Organize More

Organizing your kitchen cabinets saves time, stress and money.

Having a well organized kitchen also keeps mess and waste from occurring. With a de-cluttered and labeled kitchen you will spend less money buying duplicate items that you can’t find, less time searching for ingredients for your favorite recipes, and there will be much less breaking, spilling, spoiling and tossing.

Organizing your kitchen cabinets breaks down like this: toss, keep high, keep low, keep eye level.

Before you begin, have garbage bags, shelve liners, cleaning supplies, clear containers, and a label maker available. 

Here are the steps you need to take:

1) Take everything out of the cabinets.  

2) Clean the cabinets, inside and out. After cleaning, line them with a pretty shelf paper or non-slip runners specially made kitchen cabinets.

3) Put heavy items like appliances, pots and pans, and bakeware in lower cabinets and on lower shelves. Wipe them all down before putting them away. Group items by frequency of use with the least used in the back, and the most used in the front for easy access. Items that haven’t been used in the last 2 years should be given away… if you don’t use it, you don’t need it.

4) Put things that you rarely use like good crystal, or great-grandmom’s soup turin, on higher shelves and in hard to reads places.

5) Everyday dishes, glasses and mugs should go above the sink, and near the dishwasher to be easily put away after washing.

6) Now separate food products. Anything that has gone bad, looks funny, has expired, or is never used should be purged.

7) Return the rest of the food items,by type, on the eye level shelves. Put spices together, cereals and breakfast items together, baking goods together, cans together, etc.

8) Use clear stackable canisters, can dispensers, and step shelves to make the shelves easier to use, and product easy to identify.

This organizing project should take two to four hours, depending on the size of your kitchen. When finished, pour yourself a tall glass of iced tea, take a deep breath, and be proud of yourself. You just made your life a whole lot easier.