Where to Put Pots and Pans in Kitchen

Need ideas for how to organize your kitchen? These DIY kitchen organization and storage hacks can help you maximize space in cluttered cabinets and drawers, get your pantry and fridge in order, and tackle some of those frustrating kitchen messes. Dive into the 31 kitchen organization tips below!

Organize Your Pantry with Baskets

Want better kitchen pantry organization? Whether you have a walk-in pantry or you're using a kitchen cabinet for food storage, baskets and bins can make a world of difference when it comes to finding what you need! You can store canned goods, bread, chip bags, cereal, snacks, spices, and all kinds of items in baskets and bins for quick access. Go the extra mile by adding rollout shelves in your pantry!

Use Clear Storage Containers with Labels

If you want to maximize space in your pantry, get rid of boxes. They take up a lot of usable space in cabinets and on shelves. Pull your food and ingredients out of their original packaging, and place them in clear food storage containers that you can label and seal tightly. You can buy pre-labeled food containers or you can design pantry labels yourself!

Declutter Your Refrigerator with Bins

The refrigerator is often forgotten when it comes to kitchen organization, but it's one of the most important places to keep tidy. Not only does it help you find food, drinks, and ingredients quicker, but it also allows you to see your inventory so you're less likely to waste food or buy things you already have. Add clear bins to your fridge to keep items visible and organized!

Utilize the Space Above the Fridge

Small kitchens in particular require some creativity when it comes to kitchen organization. That's why one of the best kitchen storage ideas is to think vertically—specifically, above your refrigerator! Since this space can be harder to access than lower cabinets and shelves, it's a great spot to store items you don't use as frequently, such as china, serving trays, or small kitchen appliances like blenders. Don't have a cabinet over your fridge already? Learn how to build a DIY fridge cabinet!

Add Shelves for More Storage

Especially if you don't have a lot of counter or cabinet space available in your kitchen, shelves can be an excellent addition for kitchen storage. Keeping dishes, glassware, kitchen utensils, and appliances you're not using out of the way can help you stay organized and clutter-free! Wherever you have open wall space, take advantage by hanging floating shelves. You can also opt for shelves with hooks beneath so that you can hang everything from dish towels and coffee mugs to knives and measuring cups!

Install Tiered Drawers in Large Cabinets

Do you have large base cabinets in your kitchen? Rather than waste space by storing only a few items, maximize the available height of these cabinets by installing tiered kitchen cabinet drawers! Not only does this allow you to store more items in one cabinet, but it also makes locating cookware faster since you can pull out drawers to find what you need! You can find pre-made cabinet rollout drawers in most home stores, or you can make your own with this DIY sliding cabinet drawer tutorial.

Go with Peg Organizers in Dish Drawers

Need ideas for organizing your dishes? If you keep your dishes in a deep kitchen drawer, insert a dish drawer peg organizer! These organizer inserts make it easy for you to customize peg placement for your dish size. That way, you can store all sizes of plates and bowls together in a drawer without having to worry about your dishes falling over or scratching other dishes. And if you're a DIYer, you can make your own dish drawer organizer with a pegboard, dowels, and a few simple tools!

Use Organizers on Cabinet Shelves

Even if you already have shelves in your kitchen cabinets, you can further maximize storage space by adding dish racks, stacking shelves, and tiered organizers. This kitchen organization idea allows you to fit varying sizes of dishes and glasses in your cabinet so that you don't waste any available space—not to mention, it makes grabbing dishes easier since you won't have to move everything else around!

Create a Spice Drawer

If you need somewhere to store kitchen spices, designate a drawer for your ingredients! By repurposing a drawer, you can free up space in your pantry or kitchen cabinets, and you'll have an easy-to-reach spot where you can quickly grab the spice you need. You can also transfer your spices into labeled jars to ensure they're all the same size and get better-looking drawer organization! Learn how to build your own tiered spice drawer insert.

