Declutter and Organize Your Kitchen

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If you are looking for a step-by-step process to declutter and organize your kitchen, then this is your post. It even includes a free printable to guide you through the entire process, making it feel like you have a professional organizer right there with you.

Do you feel like your kitchen cupboards and drawers are constantly in disarray, even after (it feels like) you just organized them?

Or perhaps you feel like your kitchen is sufficiently organized, but not super functional?

(You hate that the drawer with the spatulas is so far from the stovetop, but know that in order to move them closer you’ll have to move the knives. And you’re not really sure where you’ll put them.)

Or perhaps your collection of water bottles and to-go coffee mugs barely fits in the cupboard, but you aren’t quite sure how to solve the problem?

If these problems sound all too familiar, then this post is for you. I am going to walk you through the process of decluttering and functionally organizing your kitchen, so it works for you!

Functionally organizing your kitchen

If you want to organize your kitchen the right way, the most important thing is that it must be functional. A functional kitchen is one that is efficient on many levels. It’s gotta be organized AND it has to be functional!

Imagine you’re in a friend’s kitchen, when she asks you to grab a towel. You open a drawer that might have kitchen towels in it but instead find the junk drawer. You open the next drawer and find its full of whisks. Where in the heck does she store the towels? (If the towels were near the sink – it would be functionally organized!)

There are 4 principles of having a functional kitchen:

1. Item locations should be logical. (They should be stored close to where they are used.)
2. It must be clean.
3. It cannot be cluttered.
4. Every item must be usable (not missing parts or needing fixed).

By applying these 4 principles, we are going to get your kitchen functionally organized!

How this process will work:

Because everyone’s kitchen is set up differently, there are different challenges you’ll have to tackle.

If you’re kitchen is on the smaller side or if it is really cluttered, you’ll want to focus more on minimizing the amount of stuff in your kitchen, while not losing functionality.

So intead of giving you a one-size-fits-all set of instructions, I’m going to teach you how to think through this process. This process will be based on the 4 principles of a functional kitchen. I will also give you some suggestions about things you can use to organize items when you put them back into your cupboards and drawers.

Step 1: Make a plan:

Before you get started, you should consider which items need moved to new spaces. If you are going to make major changes to the location of several items, I’d suggest writing down a possible plan before you get started.

Everybody’s kitchen has different challenges, but I would suggest storing:

• The silverware and cups close to the dishwasher. (This makes unloading the dishwasher so much easier!)
• The pots near the stove
• Like purposed items together (all the grilling tools together, all serving spoons together, etc)

In addition to trying to keep items near where they used, you want to also make sure items are stored in locations where they properly utilize the space (they should easily fit but not leave lots of empty space).

If you have young kids, I would strongly suggest putting things they need in locations that they can easily access.

For example, my kid’s cups and plates are at the front of the middle drawer in my island. It drove me bananas when they’d climb up on the counter to grab one. By putting their plastic cups and plates in a place that they can easily get to, it makes my kitchen functionally organized for them too!

Organizing your kitchen is like solving a puzzle. It’s okay to use trial and error to find where things fit best!

step 2: pick an area and get started

The first thing you are going to do is pick an area and take everything out of the cupboard or drawer.

Now you can wipe out the drawers (or space where they are stored). Usually, a simple wet washcloth works. If your drawers have grease buildup, you could use one of these methods to remove it.

Declutter the area:

During the decluttering process, you are hopefully going to get rid of a bunch of items. You should have 3 bins ready: trash, recycling, and donate/sell.

The first thing you should do is sort the items from that area. For example for my utensils, I separated them into a pile of spatulas, whisks, serving spoons, grilling tools, etc.

You can now start decluttering each of the piles.

Here are the 6 questions you should ask yourself during the decluttering process:

• Do you know what the item is? It’s a strange question, but it’s amazing how many things we acquire (probably as a gift) that might have an unknown use. If you don’t know what it is, you probably don’t need it. Put it in the donate/sell box.
• Does the item get used? If you can’t remember the last time you used the item, toss it into the donate/sell box.
• Is the item damaged? Any item that is not in working shape needs to go into the trash. (If needed, feel free to order a replacement for anything you’re throwing away at this time).
• Do you have too many of a certain item? For example, if you have 6 whisks, do they all serve a unique purpose? Is there a time that you use all of them at the same time? Would eliminating a few of them hinder your productivity in the kitchen?
• Are all the parts there? If the answer is no, you have two choices. You can either toss the item or order replacement parts. For example, if you have a variety of sippy cups and some are missing straws, lids, or valves, it’s probably time to toss them! On the other hand, if you have things like Pyrex storage containers that are missing lids, I would suggest ordering replacement lids.
• Can another item in your kitchen be used to achieve the same function? For example, my excuse for saving 37 pot holders (ok, it’s not quite that many) is that I need them for holidays to set hot dishes on. But the truth is, I could also set the hot dishes on a dishtowel instead. If your space is limited, this an important question to ask.

After decluttering, if the items are going back into the same space, I would put those items back before moving to the next area. If you are moving the items to a new location, you’ll have to empty out the spot they’re moving to.

On the FREE printable that is available at the bottom of this page, I’ll share more specific tips on how to declutter various parts of your kitchen. Be sure you subscribe to my site to get access to this freebie!

