Stellar ways to organize your kitchen cabinets, drawers & pantry

Photo credit: Pixabay

When you are buying a home, the kitchen cabinets, drawers, and pantry area are very important… (I’ve known friends who have put off buying a house entirely just because the house didnt have enough storage space).  You can have a beautiful kitchen, but if you do not have enough storage, or if your cabinets are bulky and outdated, your kitchen will be less functional and will just look cluttered.

Like most things in life; it’s not the number of cabinets you have that matters. What matters is that you can easily and adequately use them. The key to being able to have enough room in your kitchen and the ease to get to the things you need when you need them is all down to organization!

Professional cabinet makers have got this down to an art.

Keep an open mind and an open floorplan

Photo Credit: Jason Leung

One of the easiest ways to organize your cabinets is by building them taller and wider than normal. Make sure to make the most of this extra space by leaving an open front on the cabinet so you can organize and decorate it whenever you want plus no doors mean less dusting! Notice the small ladder attached to the cabinet. Installed on rollers, it can be moved to allow you easy access to anything on any shelf. Use pretty canisters for staple items and for aesthetics, put doors on the lower shelves for canned goods. Put those shelves on rollers where they can be pulled out for easy access. Qwerky features like this not only help with your orgnization.. they also give your kitchen a personality making it more than just a functional space people go to prepare and consume food in.

A Deeper Pantry

Let’s be honest, most pantries are not deep enough to store what you want.  A pantry built into a corner is perfect because it is deep and makes use of an often unused space. Have one section dedicated to cleaning supplies, hooks to hang cleaning tools, and shelves that are built taller than usual for spray bottles, detergent, and oversize packages.

The center row of shelves of your pantry can be built to normal sizes, but each shelf could be built with a “Lazy Susan” style that turns completely for easy access.

You could also have a “V” shaped, deep pocket storage built into your pantry. These are great for storing vegetables, like potatoes. If your pantry is near the washer and dryer, you can use them for storing dirty clothes etc. With two, side-by-side, to help you to sort your laundry before you do it. Using garbage bags keeps them clean and easy to pull out to take to the wash.

A “hidden” extra feature

If you are have children or if you are a drug lord you might want to keep pecky hands off your stash. On the top shelf or attached to the top of the inside of the door of the pantry, have your builder install a small box that matches the door (so it blends in.) Have a door installed on the box and a lock built in. This can be a special “secret” place to store medications in. This will keep your medication safe and out of the way from children.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Drawers

We all have them. Plastic organizers in a drawer in the kitchen to hold our silverware, and cooking tools and they always look a mess!  Instead, have wooden dividers built into the drawer that extends from the bottom left corner to the top right corner, This gives you a lot more space for any oddly shaped items that just don’t fit anywhere else. In the next drawer, fit it with various sizes of plastic containers (such as the kind you would use for a makeup drawer.) This will give you neat places for “junk.” Use the cubbies for pens, batteries, phone chargers, matches, notepads, and misc items. If it does not fit in a cubby, it doesn’t go in the drawer.

Special needs

If there is a problem that you deal with continually in your home, speak to your cabinet designer about it. More than likely, you are not their first customer with the issue, and they probably have a solution for you. Communication is the key. So, start looking at your kitchen a whole new way. Think of how much easier a modern kitchen is and get started on yours today. No excuses.