measuring drawer

A utensil holder showing how to organize measuring cups and spoons in a kitchen drawer.

I keep my measuring cups and spoons in this drawer. I also store my spatulas here!

junk drawer

Can’t forget about the most important drawer in the kitchen…the junk drawer!

Everyone has a junk drawer, don’t they??

Please tell me I’m not the only one!

A kitchen junk drawer showing how to organize batteries, scissors, tools, and meds.

I love having a place to store items I use daily, like my vitamins, dog meds, pencils/pens, and scissors.

The battery organizer is my favorite thing in the drawer!

We also store a few tools that we use regularly here!

HOW I PERSONALIZED MY KITCHEN DRAWERS

As I mentioned above, I had a couple of drawers that were giving me some trouble! Let me explain!

Spice Drawer

Below is my spice drawer. It looks very organized, but looks can be deceiving!

A kitchen drawer showing how to organize spices.

I had to take out the larger spice bottles to reach the smaller ones in the back of the drawer.

Now, the ones in the back were my least used spices, but it was still a hassle because I could not reach them or see what I had back there.

Oh yes, I had one other reason I didn’t like this configuration, sometimes I didn’t get the top closed completely and spices would spill out in the drawer.

What a yucky mess, huh?