But next comes the fun part – organizing it!

organizing your kitchen drawers and cupboards:

Based on the plan you’ve made to functionally organize your kitchen, it’s time to put things away! (I’ll share pictures of how I organized my kitchen below.)

You have a lot of options when it comes to organizing your drawers and cupboards. I like to keep things simple and only use a few reasonably priced storage items. (I think most of the time you can get by using what you have – get creative! Use plastic storage containers and bowls when possible!)

I use a lot of plastic food storage containers from my cupboard (like Tupperware/Rubbermaid) to organize things.

If you need to buy anything, make sure you measure the space it’s going into. When I first organize my kitchen, I just went to Walmart or Target and purchased a variety of sizes of storage bins. I figured I could return anything I didn’t use. Additionally, I knew could use the bins in various places in my house, like the junk drawer, in my desk, and for my bathroom drawers.

Suggestions for organizing your silverware and utensils drawer

Below are several different options for organizing your silverware drawer. The first picture is the organizer I have. It is a simple silverware organizer that is reasonably priced.

The bamboo silverware organizer is “expandable,” meaning that its width can vary (from 13 to 19.6 inches) so it better fits the space you have (which can give you a more custom look and maybe even let you organize your drawer more efficiently.)

The next option is a great choice if you want to use a narrow drawer for silverware (or perhaps have limited drawer space). It is a silverware “tray.” You slip the silverware into each compartment, so they are arranged more compactly.

The last of these 4 options is a bamboo divider. These are pretty neat as their length can be adjusted and they allow you to divide your drawer into sections. This way you can customize the width of each compartment in your drawer.

Suggestions for organizing your utensils

There are a number of ways you can organize your utensils. The drawers for my utensils are narrow, so I mainly just use tupperware containers to organize small things and arrange the utensils neatly.

I would suggest using the bamboo dividers mentioned above.

You could also use a variety of storage containers, like the ones pictured below. There are various widths and some have two compartments. Many of these will interlock with each other. (I use one of these bins alongside my silverware organizer, to hold kitchen scissors and measuring spoons).

If your drawer space is limited, you could also store some of your utensils in a crock on your countertop.

suggestions for organizing Pots, Pans, and LIDS

I’m guessing most people long for their pots and pans to be better organized. There are some great organizational tools out there that are reasonably priced.

This organizer will help you organize pots, pans and lids. It’s very convnenient because you can adjust the spacing width for various items.

This one is separated into two smaller organizers and has 6 separate compartments. This would be great if you have a narrow cabinet for storing your pots and pans.

This pots and pan organizer can be used horizontally and vertically and can hold up to 60 lbs! It’s great for organizer things like cast iron skillets and dutch ovens.

This organizer is great for organizing all the storage container lids you have!

Organzing your spice cupboard:

Organzing your spices can be so helpful, because not only does it save you time, but it also makes it easier for you to know which spices you already have.

This is the organizer I use to organize my two spice cupboards (it also includes various baking things!) It’s super awesome because unlike some organizers that stairstep the organization of your spices, it’s easy to see and access all of my spices.

I also use something similar to these on the doors to my spice cupboards. They help utilize space that would normally not be utilized or would crowd the front of the cupboard. If your spice cupboard is full – these are awesome!

Depending on your space, a small lazy Susan can be a great tool for organizing your spice cabinet! Since it spins, it makes it easier to access all the spices.

These spice drawers are a bit pricy, but they do make it easy to get to spices, by simply pulling out the drawer from your cupboard (if that makes sense!)

pictures of my functionally organized kitchen:

Below are a few pictures of my kitchen. First of all, I want to be clear that I admittedly have a pretty full kitchen. That being said, I know where everything is (and my family knows where to find things). Additionally it stays pretty organized.

My goal of sharing these pictures with you is to show you how to utilize storage containers to organize things. By compartmentalizing like items, it is significantly easier to keep things organized.

Here is one of my spice storage cupboards. (The other one looks the same!)

For storing my food storage containers, I typically use the biggest container for storing lids. Then I try to organize the rest around the container with the lids. We have recently tried to switch to mainly glass containers. We are loving the IKEA ones.

(It may look like I have far too many lids, but many of my plastic containers are currently being used to organize various parts of my house, so I’ve kept the lids for those random containers just in case (and no extras!)

For the cupboard containing glasses, I’ve recently given away a large number. I’ve downsized water bottles to 2 per person (more on this in the printable!) I store straws for water bottles inside the bottles and the lids don’t quite fit when they are attached to the bottle, so I’ve placed lids in a plastic storage container next to the bottles.

(Here’s a cool organizer if you simply cannot stand to part with your water bottles!)

Wrapping up:

Using the 4 principles to a functional kitchen, the 6 questions that you should ask yourself during the decluttering process, and some suggested organizational items, you are now ready to declutter and organize your kitchen!

Once your kitchen is functionally organized, it will be easier and more fun to cook!

If you’re looking to get more organized in general, I’d suggest the next thing you do is tackle organizing your login information. If something happened to your phone or computer, would you easily be able to login to ALL the accounts you have? Click here to join this challenge! (By signing up for this, you’ll also get the password to unlock the free printable for this post!)

Also be sure to check out this post to declutter your purse.

Stay savvy,

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