If the darkest corners of your kitchen cabinets contain long-forgotten gadgets and out-of-date chickpeas, it's time to reorganize. You might be wondering what you need to organize kitchen cabinets and how to organize them best so that no appliance or jar of sauce is left behind. Luckily, it's not too hard with a bit of time and effort.
You'll need to start by decluttering your kitchen cabinets and planning out the perfect spot for everything to go. Then you can move on to finding pieces of equipment to help you on your organizational quest.
Before anything else, remove everything from your kitchen cabinets and get rid of anything you don't use, expired food and ingredients you bought on a whim but will probably never use. You can donate that spiralizer you used once to a thrift store, while food banks will happily accept shelf-stable foods that are still in date. There's no point reorganizing items that you're never going to use.
Once you've paired back the items in your kitchen cabinets to what you'll eat, plan out your cabinets so that you've got a place for everything. It makes sense to store like with like, so you might have one cupboard for dried and canned goods, one for plates and bowls and another for small appliances like blenders and waffle makers.
Save space in your cabinets by nesting smaller pots, pans and bowls inside larger ones. When stacking any pots or pans with nonstick coatings that could be scratched, use a pan protector between each to avoid damage.
Using containers to store dry goods not only looks neater and keeps food fresher but can help fit more in your cupboards. The problem comes when you don't label each container, causing you to forget which one holds bread flour and which one holds all-purpose flour. Therefore, you should always remember to label your storage containers. Keep things neat by using a label maker.
If some of your cabinets are open or have glass-fronted doors, consider which items you put on display and which you tuck away. Some people might have an obvious choice of presentation, such as their vintage Pyrex collection or their best china, while others will need to think more carefully about what to show off.
If you're serious about having well-organized kitchen cabinets, we'd highly recommend decanting dry goods into individual storage containers. This includes items such as rice, pasta and flour. Packets look messy in cupboards and are challenging to stack once opened. Storage containers, on the other can, you can line up neatly and stack where appropriate. OXO Good Grips POP Square Food Storage Containers are an excellent choice. Their square shape makes them easier to line up and stack in cupboards without wasted space, while their airtight seal keeps food fresh.
Cookie sheets, chopping boards, pot lids and other flat items can end up getting messy quickly when you store them on top of one another. Instead, you can make better use of space and keep your cabinets neater by using a wire organizer rack, such as the YouCopia Bakeware Storemore Adjustable Rack. Store items upright in the rack and never again be forced to wrestle a baking tray from the bottom of a precarious pile.
Any keen cook will have a large number of herbs and spices in their cabinets. Keeping them on a single layer takes up a lot of space and makes those at the back of the cabinet hard to find. Instead, you can put a spice shelf in your cabinet to lift the spices in the back so you can get to them more easily, like the Seville Classics 3-Tier Bamboo Spice Step Shelf. There are also plenty of spice racks on the market that you can use on your countertop.
Keeping pantry staples in slide-out baskets and bins will maximize space and make it easier to access items in the back of the cabinet. The SimpleHouseware 2 Tier Sliding Cabinet Basket is an excellent choice due to the two-level design that makes use of the vertical space in your kitchen cabinets.
Another way to make sure items don't get lost at the back of your kitchen cabinets and forget about is using turntables, like the OXO Good Grips Turntable. You can put any items of your choice on these turntables, allowing you equal access to all of them by simply rotating the turntable. If you often forget about things at the back of a cabinet or make a mess getting them out, a turntable is a good option.
If you're keeping short items, like mugs or spice jars, in your kitchen cabinets or don't want to stack too many dishes on top of one another, you can end up with a large amount of wasted vertical space. Shelf organizers are like adding extra shelves inside your cabinet. This allows you to store an extra layer of goods where you'd generally have empty space. The DecoBros Kitchen Cabinet Shelf Organizer is an excellent choice because it’s strong, expandable and completely freestanding.
Although not technically cabinets, it's also essential to organize your kitchen drawers. Kitchen drawer organizers, like the Joseph Joseph DrawerStore, allow you to fit more in your drawers and keep it neater. Most have space for knives, forks and spoons, along with some larger utensils.
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Lauren Corona writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