Utilize Baking Sheet Dividers

Instead of throwing your baking sheets under your oven or into a cabinet without any organization, opt for a baking sheet divider! Whether you want to store your baking sheets up above your fridge in a cabinet, in a thin side cabinet, or in a large base cabinet, there are tons of ways you can keep baking sheets divided and organized in your kitchen. It can be as simple as adding a file organizer to your cabinet or building your own DIY pullout baking sheet organizer!

Improve Corner Cabinets with Pullouts

Corner cabinets (also called blind cabinets) are a pain. They're deeper than most kitchen cabinets and typically include awkward angles, which makes storing cookware, small appliances, and other kitchen items difficult. One way to get around the inconvenience of these cabinets is to install tiered shelving that can be spun inside the cabinet or pulled out of the cabinet entirely. This kitchen hack makes it easier to find what you need in a pinch! Whether you want a half-moon Lazy Susan, sliding drawers, or swing-out baskets, you can find all kinds of blind cabinet ideas based on the shape of your cabinet.

Go with a Stacked Pan Organizer

Looking for a simple way to find pans in your kitchen cabinets? Get a pan organizer! These storage racks are set up like a tower, allowing you to stack pans on top of one another so you don't have to pull out all of your pans just to find the one you need. This is a great space-saving trick for small cabinets, as well as an awesome way to maximize space in a tall base cabinet with no shelving.

Install a Hanging Pots & Pans Organizer

Another solution for organizing pots and pans is to create a pullout rack with hooks so you can hang your pots and pans in your cabinet versus stacking them. This can be especially helpful for anyone with kitchen cabinets. Check out this video to create your own hanging pots and pans organizer.

Organize Lids on Cabinet Doors

Pots and pans take up a lot of room in cabinets, and when you add lids to the mix, it can be difficult to manage. If you need a better solution for how to organize pots and pans, move lids to the cabinet door with mounted hangers. This allows you to keep lids and pans together but in a more manageable way!

Separate Tupperware with Dividers

Food storage containers are notoriously hard to organize because of their varying sizes, and they can easily consume an entire shelf or cabinet when not properly stored. A simple solution for keeping these often unruly items contained in a drawer, on a shelf, or in a cabinet is to use drawer dividers, file organizers, or even bins. Be sure to keep corresponding lids and containers together!

Divide Kitchen Utensils in Drawers

Having to rummage through drawers filled with unorganized kitchen utensils is frustrating. Save yourself the hassle by getting silverware trays and drawer organizers. With bins of all sizes, you can manage drawer clutter and keep similar items together so that finding what you need is simple!

Use Mason Jars to Organize Cooking Utensils

If you don't have a lot of drawer space for your kitchen utensils, mason jars are a budget-friendly solution. Within a large jar—or several jars—you can keep spatulas, tongs, whisks, and other handy utensils on the counter. You can even decorate the jars to match your personal style or home decor. Here's a pro tip: Put all of your mason jars on a Lazy Susan to make them even easier to access!

Hang Utensils on Cabinet Doors

You can also save space in drawers and on your counter by moving kitchen utensils to the inside of cabinet doors. Simply add command hooks to cabinet door interiors, and you'll have a convenient place to hang measuring cups and spoons, whisks, spatulas, tongs, and other cookware.

Declutter the Space Under Your Kitchen Sink

The storage space under your kitchen sink is a great place to store cleaning supplies, sponges, trash bags, and other non-food items. Adding pullout drawers, two-tiered bins, or hanging racks where you can group like items together can keep this spot from being a cluttered mess. Try this sliding storage drawer DIY for under the sink spaces!

Maximize Drawer Space by Folding Towels Smaller

Even if you don't have a lot of kitchen towels, they can still take up plenty of drawer space in your kitchen when not folded properly. Don't know how to fold kitchen towels to save space? Try the KonMari method made famous by organizer Marie Kondo to maximize space in your drawers!

Use Baskets for Fruit & Veggies on Your Counter

Leaving loose fruits and vegetables on your counter can take up valuable workspace in your kitchen. Not only does storing fruit and vegetables in baskets keep them in a convenient spot on your counter, but it can also help them stay fresher longer. If you need to save more space in a small kitchen, go vertical with tiered fruit and vegetable baskets!

