How to Organize a Kitchen You’ll Actually Want to Cook In
An easy roadmap for organizing your kitchen.
If there’s one thing that can make or break my day, it’s a messy kitchen. When cooking 10+ recipes for clients each week plus trying my best to feed myself on a regular basis, having an organized kitchen really does make all the difference. I’ve had my fair share of kitchens, ranging from my shoebox RV kitchen with one cabinet where I wrote my first cookbook proposal to our kitchen now that boasts the most cabinets I’ve ever seen in an apartment. I swear, 400 of the 750 square feet of this apartment are kitchen cabinets. I’m not complaining.
The thing is, if those cabinets aren’t organized, finding joy in cooking is hard to come by. I’m sure you get it. The anxiety you feel when opening up a cupboard stocked full of expired packages, one too many of the same thing you never use but always think you’re out of (hello vegetable broth), and a plethora of half-used flour bags all of the same type. No? Just me? I doubt I’m alone in the kitchen cabinet disaster so I thought I’d pop in today with the perfect way to organize a kitchen the proper way, where everything has a place and cooking in the space is actually fun, not maddening.
If you haven’t guessed by now, my kitchen hasn’t always been neat and tidy but when I moved back to Oregon last fall, all of our belongings got lost by the moving company for over two weeks. Two weeks of sleeping on an air mattress lovingly borrowed from a friend and having nothing but a cast-iron skillet in the kitchen (very on-brand for us might I add). My husband, trying to find the bright side of the shitty situation, mentioned that we should take the time to actually plan where everything was going to go before it arrived so that unpacking wasn’t chaos like it normally is. He was right, it made all the difference in the world and has stayed fairly well organized 6 months in.
I’m excited to share this plan with you because it has drastically changed the way I feel when I step into the kitchen. Everything has its place and it’s infinitely easier to keep organized and clean. I’m someone who gets incredibly overwhelmed with clutter, and with all the ingredients/kitchen tools we have on hand for all the recipe development I do, it’s easy for all of it to get scattered pretty quickly. Not anymore.
First things first, you’ll need your roadmap which is essentially a drawing of your space. Alex quickly sketched our layout on his iPad but a plain sheet of paper works just as well. Once drawn, make sure to add the shelves to the cabinets, drawer dividers if you have them built-in, and all the fridge and freezer compartments. Like this:
Once you have your drawing, start labeling each drawer, shelf, and section with what you want to go where. Be mindful here and make sure you’re assigning things where they naturally go.
Here’s a quick reference guide for how a kitchen should flow:
Silverware - in your widest drawer, sometimes you won’t have much of an option here. I like to fit a utensil divider into the drawer to separate everything out into a neater space.
Spices - by your main cooking area, my spices are in our kitchen island in two drawers with these spice drawer liners. Don’t store spices right next to the stove as the heat can quickly degrade them.
Oil/Vinegar - also by your main cooking area but not directly above or beside the stove as again, heat can degrade those as well.
Plates/Serving Dishes/Mixing Bowls/Leftover Containers/Glassware - by the sink and dishwasher are the best places for most of these items making it easy to unload after washing.
Countertop Appliances - above the refrigerator works great for ones not used frequently as do cabinets lower to the floor.
Pantry Items - if you have a pantry this is a no-brainer but if not, choose cabinets away from the floor and not close to the stove.
Oven Mitts, Aluminum Foil, Parchment Paper, Trivets - by the stove.
Sheet Pans, Casserole Dishes, etc - a large drawer works great for these types of items as I find it’s hard to arrange them in a cabinet. Though, if your cabinets have a pull-out organizer it could work well there.
A note on countertops - I like to keep my countertops pretty clear so that I actually have prep space in order to cook without feeling cramped. I recommend only keeping the essentials you use on a routine basis on the counter. For me, this looks like my blender, juicer, sparkling water machine, and a trivet next to the stove with my salt jar, pepper grinder, a bottle of olive oil, and a utensil crock holding wooden and stainless spoons, ladles, etc. Be picky when it comes to what takes up space. If you only use something once a month or so, it’s better stashed away somewhere else.
Ok, so for your reference here’s what my plan looked like after assigning everything a home, you can also see that we listed measurements of each cabinet and drawer making it easy to see what would fit where, what size dividers and bins we may need, etc. You may need to zoom in depending on the device you’re on…
Second, it’s much easier to do this while your kitchen is empty. That’s easy when you’re moving into a new space but not as easy when it’s the kitchen you’ve lived in for 20+ years. Still though, removing everything from every drawer, cabinet, fridge, freezer, and pantry and starting with a clean slate will make a world of difference. I would start with removing everything, tossing the expired items, making a pile of items you wish to donate, a pile of items you wish to sell if applicable, and then grouping everything together into cohesive groups - think silverware, odds and ends kitchen tools, flours, baking, canned goods, grains, etc.
Once you have your groupings it’s easy to visualize how much space you need for each and you can easily update your layout/plan if needed before resembling everything. Obviously do your perishable items last so that it’s a quick process and nothing gets spoiled. You can also use this time while everything is out in the open to wipe out your cabinets (looking at you, ring of crystallized maple syrup) and fridge and freezer.
Once everything is nicely organized, simply let things be for a week or so. That way, you can see if anything naturally needs to be changed. Say, for example, you reach for your spice drawer multiple times thinking it’s the silverware drawer, you’ll know that the two need to be swapped for your natural kitchen flow.
You can get even crazier with the organization and use a bunch of bins to hold everything neatly in cabinets too. I’m not as organized as say, The Home Edit, but I do love a good turntable for oil and vinegar as well as bins in the refrigerator. I also tend to dump my flour and grains into glass containers as leaving them in their bags always seems to make a mess everywhere.
