If you're looking for kitchen organization hacks you've come to the right place. We've rounded up several ideas to keep your space tidy.
15 Hacks to Help Tame Kitchen Clutter for Good
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Don’t Let the Junk Drawer Overflow
It goes without saying that a junk drawer goes from being a place for miscellaneous items, to an overflowing space that has more non-essential items in it than ones you actually want to get easy access to. While it’s not always a fun chore, but not list of kitchen organization hacks is complete without it.
Go through your junk drawer quarterly, making sure anything that’s in there is something you truly need. The rest you can sort into different piles. Business cards and receipts should be scanned or filed away in the office. Miscellaneous office supplies should be corralled back in their appropriate containers. Loose change belongs in a change jar. And anything that you won’t use anymore should be tossed, donated or recycled depending on it’s condition.
Adding a drawer divider can seriously help tame your junk drawer too. That’s an easy DIY project
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Stud Space Cabinets
In almost every room of your house, you can find tons of storage space hidden between the two sheets of drywall. Simple stud-space cabinets are great for capturing some of this wasted space. If you’ve got the free time, this is a great project to get yourself some extra storage, especially in a small kitchen.
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Functional Décor
If you happen to have inherited your grandma’s rolling pins, knotty wooden utensils, or well-worn cutting boards, you have a design opportunity waiting. Consider storing these beloved kitchen wares out in the open as authentic décor elements by hanging them on available wall space. Just make sure you mount them in such a way that you can easily take them down for use.
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Organize Your Fridge with a Six-Pack
Do all of your small bottles in the refrigerator door like to tip over after opening or closing the door? Fortunately, the answer to tidying those wayward bottles is just a recycling bin away. To keep your kitchen storage and organization under control, use an empty six-pack holder to hold the condiments in your refrigerator door.
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Store Dry Goods in Jars
You can easily organize your dry goods by storing them inside old jars and canisters. Not only can you create uniformity in your pantry storage this way, but you can also see at a glance where your lentils, rice, or oats are stashed. Arranging these jars on display on open shelves can also give your kitchen a rustic, homestead-chic look.
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Pullout Chopping Board
Pullout solutions are perfect for small kitchens as they allow a decent amount of extra kitchen counter space with a very small footprint. And a pull-out cutting board is perfect for food prep, cookbooks or for extra storage. Plus, when you are done, you can simply slide it back into the cabinet.
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Optimize Your Cabinets
If your cabinets are just too small to manage all the items you need to store in there, consider some of these options to add extra room to them and maximize the space that already exists.
Kitchen Cabinet Rollout
A shortage of storage space in kitchen cabinets would sour anyone in need of maximum stowaway room. Kitchen cabinet rollouts give additional capacity to cabinets and make it easier to find items so you can smile while you snack.
Expandable Shelves
Expandable or pullout shelves are an easy way to add extra room to your kitchen without changing anything else. This is a relatively small project and you can typically find a very good pullout shelf accessory in stores, or you can make your own.
Tension Rod Storage
It can be difficult to keep spray bottles and other cleaning supplies from falling over and making a mess under your kitchen sink. To keep your cleaning supplies upright, hang them from a short tension rod inside your cabinet. Another clever idea is to slide a paper towel roll through the tension rod for easy access. If you install another one over a sink or bucket, it’s also a great place to hang dish-drying towels and rubber cleaning gloves. This is one of those kitchen organization hacks that just keeps on giving.
Racks for Canned Goods
Use leftover closet racks as cabinet organizers. Trim the racks to length with a hacksaw and then mount screws to the backside of the face frame to hold the racks in place. The backside of the rack simply rests against the back of the cabinet. Now you can easily find your soup and check the rest of your inventory at a glance.
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Bring Office Supplies Into Your Kitchen
Repurposing office supplies might seem out of place on a list of kitchen organization hacks, but one of the best ways to keep your space organized on a budget is to get creative with items you already have.
