Kitchens are one the hardest rooms to not only get organized, but to also to stay organized. For most families the kitchen is considered the central hub of the entire house. It is where most of the day to day action happens. With so much time spent in one place, making it clean and organized will only help you to enjoy it that much more.

I am a visual person. Anytime I am brainstorming ideas on how to do something, I almost always look to pictures for inspiration. That is why I thought it might be neat to show you in picture form how I organize every cabinet in my kitchen.

First lets get started with some basics. Here are a few things you should do to get the ball rolling…

Step#1: Empty Cabinets

Pull everything out of each cabinet and go through it. Discard or donate those things that are not frequently used, duplicate items, broken items or things you forgot you had. Do this with each cabinet and drawer, setting up separate areas on the floor for each group. Be ruthless. Most kitchens are short on storage space, so the goal is to only have things you love and use.

Step #2: Group Like Items Together

After your cabinets are all empty, consider what is best for you in terms of how to group items. Put the baking stuff in one pile. All of your cooking items, like pots and pans in another pile. Seasonal and less used items in a separate pile. I would also recommend putting your food in categories as well.

Step #3: Clean

While the cabinets are empty, clean them. Remove crumbs and dust. Then wipe down the inside of the cabinets by spraying a household cleaner onto a clean cloth and wiping all hard surfaces.

Step #4: Plan

Now that your items are grouped and your cabinets are wiped clean, it is time to plan where you will put everything. I highly recommend you try to store items closet to where you will use them most. This makes navigating your kitchen so much easier. It will also save you from spinning endless circles trying to get to everything.

Now that we have the basics of kitchen organization down. Here is a look into my personal cabinets and how I keep them organized. My hope is that this gives you ideas of what to do with your own cabinets. You can either copy my idea exactly, or you can spin it off into something that works for you in your space.

FOOD

I thought I would start with our pantry. It is not super big and the drawers do not tend to hold a lot of weight well. So I am a bit limited to what I can store in here. I have each row divided into catergories. The top row stores our vitamix and toaster. The next is for cereal and snacks. The third is for baking items, and the bottom is used to water bottles and lunch pails.

The next three cabinets store food related items. Because they are heavier and my pantry does not support that, I chose to store them here. I have one cabinet for things like pasta, pasta sauce, mac & cheese & rice. The other two are for spice packets, sauces, canned goods, and soups. All three of these are close to my stove for easy access.

DISHES & STORAGE CONTAINERS

The next two cabinets are for all my plates, cups, and glass wear. Years ago I decided to splurge a little and replaced all of our mismatched plastic dishes and swap it all out for glass. It was by far one of the best decisions I made. Not only does glass hold up better but it also look better! I call that a win!

I would highly recommend the dish risers you see above! They are amazing for maximizing your cabinet space. We are able to fit all of our plates and cups in this one cabinet.

In this cabinet I store all of my salad bowls, to-go containers, and their lids. Each basket above for the lids and is divided by size for ease of searching.

POTS & PANS

These drawers are PERFECT for pots, pans, crockpots, and other big kitchen utensils.

Here is another pull out drawer located next to our stove. When it comes to pots and pans, my advice is to keep it simple! This kind of big stuff can take up a lot of kitchen real estate. Only keep what you use on a regular basis. Pitch or donate the rest!

LAZY SUSAN

This was a hard one for me. I love the function and stability of a lazy susan, but I am not a fan of how easily things can get lost in here. I found it functions best when I use small clear containers to contain specific items I buy regularly. This way I can more easily look and see what we are out of. The bottom shelf holds more random items, but I do try to keep them grouped together for convenience.

This is in the corner on the other end of my kitchen. It is really deep and can hold a lot of stuff. However, I did find that things can get lost in here very easily. I found it best to use this sort of cabinet for bigger and bulkier things we buy in bulk at Costco. The top shelf is for dog food and extra cleaning supplies.

SEASONAL

I use my top two corner cabinets to store my more seasonal items. Just like the bottom two corner cabinets, I found it easy for anything small to get lost in the back. I store all of my seasonal dishes, bowls, table cloths, and mason jars in here.

In this one I store my casserole dishes and juicer. That’s it!

RANDOM EXTRAS

This is a small cabinet above my pantry. The top shelf has two bins that I use for party supplies. Things like paper plates, cups, straws, etc… The next two shelves hold coffee, tea, and all of our medical supplies. I wrote a post on how we organize that HERE

UNDER THE SINK

Last but not least is under our sink. Things I keep under here are wash rags, hand towels. cleaning rags, cleaning supplies, dish tabs, and garbage bags.

That is pretty much it! I hope this inspired you to organize your own kitchen cabinets?

Thanks for stopping!