23 Smartest Apartment Kitchen Organization Ideas That Will Actually Keep You Organized
If you are trying to get organized and actually stay that way, these are the absolute best apartment kitchen organization ideas you need to be using right now!
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The worst thing that happens when it comes to organizing is spending a whole lot of time and money to organize, and then it just becomes messy again in a couple of weeks.
The problem isn’t the space or you, it’s how the items are being organized. All of these apartment kitchen organization ideas are practical and realistic tips that will help to actually keep your kitchen organized for good.
This post is all about apartment kitchen organization!
How to organize your apartment kitchen
Step 1: empty everything
You can’t organize a kitchen while everything is still in all the cabinets. The first step to a full kitchen reorganization is to empty out all of your cabinets.
This includes all your food and all the kitchen supplies. Leave your fridge and freezer, though. You don’t want all your food to go bad while you are in the organizing process.
If you are running out of counter space to put everything, use your kitchen/dining room table, the floor, or another room.
Step 2: focus on food first
The first thing we are going to focus on is all of the food, then we’ll get to the kitchen supplies.
Purge
With food, you want to go through absolutely everything and purge whatever has expired, gone bad, is stale, or you know won’t be eaten. If you can donate some things, that’s even better. But, throw away anything that’s expired.
Categorize
Now that you’ve gotten rid of everything that doesn’t need to be returned to your kitchen cabinets, it’s time to categorize all the food.
Put all the like-items in separate piles. For example, you can have all your baking ingredients in one section and your dressings and condiments in another.
When trying to categorize, keep in mind what things should be kept together when it’s time to put them back in the cabinets and/or pantry.
Step 3: focus on supplies second
Now that all the food has been organized, it’s time to move on to all of your kitchen supplies. For this, we are going to do the same steps, but in the opposite order.
Categorize
With the kitchen supplies, the first thing you want to do is categorize everything in the beginning. Put all your pots and pans together, all your kitchen utensils in one spot, etc.
This step should be pretty easy because you most likely already have a lot of like-items together from when you took them out of the cabinets.
Purge
Now is the time to purge all your kitchen supplies. With everything categorized, you can see what you have really easily. If you have a bunch of the same kitchen utensils or a million cutting boards, get rid of whatever is of the worst quality.
Always look to donate things first, but if you can’t, throw away whatever you don’t need anymore.
Step 4: put away supplies
At this point, all of your food and kitchen supplies should be purged and in categories. This is the perfect position to start putting everything back into your cabinets. You want to start by putting away the kitchen supplies first, and then we’ll get to the food later on.
Put things away in order of importance, starting with the items you use most often and ending with stuff that isn’t used quite so much.
Think about the flow of your kitchen while you put things away. Put silverware and dishes as close as possible to the sink and/or dishwasher, because you use this stuff most often.
Put items like pots, pans, and cutting boards in easy to access spots as well. Other things like serving platters can be put on higher up or inconvenient shelves that you don’t need to access all the time.
Step 5: put away food
Once the kitchen supplies are all away, use the remaining cabinets or pantry to put away all the food.
You want to go about this the same way as the supplies, with the most important going on the shelves that are the easiest to access.
Try to put whatever ingredients and foods you eat the most on shelves that are at eye level, so you can see it all.
With supplies and food, remember that if, in a couple of days or weeks, you don’t like where things are, anything can be moved around as needed! Put things where you think are best now, and change it around later on if you want to.
Apartment kitchen organization tips
If you want some more tips and tricks to help organize your kitchen in the best way possible, these are the perfect apartment kitchen organization ideas for you!
use turntables
If you have any corner spaces in cabinets or your pantry, turntables are absolutely life-saving.
These are perfect for dressings, condiments, and other cans/bottles. They are great for corner spaces that are a bit awkward and don’t really fit anything else nicely.
use drawer dividers
Drawer dividers are going to save your life, especially in a small kitchen. This is going to make it so much easier to actually keep your space organized after doing a major kitchen reorganization.
Drawer dividers are perfect for silverware, kitchen utensils, junk drawers, and more. Basically, anything that is in a drawer can be subdivided with these drawer dividers.
take advantage of wall space
The wall space in between your cabinets is absolutely prime real estate in a small kitchen.
There are so many ways you can take advantage of this space. You can hang magnetic strips to stick up knives or magnetic kitchen utensils. You can hang mugs from hooks.
above cabinets is good decor space
If you have some empty space in between your upper cabinets and ceiling, don’t think it’s just empty space!
You can 100% use that area for some functional decoration. You can put decorative pitchers or bowls up there in addition to cookbooks you might not use that often.
That way, you can still access these lesser-used items but don’t have to waste cabinet space on them.
use vertical organizers for everything
I absolutely live and breathe by these vertical kitchen organizers for everything. If you are working with shelves for your organization, these things are going to save your life.
