Kitchen Storage Drawers

Organize kitchen storage drawers to make your kitchen as efficient as possible. This will also maximize the available space and keep everything at your fingertips to save time while cooking.

First step when you organize kitchen storage drawers is to take everything out of the drawers. If you have too many drawers it is better to organize one drawer at a time. Otherwise it could be overwhelming. It may also discourage you when you see a huge pile of things.

Group the contents into categories like utensils, silverware, small gadgets, spices, food storage containers, pots and pans, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, parchment paper and so on. Keep similar things in a pile or in boxes. You can also use grocery bags or trash bags if you don’t have boxes. Make sure you label them for easy identification later on.

Discard or donate things you don’t need or use, or are broken. This will provide more space for the things you use.

Lining the drawers with drawer liners will prevent contents from moving around when opening and closing drawers. This will also make for easy clean up if something leaks or spills.

The best way to organize kitchen storage drawers is to assign drawers for groups of like items. Put items near the place they are used so you can quickly get them when you need them. You're going to want your frequently used pots and pans, cooking utensils, pot holders and spices near the stove, storage containers near the refrigerator or microwave, oven mitts and trivets near the oven, silverware and dishes near the dishwasher, baking tools near the island/workspace etc. Also put utensils, spices, daily use pots & pans on the right side of your stove if you are right handed and vice versa.

If you have limited number of drawers you can combine items together – for example utensils with small gadgets (like peeler, grater, slicer), silverware with serve ware etc. But make sure you separate them by dividing the drawers with thick cardboard pieces (or thin pieces of plywood or MDF) cut to size. If using plywood or MDF, cut it a little smaller than the depth of the drawer (but needs to sit snugly) so that you can put scratch guards on both ends to prevent damage. You can also buy inexpensive utensil trays or baskets from supermarkets or dollar stores.

Do not overcrowd the drawers. Putting too many things inside the drawers will make it cluttered. It will also make it difficult to take what you need.

Use a silverware tray to organize silverware. They are available in a variety of designs and are very economical.

Use an in-drawer spice rack, tray or insert to organize all your spices inside a drawer.

Designate a drawer for your baking tools like rolling pin, muffin cups, cookie cutters, icing bags and tips, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls etc. Use small trays or boxes to group like items together such as cookie cutters, measuring cups and spoons. Label the boxes for easy identification.

Use a slitted knife tray to safely organize your knives inside a drawer. Put knives in this tray by orienting sharp edges down to protect your fingers when you reach in. This will also protect the blade edges from getting damaged. Make sure you put child safety locks on the knife drawer if you have small children.

Similarly assign a drawer for all your food storage containers. You can stack them by putting smaller ones inside larger ones to optimize available space. Use a large container or food storage bag to store the lids.

Storing plastic and aluminum wraps, parchment paper, plastic food storage bags etc. in drawers makes for easy access.

Similarly designate drawers for each group of items like sauté pans, sauce pans, dutch ovens, stock pots etc. when you organize kitchen storage drawers. Put all your saucepans in one drawer and sauté pans in another one in the same cabinet. Likewise store stockpots/dutch ovens in one drawer and roasting pans in another one. Stack these by putting smaller ones inside larger ones. Then place large lids facing up making a flat surface to put another small lid face down. If you have limited space to separate the pots and pans, stack them by putting saucepans inside dutch ovens and dutch ovens inside sauté pans and store lids inside roasting pans and/or stock pots. Another option is to assign a drawer to put all the lids for your pots and pans.

You can label the drawers to help family members remember what goes where.

Organizing once is not enough. Maintaining is very important.

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