File Folders
File folders can be used for more than just organizing papers and magazines in your office. They can also be used for organization in your kitchen. We filled file folders up with the clutter that normally barricades the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Place all of your kitchen cleaning supplies into file folders, putting the most frequently used items towards the front.
File Organizers
A metal file organizer is perfect for storing baking sheets, cutting boards and pan lids. To keep the organizer from sliding around, use rubber shelf liner or attach hook-and-loop tape to the cabinet base and the bottom of the organizer.
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Kitchen Window Plant Perch
Do you like having fresh herbs at your fingertips? Keeping them on your counter takes up valuable space and doesn’t expose them to enough light. Instead, install a wire shelf between the upper cabinets flanking your kitchen window. You can set your plants where they’ll get plenty of light without blocking the view. This also makes watering easy and keeps them readily available for snipping. Make sure to install the shelf high enough so you don’t bump into it when you’re working at the sink.
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Coffee Pod Storage
Coffee pods can be a disaster to keep organized. But this hack uses simple t-molding as an ideal organization system for your coffee pods. Attach this molding to the underside of a coffee cart or cabinet to utilize the vertical space that often goes to waste.
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Mobile Kitchen Storage and Organization Cart
Sometimes kitchen organization hacks are about repurposing items you already have, but other times they’re about finding the right furniture for the job. A rolling kitchen cart is the next best thing to adding cabinets and countertop space. The top provides extra work space when you’re preparing that big Thanksgiving dinner. And the shelves below hold items that would otherwise consume countertop space.
If you plan to use a cart for food preparation, choose one with a tough top like butcher block, stainless steel or plastic laminate. Some cart tops are glossy finished wood—beautiful, but not very durable. Carts come in a variety of wood finishes, so there’s a good chance you can match your existing cabinets. Or you can go for an eclectic look with a shiny metal or painted cart.
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C-Clamp Paper Towel Rack
Create an instant DIY paper towel dispenser in your shop with two C-clamps. Position and clamp them a roll’s width apart in a convenient spot, hold up the roll and push in the handles to hold it. You’ll have freed up some counter space in minutes with no hard work required.
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Wine Storage
What, no wine rack? No wine cellar either? No problem! You can just as easily store your wine collection in a deep kitchen drawer, if there’s one that’s vacant. Just be sure to alternate the direction of the bottle so that they nest well together.
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Easy-to-Build Knife Block
Display your kitchen cutlery in style with this handsome knife block. It’s fast, easy and fun to build, and includes a 6-in.-wide storage box for a knife sharpener.
To build one, you only need a 3/4-in. x 8-in. x 4-ft. hardwood board and a 6-in. x 6-1/2-in. piece of 1/4-in. hardwood plywood to match.
Begin by cutting off a 10-in. length of the board and setting it aside. Rip the remaining 38-in. board to 6 in. wide and cut five evenly spaced saw kerfs 5/8 in. deep along one face. Crosscut the slotted board into four 9-in. pieces and glue them into a block, being careful not to slop glue into the saw kerfs. You can clean them out with a knife before the glue dries. Saw a 15-degree angle on one end and screw the plywood piece under the angled end of the block.
Cut the 6-1/2-in. x 3-in. lid from the leftover board, and slice the remaining piece into 1/4-in.-thick pieces for the sides and end of the box. Glue them around the plywood floor. Cut a rabbet on three sides of the lid so it fits snugly on the box and drill a 5/8-in. hole for a finger pull. Then just add a finish and you’re set for years of happy carving!
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Hang a Fruit Basket
You come home from the grocery store with an armful of fresh fruit, but lo and behold—there’s no spare fridge or counter space available. Don’t worry, space saving kitchen organization hacks can be functional and good-looking. A stylish solution for this storage problem is to hang a single or tiered wire basket from the ceiling. You can store your apples, bananas, and oranges as well as potatoes, onions, and garlic here.
