One of the things I prepared just before the new year was a content calendar for the first two months of the year. I have done really well in sticking to it (I did miss one post) but today, all that went out the window. I’ve said before that when you get on a roll organizing, it becomes addicting… so, while organized kitchen drawers were on my list to launch in the next two weeks, this past week, I found myself forgoing any other blog prep, totally on a high from tidying the space I wasn’t supposed to touch for another week. Woops. Now I’ll be rallying to get caught back up on time-sensitive stuff but thought I’d go ahead and share my progress thus far.
If you look at your entire kitchen as a whole, it can be daunting to think about the disarray that may be hiding behind each and every door. The good thing is that each space is self contained so you can take it on all at once, separate it into zones, or even tackle one drawer/cabinet at a time. I’ve conquered most of my drawers but cabinets are another story – I’ll be back to share those in a few weeks 😉
I try to emphasize the importance of practical, real solutions over the pretty, and perfectly color coordinated. Part of the fun of organization is making your hidden spaces more attractive (more incentive to keep them organized) but unless you are purchasing everything at once, chances are, your items are going to be more collected.
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ORGANIZED KITCHEN DRAWERS: SILVERWARE & CUTLERY
With shallow kitchen drawers, the compartments and organizers you select are a huge part of the outcome of your project and how you maintain it as real life is happening. This is a glimpse of my silverware drawer before. Not terrible but beyond the flatware sorter, I didn’t have anything to group items together. Everything got lost in the radom one-compartment tray I had sitting next to it.
I removed everything and grouped them into categories. PS: You will be amazed by how gross your drawers can get. I was shocked by all the little bits of (honestly, I have no idea what they were) crumbs were left behind when it was cleared. Before I did anything else, I vacuumed out the drawer. I have an abundance of sauce spoons, cocktail forks, and miniature flatware that are being relocated to the butler’s pantry and I had just a few things I parted with.
I wanted an organizer that made better use of the space so I found this expandable cutlery organizer and once I expanded it to the drawer width, added a few of these coordinating compartment organizers. Now, everything has its own space and looks like this…
The individual organizers come in several sizes and fit together nicely, which worked perfect inside the larger compartment created by the expanded cutlery organizer.
Expandable Cutlery Organizer | Individual Organizers (several sizes available)
ORGANIZED KITCHEN DRAWERS: KITCHEN UTENSILS
I was nervous about our utensil drawer. In addition to the allocated drawer, I also had a huge canister of overflow in the cabinet below the drawer; I also keep our wooden spoons and stainless items in vases for easy access…
PS: You can see my spice cabinet organization post HERE. Even so, this is what our utensil drawer looked like…
More poor space planning that didn’t make use of the entire drawer. Hopefully, this shows that you can’t just buy any old organizer, throw it in a drawer, and call it “good”, if it isn’t a proper size for the space. 😉 Again, I took everything out, vacuumed, grouped into categories, added a few items to be allocated to our “grilling drawer” (we had FOUR meat thermometers), and tossed a few old, rusty items. I added an expandable kitchen utensil organizer (HERE) that made all the difference in the world. When all was said and done, I was able to fit everything from the huge canister in the cabinet and the drawer contents into one drawer.
| Expandable Utensil Tray |
ORGANIZED KITCHEN DRAWERS: BAKING & MEASURING
Anyone else have a collection of measuring tools that have gotten out of control?? (Raising both my hands over here.) I had EIGHT sets of measuring spoons in my drawer. EIGHT. I’ll be honest – I actually love several of them and use them for kitchen/recipe photos so I didn’t pare down to one or two, but I did cut my collection in half. I had no organizers in this drawer which resulted in this…
Once I cleared, categorized, and vacuumed the drawer, I added this drawer organizer (HERE), along with two single organizers (HERE). (See how nicely they fit together?) The dimensions are listed on the product page so you can see how they will fit together ;). When I finished, here was the result.
Scroll & Tap to Shop Favorite Measuring Implements
One thing I do (totally a preference thing) is keep the rings on the measuring spoons but remove the rings from the measuring cups. I can handle the spoons but it gets so unwieldy removing/adding back the measuring cups in order; I prefer to keep them stacked for easy grabbage (there I go making up words again – or did I?). The rolling pin had to be moved to make way for the organizer but it wasn’t worth it to me to cut down on compartments to accommodate it. You’ll see where it ended up in the next drawer.
4-Section Drawer Organizer | Individual Organizers (several sizes available)
ORGANIZED KITCHEN DRAWERS: KITCHEN TOWELS
I actually don’t have a “before” photo of this drawer since I’ve organized my towels this way for a long time. I did take everything out to give it a quick vacuum and pulled a few towels that were in poor shape.
Up until a year ago, I would fold my towels in this shallow drawer and only use the ones on top. It was a wreck trying to push them down to make the drawer clear the drawer casing. I converted to the rolled t-shirt method about six years ago and decided to repeat that method for my kitchen towels and oh my goodness, what an incredible improvement it has been! I can see everything at one glance and, can put any towel I need without disturbing the others. If you don’t have enough towels for the actual drawer sides to support their row, you can get these expandable drawer dividers (HERE) to section off your drawers. (They come in different heights, too.)
Scroll & Tap to Shop Favorite Kitchen Towels
Now that I have organized kitchen drawers, kitchen cabinets are coming but 1. I’m still a little scared to get started, and 2. I have a few projects ahead of them. Subscribe to my emails at the bottom of the post to make sure you don’t miss anything coming up!
[email protected] says
January 25, 2018 at 10:50 amYou are on a roll girl. I can’t live without our drawer organizers. Most of ours are bamboo and fit together like a puzzle 😉 Since we love to cook, creating zones in our kitchen was key.
Sherry Myers says
January 25, 2018 at 8:24 pmI have been enjoying your organizing tips. It has been practical and motivational. Thank you for the time you spend trying to help us make our lives more manageable and enjoyable! Inspiring!
LC says
January 25, 2018 at 8:34 pmWOW, WOW, WOW! What a great post! And so timely for me, as I am literally in the process of moving everything back into my kitchen after a 5 month remodel, and have been focusing on making it all neat & organized! I have large wood expandable cutlery and cooking utensil dividers, but I LOVE your clear dividers as well!! I also love your “rolled towel” method and the dividers you used, and am going to order them for my new dish towel/dish cloth drawer. Thanks so much for the inspiration! Will look forward to seeing what you do next!
Ivory says
January 25, 2018 at 9:01 pmLove it! You did an excellent job. I got to get going, so many jobs, so much need done. I just hope it can all get done, and look half as fabulous as yours.
Debalina says
January 31, 2018 at 9:23 amBrilliant using the extra soace in the kitchen towel drawer for your rolling pin. Have you seen the stainless long skinny measuring spoons? My favorites for getting product out of spice jars.
Kelley Nan says
January 31, 2018 at 10:52 amDebalina, thank you! I haven’t but those sound brilliant!