Vertical organizers are perfect for baking sheets, cupcake trays, cutting boards, serving dishes, pot/pan lids, and the list goes on. If you have something narrow, most likely you can organize it with these.
These organizers make it super easy to see everything that you have and access it quickly. This one is also adjustable, which makes it perfect for any sized item.
add shelf risers
To make use of some usually wasted space, shelf risers are perfect. These are great for the shelves where you put plates and bowls and can almost double the amount of storage you have.
change the height of your shelves as needed
If you are struggling to use those shelf risers, remember that you can always change the height of the shelves in your cabinet.
I feel like I always forget I can do this in the kitchen, but they can 100% be changed based on whatever you are trying to fit on the shelves.
use a rolling cart
If you need some additional storage other than your cabinets, a rolling cart is a super easy solution. This can go right on the end of your cabinets or in any open space in the kitchen.
You can really put anything you need in here: kitchen supplies, food, drinks. You can make it into a little bar cart or put all your snacks on it.
cover glass cabinets with contact paper
One of the worst parts of a kitchen is when half the cabinets have glass doors, so you feel like they have to be used for decorative items.
You can 100% get back access to these cabinets for storage, even if they are glass. Find a contact paper that matches the rest of the decor/aesthetic in your kitchen and apply this to the glass on your cabinet.
This way, it will still look nice, but you will actually be able to use the space to store whatever you need.
decant certain items
Decanting is a controversial organization subject. I definitely think decanting has its benefits, but only when you do it sparingly.
If you don’t already know, decanting is when you take your food out of its original packaging and put it in a container instead.
I definitely think there is a right and wrong way to do this. If you are spending hundreds of dollars on containers and wasting space by doing this, it’s not worth it.
My favorite items to decant, which I feel actually make a difference in my organization, are baking ingredients like flour, white sugar, powdered sugar, and brown sugar. This stuff gets really messy when it stays in the original bags, so decanting is super convenient.
However, decanting something like pasta usually just takes up more space than if you had just left it in the original box. Go through your items and determine what would be the most practical for you to put in containers.
label absolutely everything
If you decant anything, don’t forget to give it a label! If you have bins or baskets, give those a label too. Label as much as you can in your kitchen, whether you’re the only one using the kitchen or it’s shared with other people.
Labels are going to make it so much easier to actually stay organized.
You can use a label maker, write them on paper, or print them out. Whatever works best for you!
use cabinet doors for storage
With a small apartment kitchen, organizing every single space is so important. The backs of your cabinet doors are the perfect place for more organization.
For example, you can get a paper towel holder for the back of the cabinet under your sink. You can get a lid holder for the back of the cabinet that’s storing pots and pans.
While you might have to spend some money on organizers to utilize this area, there are so many options that will be perfect to use this usually wasted space.
get rid of old Tupperware
Tupperware is one of the most annoying things to organize in any kitchen. And one of the main reasons for this is because we all seem to have so freaking much of it.
Go through all of your Tupperware and get rid of what you can. Get rid of anything that doesn’t have a matching top and bottom, anything that is in poor condition, or anything you have too many of.
Once you’ve thoroughly purged your Tupperware, remember not to add anything else to the collection in order to actually keep it organized. Even if it feels like a waste to throw away takeout containers or whatever else you have, less is more when it comes to Tupperware.
Another option, if you have a bunch of mixed-match ones, is to replace everything with a matching set and start fresh.
hang cleaning supplies with a tension rod
If you want to capitalize on your under-the-sink organization, a tension rod is the perfect way to help organize your cleaning supplies. You can hang the bottles from the tension rod and free up so much space on the surface of the cabinet for other cleaning products and kitchen items.
Make sure to measure the space to know how big the tension rod should be.
give everything a home
The most important apartment kitchen organization tip I can give you is to make sure that everything in your kitchen has a home, whether it’s kitchen supplies or food.
With supplies, this is going to make sure everything has a place to go back to and stay organized when you’re not using it.
While this is a bit harder with food because things are constantly changing, you know your eating and purchasing habits best. Prepare for what you know you are going to buy, and make sure to leave spaces for all your food.
If everything has a home, it will always be organized. It’s when things have nowhere to go and get shoved in random places when things start to become messy again.
make sure you can see everything
While you are giving everything a home, something important to keep in mind is that you should be able to see everything in your kitchen, especially your food. If you can’t see it, it won’t be used, and it won’t be eaten. Then, you won’t find it again until the next time you reorganize your entire kitchen.
Do your best when organizing to give everything a proper home that is visible when you open the cabinet.
This post was all about apartment kitchen organization!
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Ann
Nice piece! Thanks for helps