Organizing Kitchen Cabinets

With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s time for organizing those kitchen cabinets.  Your kitchen cabinets are the key to an organized and functioning kitchen.  Just as in any other space in your home, everything needs to have it’s own place.

Many of us are not blessed with an abundance of cabinet space, which is why we need to be creative when solving our overflow.  So with that in mind, you want to coordinate which cabinet is used for what.  Keep the things you use most, closest to the dishwasher.  By doing this it makes putting those things away quicker.  For example, you would not store fine china in the cabinet above the dishwasher.  So utilize the kitchen cabinets to work for you and your family.

Let’s talk about a few of your kitchen cabinets that drive you crazy.

Drinking Glasses & coffee cups

First empty the entire cabinet.  What all was really in there?  Let me guess….Thermoses & lids, sippy cups & lids, a thousand coffee cups and way to many fast food plastic cups.  Am I right?

Like me, most people have their favorite ice tea glass or coffee cup.  Get rid of everything you do not use.

Since I am the only coffee drinker here, I keep 4 matching coffee cups in my cabinet and that is it.  “But what to do with all of those ‘World’s Greatest Mom’ cups?”  If you just have to keep them, find other uses for them such as a pencil holder on your desk or take them to work.  Sometimes we let sentiment get in the way or logic, make some tough decisions and clear out the clutter.  If you need to keep some extras for guest, put those in a container in your pantry or some other place where you have space.

Maximize the space with wire shelf inserts. This will allow you to keep kids cups on top and coffee cups on bottom. Or put the basket under the shelf and the cups on top.

For those of you that have small children and are riddled with princess cups and sippy cups, only keep the cups and glasses that will stack together.  Keep a basket for all of the lids, inserts & straws.  Get all of those lids and straws out of your drawers, unless you have an abundance of drawers.  If you do not have room for this basket in your cabinet, try putting it in a deep drawer or the pantry.  Or use a decorative container that can stay on the counter.

I personally lay the stacked sippy cups with my lids & straws  into one basket, but my grand babies don’t live with me so just do what works for you but you have to pair them down.  Make sure all of the lids that you have, actually fit something.  You may find that you have odd pieces that you do not need. Throw them away!!

By the time you sort through all of the glasses and cups, you will be amazed at how much space you have created.  Place your most used items on the bottom shelf and the less frequently used items on the top.  Do not put anything in this cabinet that you do not use on a regular basis.

Plastic Food Containers

What do you do with all of the containers and lids?  Is your cabinet full of Cool Whip bowls &  ice cream buckets?  I understand that it is frugal to recycle these, I do the same but they do not have to take over.  So how to get that cabinet functioning properly?  First, completely empty it out the cabinet.

Do a quick survey of the things that you never use or shouldn’t be in this cabinet and set them aside.  Now, every container should have a lid.  If it does not have a lid, get rid of it or re-purpose it somewhere else.  Only keep containers that have lids!  Do not put the lids on them for storage.  You want to stack your containers inside larger ones to save space.  Personally, I use the matching Rubbermaid ones in assorted sizes.

For the lids, I use a wire mess basket with the lids standing on side according to size.  Larger ones in the back.  For the Larger lids that do not stand up in the basket, place them under the stack of containers that they fit.

Casserole Dishes 

Empty out the cabinet and get rid of anything you do not use on a regular basis.  If it is holiday related, store with other holiday goods in another cabinet or your pantry.

In my casserole dish cabinet, I use one of two methods.  For the ones that have flat lids, stack them inside one another when possible and keep the lids under the stack.  Or  keep the lids on them to stack .

If the lids have knobs on top,  turn the lid upside down inside the dish which allows for stacking as well.

Helper Shelves	Coffee Cup Holders	Casserole Dishes
Wire Storage Baskets	Food Storage Containers	Drinking Glasses
Cabinet Door Organizers	Lazy Susans	Dinnerware
Coffee mugs	Cocktail Glasses	Wine Glasses
Bar & Cocktail Accessories	Sippy Cups	Children’s Dishes

More Kitchen Cabinets:

Organizing Your Pots & Pans

Under Your Kitchen Sink

Spice Cabinet