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Let’s face it. No matter how well you organize your kitchen to begin with, it needs constant upkeep. The mess always creeps back in – and one fateful day when it reaches that critical mass, you feel like pulling everything out and starting over.
A couple years back when we moved into our new apartment, our sprawling kitchen was my pride and joy. It was the one area I was most excited to set up. I knew it had to be perfect. So I put some systems in place, thought about what needs to go where, bought tools where needed.
Flash forward two years. I’m still constantly improving areas in my kitchen, organizing them better, putting smarter tools in place and editing things basis our changing needs.
The great thing is that with every single edit, I learnt how to best optimize the process of kitchen organization. Over time, I’ve come up with a simple step by step process to organize the kitchen. A process that works every time.
Maybe you’re looking to set up your kitchen from scratch, maybe you just want to reset everything and make things more organized, or maybe you just want to reorganize one kitchen area.
Whichever the case, I will share with you 9 simple steps that can help organize your kitchen from scratch, and take it from mess – to magic.
Critically Analyze Your Current Kitchen
Before you dive into it, it’s important to take a hard look at your kitchen, and ask yourself a few questions.
What part of the kitchen gets the most messy? What are the most common reasons for the mess? What part of the kitchen feels inaccessible? Is there a drawer you never want to open because it gives you stress? Is there a cabinet full of stuff you haven’t used for a while?
Basically, at this stage what you want to do is get a lay of the land. Identify the problem areas. And don’t be afraid to be ruthless.
Imagine your Ideal Kitchen
Once you’ve earmarked the problem areas – it’s time for the fun bit.
Think about the kind of kitchen you’d love to visit. I personally like to obsess over this for a few days 🙂 Looking at inspiration from around the internet, pinning hacks and ideas.
But you can do this in an hour or less, if you’d like. All you really need to do is think about your kitchen space and how best you’d like to set up things.
This plan should try to answer the problems you may have identified before.
Let’s say you realized your coffee supplies are getting lost in the rest of your pantry cabinet. Maybe your new vision for your kitchen can have a dedicated coffee station?
Feel free to jot down your ideas or even make a little sketch for your spanking new kitchen plan!
There are a few best practices when it come to arranging things in your kitchen – I’ve done extensive research on this and can help you get started with what should go where in your kitchen.
Get the Organization Tools You Need
Now that you have a larger vision and a rough plan, you can start thinking about how you will execute it – and actually organize your kitchen.
You will likely need the help of some smart kitchen organizers to maximize all your kitchen space.
My suggestion? Don’t just jump on Amazon to buy a bunch of trending kitchen organizers. Take a thorough look at your available space. Measure the size of your kitchen cabinets. Make a note of space that can be used better.
Maybe you have unused vertical space. Maybe you have a lot of horizontal space but everything is getting mixed in. Do you have more drawer space, or less?
The kind of organizers you buy should be tailor-made to answer your specific problems.
Go Zone By Zone
When you’re just starting to organize your kitchen, instead of starting all at once and getting overwhelmed, I find it’s better to tackle the kitchen in ‘zones’ or areas.
I like to divide up the kitchen into smaller, less intimidating areas.
I’ve done detailed organization articles for many of these areas and linked to them – feel free to click and as and when you want to organize that specific area.
The Food Zone
Your pantry, fridge, spices – any area that contains active food.
The Utensils Zone
This should include your crockery cabinet, your pots and pans, your cutlery drawer, even your glassware.
Storage and Miscellaneous Items
Like plastic containers and baking supplies.
Kitchen Cleaning Supplies
Dishwashing detergents, dish rags, any other kitchen cleaning chemicals.
Each ‘zone’ in your kitchen will need a slightly different strategy and approach.
Out With It!
Once you’ve decided on which zone to tackle first, the best way to start is to go old school.
Pull out everything from your cabinets.
The little jars hiding at the back , the forgotten juicer – everything needs to come out and be visible.
This may seem overwhelming at first, but I promise it’s going to feel better, real quick.
Purge, Purge, Purge!
Check for expired food items, broken plastic boxes, unused pots and pans.
Throw what can’t be used, donate what you know you won’t use.
It helps to segregate stuff in boxes or baskets, so you can quickly trash/give away stuff.
This should already start to feel good, because you’ll be surprised to see how much clutter is already out of the way.
Clean and Prep
Since you’ve emptied your cabinet or drawer, now would be a good time for a quick clean.
Make sure you reach deep into the corners and give it a thorough wipe down, because you never know when you’ll get the chance to deep cleaning again.
You can also add any drawer or shelf liners at this stage. Opt for non-slip durable ones so that they don’t end up adding to mess later. These ones from amazon are pretty smart, non-slip and durable too.
Add In Organizers
This is where you can add in your organizers.
Plate racks, shelf risers, drawer dividers, storage bins and baskets – all can come in handy when placed right.
Give Everything a Home
Just like you do when you organize any space in your home, it’s important to earmark spots for everything.
Especially if you don’t want your kitchen to quickly get messy again.
Even the little things need a designated spot.
Kitchen gloves, linen, butter paper, rubber bands – everything.
This can seem quite taxing because there are always a few things you can’t seem to find a home for.
There is a certain science to this, and you can read all about what should go where in your kitchen, here.
Because if it’s done once, it’s done forever.
