Kitchens can be one of the most challenging rooms in the home to organize and this can be for many reasons! It’s a functional room that gets used frequently, therefore it’s easy for clutter to build up and for things not to end up where they should be.
When it comes to how to organize a kitchen, drawers can end up being a dumping ground for pots, pans and utensils because drawers can easily be shut and hidden away. Avoid this from happening by trying out one of these viral tricks that are backed up by experts.
Take everything out
First things first, before we get into tricks and tips, the main decluttering hack is to take everything out of your kitchen drawers and do a solid review of what you do need and what you don’t. Professional organizer Ben Soreff explains that ‘the first step in organizing kitchen drawers is the review. Take everything out and sort. You may find that over the years you have accumulated multiples of kitchen items like spatulas and spoons. Some came from your first apartment, your parents downsizing, blending families. Some of the items may be beaten up, chipped, or broken’.
‘Lastly, focus on how often you use an item. That melon baller or ice cream scoop might have been useful for one party but you don't use it every day or even every week. Now that you know the quantity you can decide the best place for the items to live’.
1. Use dividers
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Kitchen drawers are usually home to many different sorts of items that come in all different shapes and sizes. For example, cutlery, utensils, kitchen foil and other bits and bobs. Try your best to organize them all so they can be stored neatly in one place by investing in some drawer dividers like these acrylic ones.
Alternatively, Ben suggests investing in some choice kitchen organizers. ‘Simple spring-loaded dividers as they create zones for your kitchen gadgets and prevent not being able to find what you are looking for’. You can get a selection of different sized dividers that have varying lengths and widths, meaning you’ll be able to find a home for every item necessary.
2. The gel trick
There’s nothing worse than coming up with a storage solution and then realizing it doesn’t work as well as you thought it would.
A great trick from professional organizer Shara Kay is to ‘use a dab of museum gel (like this from Amazon) in the corners of drawer inserts to hold them in place, so they don’t slide around as you open and close the drawer’.
This may sound self explanatory, however if you haven’t thought of it before then it’s a great hack to stop this from happening. Alternatively, you could place a non-slip sheet underneath your dividers and this will achieve the same effect.
Spice jar organization
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Spice jars can be fiddly and aren’t the easiest vessels to store. However, there is a viral kitchen drawer solution that works a treat for organizing spices in a kitchen. Get yourself some bamboo racks from Amazon that fit neatly into your kitchen drawers and you can store your spice jars this way.
What’s better is that they will all be leaned slightly upright and facing you, so they are easy to grab when you need them.
Take it to the next level of organization and ‘use a paint pen or permanent marker to label the tops or sides of spices or supplement’, explains Shara. This way, you instantly know what is in each jar and you can add some personalisation to your jars, too.
4. Innovative cutting board storage
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Cutting boards are another one of those kitchen items that can be tricky to store. Serving boards made out of reclaimed wood that have a rustic feel act as wonderful kitchen countertop decor, however if you have more practical plastic chopping boards then you are probably going to want to store those away.
‘Gain a drawer by removing cutting boards and storing them vertically in a cabinet’, says Shara Kay. The viral organization method shown in the TikTok video involves using a rack that can be hung over the door to neatly store chopping boards away meaning they are out of sight and out of mind!
