Organizing Kitchen Cabinets

Organizing Kitchen Cabinets, Why?

Do you ever have an avalanche of bags or boxes fall on your head when you open your cabinets? Is your brown sugar as hard as a brick? Do you have 2 or 3 bags of one item because you couldn’t find it and bought a duplicate? When making your grocery list do you have to waste time digging through your cabinet to see what you need to purchase? Are you too ashamed to open your pantry in front of guests?  If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then it is a good indicator that your need to get busy organizing kitchen cabinets! When you are dealing with a disorganized kitchen, it is easy to get frustrated and overwhelmed when preparing meals for your family. Organizing kitchen cabinets will help your kitchen run much more smoothly. Good kitchen organization creates a flow in your kitchen that helps you save time, and money in the long run. Organizing kitchen cabinets can help you in SO many ways.

Saves You Time:

Organizing kitchen cabinets means you spend less time digging through them to find out what you need to purchase at the store.  It makes shopping easier and more cost effective because you are not purchasing items you do not need.  You know what you need to buy because food doesn’t get lost or duplicated.

Saves Your Money:

Organizing kitchen cabinets with Modular Mates makes the job simple!

When you buy in bulk, especially on staple items, you can really save a lot of money.  Having an organized kitchen means that you can use those bulk purchases efficiently because they are properly stored.  When food is properly stored, it stays fresh longer. When your kitchen is organized and food is properly stored, you no longer have to worry about accidental spills from opened containers and bags.  Not to mention saving money because you are not having to throw away food that’s gone stale or has gotten bugs!  Properly stored foods will not attract bugs like open packages and bags will.  Bugs are attracted to the glue on those packages, they eat the glue and then lay eggs there.  Orkin recommends putting your food in air-tight containers to alleviate bugs.

I wouldn’t recommend storing any dry (staple) foods in the container they came in from the store because of the bug issue.  I prefer taking them out of the bag/package and storing them in reusable plastic containers that are air-tight.  I prefer the Modular Mates System by Tupperware, but from years of experience with Tupperware.  They really are a great product which have a lifetime warranty against chipping, cracking, breaking or peeling.  My Mom has Tupperware storage containers that are over 45 years old that she’s still using to this day.   It’s a lifetime investment that’s worth every cent.. it’s good stuff!

Saves Your Space:

Organizing kitchen cabinets means you won’t have accidental duplicates, you save space that way as well.  You can easily save about 25% of your storage space just my organizing your kitchen better!

How Do You Start?

So you can see why organizing kitchen cabinets will save you time, money, and space.  You CAN have one of those beautifully organized kitchen pantry and cabinets.  But just how do you start?

When you start organizing kitchen cabinets,  you need to think about a couple of things.  First of all make a list of all the food staples that you use on a regular basis.  Think about what you need for baking, beverages, breakfast, spices, and other staples.  Do you have all of these items on hand or do you need to purchase some of the items?

One of the best ways to organize your kitchen is by using “centers”.  Common centers are beverages, baking, spice/seasoning, dry staples, and snacks.  Think about how your family uses the kitchen.  If you do a lot of baking, doesn’t it make sense to have a cabinet dedicated just to that?  Want your kids to make their own quick breakfasts or snacks, then a breakfast/snack cabinet might be the way to go. You will also want to consider where to place these centers in your kitchen.  Does the baking center make more sense by the oven or over the bread maker?  You will not only want to store the food items you need for the center in that area, but also the tools you will need.  Measuring cups and spoons, bread pans, cupcake liners, and the like in the baking center cabinet.  Make a list of the centers you would like to create in your kitchen.  Under each one, brain storm about the food items and tools you will need for using that center.  Having everything you need all ready to go in each “center” will save you so much time.

Draw up a kitchen map, just a simple sketch of your kitchen layout.  Label where you are going to create your “centers” and where you are going to store your food prep and serving items.  Store bake ware with your baking center, pots and pans near the stove, storage containers for left-overs next to the refrigerator.  Once you consider what you normally use and HOW you use them, then it’s time to start organizing.

Getting Down and Dirty:

Organizing kitchen cabinets can make you pantry go from stuffed and over crowded to streamlined and organized!

The first thing you will need to do is completely empty your cabinets and panty.  While they are empty give them a good cleaning.  One thing I like to do is place shelf liner down to help keep the pantry clean.  A really inexpensive option is to use Glad Press’n Seal as self liners (I also use them to line my refrigerator shelves).  It does a good job at keeping the shelves clean from things like honey, oil, or food coloring (I’ve had more than one incident with food coloring lids that weren’t put on well and leaked all over the pantry when knocked over).

Have a trash bag and box handy.  Before you put ANYTHING back in your cabinets or pantry, you need to toss out everything that is no longer in code date, is stale, or has bugs.  Toss all those items and if they are items that you normally use, add them to your grocery list.  The next thing you will want to do is put items that are still good, but you know you will never use in a “food bank” box.  These items should be taken to your local food band and donated.

Now I would suggest putting all dry/staple items such as sugar(s), flour, beans, rice, pasta into air-tight containers.  Toss the bags and boxes.  Storing them in air-tight containers will preserve their freshness and will be a more efficient use of your storage space.

Sort your food, tools, and cookware into piles and then start putting them up into the area you’ve mapped out for them.  Put lesser used items up high or remove them to an area outside of the kitchen.  You only use that roaster at Thanksgiving?  Consider storing it somewhere else to free up cabinet or pantry space.  Store only cookware and appliances in the kitchen that you use on a regular basis (at least once per week).  All others can be stored in other areas of the house.  This is especially true for those of us with small kitchens or limited cabinet and pantry space.  If and item does not need to be stored in the kitchen, then find it a new home.

Once your cabinets and pantry are clean, use your kitchen map to organize where all you are going to put things.  In not time at all, you cabinets and pantry will go from ugly and disorganized to beautiful and organized!

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