Simple Kitchen Organization Strategies

When planning our kitchen I knew there were some kitchen organization strategies I wanted to utilize that would help us keep some order in what is a very busy, and used room in our home! As a family of 6, we use our kitchen for 3 meals a day, snacks and school! It gets a ton of use. I wanted to share some of the strategies that have helped me to both keep organized, and allow my kids to contribute with that process as well! I am by no means the most organized person- I am just on a journey of simplifying, and making our daily tasks a little more “lean.”

All of our base cabinets are drawers, with the exception of the 2 corner cabinets. If you have the room in your budget I can’t recommend drawers enough. You can access EVERYTHING. It is all functional storage and nothing gets buried in the back. With that in mind, here are the organization strategies I have been using in our kitchen.

Store Everyday Dishes Close to Your Dishwasher

This makes unloading the dishwasher a quick task to perform, and because our everyday dishes are in the peninsula drawers, my kids can easily put things away. It should be noted that my kids unload and load our dishwasher 99 % of the time. So- I wanted this to be an easy task for them.

We also have a drawer solely dedicated to kids dishes- cups, plates and bowls, but that is located in our tall built in pantry. On that note, I am not breaking down the entire kitchen today, but I will show you how we have organized the peninsula drawers and corner cabinets, since these house most of our everyday items.

A Place for Everything, Everything in It’s Place

The top drawer houses our cutlery and knives. I bought the wood drawer organizers from IKEA- they’re super affordable, they fit our drawer sizes, and they’re just a little more custom feeling than a plastic organizer. Everyone knows what size spoon belongs where, and we have enough space in the compartments that things aren’t over flowing.

My second born had the task of putting away silverware for many years (that responsibility has now mostly migrated to my 5 year old daughter) but he taught me something. He neatly stacked every spoon and fork from the time he was young. Well! That made things feel so nicely organized. They’re not perfectly tidy here, but I always know when he unloaded the cutlery because the drawer is very tidy.

We switched from a knife block to the knife organizer, and I have now gotten used to it… it took a little time but I really like it now!

Keep Heavy Dishes Low, Not High

The second drawer holds everyday plates and bowls. I lined it with a non slip rubber drawer liner, also from Ikea, and it works great. It makes so much sense to lift our plates onto the peninsula vs. trying to take a heavy awkward stack from up high. Again, easy for kids to set the table or put dishes away.

Create a Baking Drawer

The next drawer down, which is extremely large and deep is our “baking” drawer. We use the peninsula for baking and prep, and my boys actually do most of the baking in the house. They make muffins at least once a week, and we also make pizza dough at least once a week. This is so incredibly convenient. All of our flours, sugars, baking powder, muffin tins, oats etc. are all in once place!

We had previously been gathering supplies from all over the kitchen.This just makes so much more sense!

On the note of baking, the lazy susan to the left of the drawers holds the mixing bowls, mixer, cake stand, cake pans, and cutting boards.

I have no idea if this is even remotely interesting… but some people on my instagram requested it! So, if you’d like me to take you through the rest of the kitchen and our pantry- let me know! Everything is not pinterest worthy, but organization doesn’t have to be. It just needs to make your everyday tasks a little simpler.

-Miss Ash

You can find our full kitchen tour here.