Master Plan - July Project: The Kitchen

As promised in my last post, here are the results of my kitchen organization project from July!

My kitchen isn’t tiny, but it's small enough that it can easily get overwhelmed if there is too much “stuff” hanging around in the cabinets and drawers.  These were the main area of focus for organization.  Some were worse than others, so in this post I’ll focus on the areas that I think were the biggest improvements.

Utensil Drawer

This drawer was total mass chaos.  There were no dividers, so everything was tossed in there and free to roll around at will, so that when I needed to find a specific tool, it was inevitably hidden under a layer of other utensils.  There was also the hazard that you might cut yourself on a handheld grater or pizza cutter while digging around to find said object.  Not good!

Before:

After:

My solution was pretty simple.  First, a few duplicate tools were taken out to pare down how much needed to be in there.  Then, I found some simple drawer organizers, one with three compartments, and another wider but separate container.  Between these four sections, and the few inches of extra space on the side, every utensil pretty much stays put.  Much easier.  I’d like to eventually get some type of crock to put by the stove which can hold our most-used spoons and spatulas, to free up even more space in the drawer.

Pot & Pans Cabinet

I think the dilemma of pot lids plagues everyone.  These things were all over the place, taking up cabinet real estate where I needed to put actual pots and pans.

Before:

After:

A few dollars got me a basic pot lid holder to corral those puppies.  I set that at the side of the cabinet, and those things haven’t been roaming around the cabinet since.  Putting the smaller ones in front and larger ones in back makes it easy to see what’s there so you can grab the right lid.

The actual method of storing the pots and pans isn’t stellar - these are all currently stacked inside each other in various combinations.  If you have any great suggestions for this, I’d love to hear them!  I only have this space free, so it’ll have to work within that constraint.

Container Drawer

Similar to the pot/pan dilemma, my containers and related lids were all over the place in their designated drawer:

Before:

After:

I re-used these plastic bins that I already had.  One held my small half-cup containers and their lids, and the other container is for all of the larger lids.  The rest of the containers stack in the remaining space.  You almost have to stack them since half the drawer is taken up by the bins, so it’s self-regulating!  (I know there's not much in there right now - most were either in use or in the dishwasher. I promise everything actually fits!)

Other Improvements

All of my other drawers and cabinets got a little work as well, but many of those weren’t as bad to start.  We took a box full of various items to Goodwill, and tossed some others.  I also replaced our trash can  and replaced our recycling box (a cardboard box...nothing special) with another trash can to conceal the stuff and hold a bit more than the box.  Overall, I think we’re functioning much better with the newly organized kitchen!

Since this is still a work in progress, I’d love to hear any other good kitchen organization tips you have!