Kitchen Storage Ideas: Tips for Organising Cupboards, Drawers and Surfaces
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Does your kitchen ever feel cluttered? You are definitely not alone. According to one recent survey, almost 60% of Brits say they have crowded kitchen worktops.
While it is very easy for this room to become disorganised, there are also lots of simple techniques and kitchen storage ideas that can make an immediate difference.
In this guide, you’ll find some simple ‘rules’ for how to organise a kitchen. We’ve also provided five examples of kitchen storage ideas to make the heart of your home much more manageable.
General storage ideas for kitchens
If you’ve decided it’s time to tackle your kitchen’s clutter, try the following tips to introduce some more structure to your countertops, cupboards and cutlery drawers.
1. Declutter
Start by decluttering your kitchen. We’re all guilty of hanging onto jars, pots, ramekins, empty ice cream tubs and a whole host of other bits and bobs - but these items take up valuable space. If you never use them, or are hanging onto them ‘just in case’, it’s time to get rid.
Go through each cupboard and drawer systematically, and remove anything that you haven’t used in the last three months. Some items should go straight in your recycling bin while others can be dropped off at a charity shop.
If you have certain cooking accessories or machines you only use once or twice a year, store them elsewhere (your garage, garden shed or loft, for example).
2. Be ruthless with your countertops
As far as possible, your countertops should be free of everything but the absolute essentials (for most people, this includes a kettle, microwave and toaster). The simple reason is that clutter invites more clutter. Everything else should really be kept in its own place in a cupboard, drawer or on a shelf.
3. Store items close to where you use them
You probably already do this to an extent, but it’s worth taking a fresh look at the flow around your kitchen.
One reason kitchens can feel disorganised is that things that should go together were originally stored apart when you first moved in. Once that becomes the ‘norm’ in your kitchen, it’s surprisingly hard to change.
Check for the following kinds of things:
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Are your teabags and coffee close to the kettle and mugs?
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Are your chopping boards stored close to the biggest area of the countertop?
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Are your spices within easy reach of the hob?
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Is your breadbin near the toaster?
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Are your pots, pans and baking trays near the stove?
4. Create clear zones in your kitchen
A helpful way to organise your kitchen is to break it up into a few ‘zones’ where you carry out certain tasks. While there will be some crossover between these areas, it really makes using your kitchen easier. Typical zones would include:
Food prep: Your knives, chopping boards, peelers, garlic crushers, tin openers and other accessories should be within reaching distance. If possible, your food prep area should be close to your larder, fridge and dry foods cupboard too.
Cooking: Centred around the hob, all your pans, wooden spoons, spatulas and so on should be close by.
Cleaning: With the sink, dishwasher and washing machine at the centre, you’ll want soap, rubber gloves, sponges, detergents and dishwasher tablets in reaching distance.
Waste: Keep your general waste, recycling and food composting bins close together.
Drinks-making: Keep your kettle, coffee machine, teabags, coffee and mugs in a single place.
5. Use vertical space efficiently
There’s often a lot more storage space in people’s kitchens than they realise. However, people tend to only look at horizontal space (that is, flat surfaces) when storing things. Yet this often leaves big gaps and room where more things could be placed.
For example, you might place a bag of spaghetti flat on the surface of your cupboard. But this means all the space above it remains empty. By using a tall kilner jar, for instance, you could stand the spaghetti upright. This would also allow you to use more of the surface area in the cupboard for other items.
5 clever kitchen storage ideas
We’ve put together these five kitchen storage ideas to help you use your space even more efficiently.
1. Give everything its own place with individual boxes
This is one of our favourite kitchen cupboard storage ideas. Rather than simply filling drawers with all your utensils, give individual items or categories their own box. This makes finding them much easier when you need them, and also stops drawers and cupboards becoming chaotic.
Most people already do this with cutlery dividers, but there’s no reason to stop there. Fill your drawers with transparent boxes for things like:
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Wooden cooking spoons
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Spatulas and fish knives
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Graters and zesters
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Peelers
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Garlic crushers
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Tin openers
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Baking supplies
2. Kitchen wall storage ideas
Kitchen walls offer a potentially very large surface for storing items, yet they’re often underused. Particularly if you need small kitchen storage ideas, we’d definitely recommend looking at creative ways to use this space.
Try the following kitchen wall storage ideas:
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Install shelves - this will immediately give you more space to keep jars, cookery books or ingredients.
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Use wall-mounted storage for things like wine bottles.
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Install a magnetic strip to attach knives and win back space on your countertop.
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Attach hooks for mugs, utensils, or pots and pans.
3. Use specific zoning storage
While we generally recommend keeping your countertops clear, this isn’t always possible. However, you can still make these surfaces look neat and tidy by using suitable zoning storage. For example:
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Smart tea and coffee pots that match the colour and material of your kettle.
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An attractive bread bin next to your toaster.
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Bookends to keep cookery books upright and organised.
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Utensils next to the stove and knifes with the chopping boards.
4. Use food storage jars and tubs
One of the most common causes of kitchen clutter is food packaging. Half-used bags of pasta, different sized boxes of cereals, higgledy-piggledy spice jars… the list is endless.
Food packaging can look messy once opened. Products from different brands don’t stack well. And packets of varying heights make it hard to see the back of the cupboard and find what you need.
Using glass jars and transparent plastic tubs to store dried goods is one of our favourite kitchen cupboard storage ideas. Try the following ideas:
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Store breakfast cereals, nuts, seeds, oats and other foods in plastic boxes.
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Keep different types of flour and sugar in labelled tubs.
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Use clear Kilner-style jars for dried goods like pasta, rice, lentils and pulses.
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Keep spices in sealed, stackable pots with labels.
5. Keep your cleaning area tidy
Sinks and the areas around them can quickly become messy. Whether it’s washing powder spillages under the sink or damp sponges sitting on the side, these issues can be hard to manage.
Here are some simple kitchen under sink storage ideas and washing area tips:
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As with food, decant dry cleaning powders and tablets into transparent plastic tubs with lids and labels. This will keep the area under your sink much tidier.
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Use sink tidies to keep your sponges, cloths, wire wool and washing up liquid organised.
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Consider investing in a larger dish rack - a bigger, sturdier model will hold more items, so you avoid the spread of drip-drying dishes, plates and mugs.
Kitchen storage ideas to create a calming space
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Keeping the kitchen tidy and organised is definitely challenging. As the survey mentioned above shows, the majority of people in the UK say this room often gets cluttered.
But, by using some of our expert-recommended kitchen storage ideas, you can make small changes which will have a big impact on how your kitchen feels - and how easy it is to use. By spending a little time rethinking your kitchen’s storage and layout today, you’ll see the benefits for years to come.
FAQs about organising your kitchen
We answer some of your most common kitchen organisation questions.