Organize Your Kitchen: Genius ideas for your most-used room

Organizing your kitchen can be an exciting & overwhelming event.  Figuring out the best place to put each item will end up saving you a ton of time and effort as you move forward.

My Story of Overwhelm:

In 2011 I moved from a 1,100 square foot house in California into a 2,300 square foot house in Arizona.  I was in absolutely BLISS over my new kitchen.

However, in looking for kitchen organization, I mostly just found information on baskets and bins (which we couldn’t afford after the move).

I did find a few gems, and I have started to make my own list as we’ve been here.  Anything I wish I had done differently (or things I later thought were super smart)  I’m excited to share them with you!  Having an organized kitchen makes meal prep about 10 thousand times easier! 🙂

I DID also talk about this whole topic in Episode 004 of my podcast Pregnancy & Parenting Untangled:

You don’t have to be moving fresh into a new kitchen to make these adjustments (they’re just easier and very smart to do).  You can re-organize your kitchen at any point, or even just make small adjustments to make life easier

Organize Your Kitchen

Define The Kitchen Territories

Now, this didn’t matter as much when we had such a tiny kitchen in California. There wasn’t much territory to split up, but now that I have a larger kitchen with a circular flow around an island I needed to sort of split the kitchen into specific areas.  

A note on small kitchens: I think zoning can help in ANY room regardless of the size. While “zoning” happens somewhat naturally (we put all the silverware) sometimes being a little more intentional with your thoughts about what is going where can help a lot.

I knew I needed a baking area (as I make bread & cookies a lot), an oven use area, and a dishes area.

Step 1: Create a Baking Area

This is where you put your baking goods (obviously).  I have a whole cupboard with flour, sugar, etc.  Plus, all my baking powder, oil, chocolate chips are also around there.  The majority of baking can happen in just that corner.  Things that are great to keep in this area:

• Staples
• Your Mixer (both stand &/or hand) — I now have a Bosch Universal Mixer (the Bosch my favorite — I compare Bosch vs Kitchenaid here.)
• Measuring Cups/spoons — I love these and these.

Of course, things you don’t reach for often will be in another spot.  This area should be available for the things accessed most frequently.

These are my favorite containers to keep staples in smaller areas (because you can buy them nice & tall — which helps with vertical organization).

Step 2:  Create a Dishes Area

One thing that has saved me a world of hurt is putting the dishes cabinet close to the dishwasher.  It is SO much easier to load.  

In my mind, I think I would have used one of the larger cabinets for this, which would have been a BIG mistake.  I felt like the tiny cabinet that we had wouldn’t hold them all, but with some creative plate racks, it has totally worked!  Also, the silverware is just behind it.  This was super smart of me! #momwin

Creative use of dish space is a TOTAL MUST.  Check out my before & After….

A few things that helped me to use a small cabinet for our main dishes:

• Plate racks — make it SO much easier than stacking on top of each other
• Corelle dishes are so thin (also helps in the dishwasher)
• Paring down our vast mug collection (my husband was a teacher and he always got tons of mugs) — I thought these were cool for stacking!

If you struggle with decluttering, my FREE 5-Word Challenge might be helpful!

Step 3:  Organize Your Cooking Area

This is an area for larger dishes that you use in the oven, and then platters to put things fresh out of the oven on.  All of our Pyrex bakeware is in there.  

The cake pans and cookie sheets are below the oven (just because it’s a great place to store them).

My spices are also there — makes them easy to get when stirring stuff on the stove.

I have a little container (like this one) that keeps all my often-used spatulas and whisks close at hand, then the rest of those items are in a drawer just to the side of the stove.  I think it’s super handy to have that as I cook.

I also have the most INSANE cupboard to the right of my stove.  That’s right in a corner and SO deep (which I talk about in this post on awkward cupboards).

I also have a video about how I organized it in this course because you might have an insane cupboard too.  Either way — this was imperative.

A little organization in the kitchen goes a long way (and makes it way easier to keep a clean kitchen!).  It will save you steps when you’re cooking dinner as well as brainpower when things are just within arm’s reach.

Not sure where to start?

A lot of people just have no idea where to start. But, here’s my truth bomb. It really doesn’t matter where you start (literally, like — there’s no WRONG place to get going) — that’s an excuse your brain is making to not get started. So, shut off your brain, and start in the first area you see.

The Organized Home has ways to support your brain in this journey (because I KNOW it wants to say — BURN IT DOWN — I’ve been there).

• Ideas on categorizing your rooms into “zones”
• Helpful tips on decluttering, to help you let go of unnecessary items
• Monthly and weekly challenges, plus assignments to get you past the motivation bump and get going.

The good news is that organizing is addicting. Once you realize how much easier you’ve made one part of your house, it’s a lot easier to skip Netflix for an hour and do something productive (and then enjoy some Netflix).

Don’t let that overwhelmed feeling stop you — let’s do it together. Save 10% with code PC10!

If you liked this post, I also have a home cleaning checklist — join my thousands of followers who have figured out a cleaning schedule works for them.