Opt for an Over-the-Sink Drying Rack

Drying racks are great to have in the kitchen when you need to hand-wash certain dishes and cookware, but racks that sit on the counter can take up usable space. Rather than get a drying rack that hogs kitchen counter space, find one that can be placed over your sink. Not only does this help dishes dry faster because it allows for more air flow, but it also means you get counter back!

Add a Magnetic Knife Strip

Ditch the chunky knife block on your countertop, and opt for something a little more versatile and easy to reach! With a knife strip on your wall near your food prep area or stovetop, you can grab the knives you need quickly and get cooking! Learn how to make a DIY rainbow wood magnetic knife strip.

Install a Shelf for Cookbooks

Have too many cookbooks in your kitchen? Don't clutter valuable counter space or cabinets. Instead, take advantage of your kitchen's vertical space! Add a floating shelf where you can store all of your kitchen cookbooks up and out of the way. You can even make a DIY pallet rack to hold your cookbooks!

Store Wine Bottles in a Drawer

If you don't have room for a wine bar or wine shelves in your small kitchen, transform one of your kitchen drawers into wine storage! Drawers are a good alternative solution for storing wine, as they keep your bottles in a dark, cool space. To ensure your wines don't roll around in your drawer, you can use drawer dividers with risers or create a DIY wine rack that can be inserted into your drawer.

Go Vertical with Your Indoor Herb Garden

Are you growing herbs in your kitchen? Don't let them take up counter space. Utilize the vertical space in your kitchen! Maybe it's adding hanging planters in the windowsill over your sink. Or maybe it's installing shelves on a wall that gets good sunlight. No matter, keeping your herbs up high frees up your kitchen counter space. Discover how to hang an herb garden in your kitchen.

Design a Coffee Station

Your morning routine shouldn't include fumbling for the right coffee pod, searching high and low for sugar, or rifling through cabinets to find your favorite coffee mug. You can simplify your mornings and get better kitchen organization by moving all of your coffee items to one place. Whether it's a spot on your counter with a cabinet overheard, a buffet table, or a bar cart in the corner, setting up a coffee station where you can keep all of your coffee fixings will make getting ready for the day a breeze!

Add Hidden Trash Storage

One of the best ways to declutter your kitchen is to hide trash cans and recycling bins. These containers can consume a lot of space in a small kitchen or pantry, and they're often unsightly. Instead of keeping the mess out in the open, convert one of your base cabinets into a hidden trash compartment! This kitchen organization hack allows you to throw things away quickly and is a great solution for keeping small children and pets out of your trash. Check out this how-to for creating a DIY trash cabinet!

Hide Pet Dishes in Drawers

Have a dog or cat whose food dishes are always in the way in the kitchen? Adding a toe-kick drawer at the bottom of a cabinet is a great kitchen organization idea! With this simple storage hack, you can keep your pet's food and water bowls in the kitchen without sacrificing any floor space—and it's easier to contain spills. Find out how to create under-cabinet drawers with this DIY kitchen cabinet tutorial.

Designate a Snack Drawer

An excellent kitchen storage idea for families is to create a snack drawer that's easily accessible for everyone in the house! Moving on-the-go snack foods to a drawer means kids can grab what they need without having to dig through the pantry or reach up into high cabinets. Just add a few baskets, bins, or dividers in a drawer to keep chips, crackers, and other snack foods organized. You can also do the same thing with healthy snacks in your fridge!

Tackle the Junk Drawer Once & For All

Almost everyone has a junk drawer somewhere in their house. Most likely, that drawer is in the kitchen. What is a junk drawer? It's where you throw miscellaneous objects like household tools, batteries, pens and pencils, phone chargers, and other items that don't seem to have a home. If you're struggling to keep this space in your kitchen organized, grab a few drawer organizers—you can even use silverware trays—to separate items and keep everything visible so you don't have to root around for what you need!

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Where to Put Pots and Pans in Kitchen

Source: https://www.extraspace.com/blog/home-organization/room-organization/diy-kitchen-storage-ideas/