We have quickly outgrown our home. With 7 of us in a 1,500 sq. ft. house my husband and I are constantly organizing and/or throwing things away we do not need or use. Our kitchen is our hub, someone always in there. Our counters can easily become a catch-all for junk mail and other things. Here are 4 simple thrifty tips that helped me organize my kitchen. I didn’t spend any money either, I used what I already had!
Baskets are one of my favorite ways to keep things organized. They keep everything together neatly in one place. My kids often ask for snacks so I decided to take all the snacks from the pantry and place them in a basket on the counter. I didn’t place them in hands reach for my littler ones but I did place them in hands reach on the counter for my older boys. If I placed them in hands reach for my 4 and 3-year-old they would be in the basket all the time and my older boys know it’s not a free for all. If the little ones want a snack and I am nursing the baby I can simply ask the older boys to get their siblings a snack. Easier than fumbling around in the pantry.
We go through a loaf bread quite quickly in our home. My kids love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When purchase several loaves of bread at one time, freezing what we will not be using right away. For bread we are going to use right away I keep in a basket near our pantry. The basket contains bread and chips/crackers.
With only 5 pull out drawers in our kitchen and quite a bit of utensils which by the way do not fit in one drawer I had to come up with a solution. I checked around several stores and no one had a countertop storage container large enough for all our utensils to fit in one place so I got a big flower-pot and have them all in the flower-pot.
Everyone has one, yes you guessed it a junk drawer in their kitchen. It’s the catch all drawer. Ours consists of stamps, flashlights, Scotch Tape, birthday candles and other “stuff”. I got sick of not being able to find what I needed so it was time to organize!
I threw out a whole grocery bag full of junk that was in this drawer and organized what I had. The little Dollar Tree baskets were a perfect way to keep everything separate and neat.
We were busting out of our pantry too so my husband made a pull out pantry slider as well which stores all my canned goods in it. This slider fits between my refrigerator and pantry. You can view the full post HERE.
What thrifty tips do you have to organize your kitchen?
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I love using baskets to organize, especially when it comes to snacks. I make most of our snacks, and put them in little baggies, so it’s great to have them in a basket for the kids to just grab from the fridge or the kitchen counter.
Great tips, Nicole! I am also a big fan of baskets. There are so many ways you can use them!
What a great use for a flower pot. I’ve seen a lot of cute ones but never think outside the box (or pot) when it comes to uses. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Great tips – love the baskets! We have little containers in our junk drawer to keep it a little more contained too. We had a steel pot we put our large utensils at our old house, but I made sure there were LOTS of drawers/cabinets when remodeling our “new” house. 🙂
It’s so hard to stay organized. I work on it every day and I never get caught up.
I may be the most disorganized person I know but am trying to improve. I use baskets and an old jug on the counter for utelsils
This looks like my daily struggle! I’m going to work to be better in 2014! Great job!
I love to use baskets for my bread and crackers, too. Our junk drawer is a neverending battle! It gets out of control even right after I clean it out. LOL Thanks for your tips.
These are some great idea’s!! I use many baskets myself but I love the planter pot …that’s so cool! I’m going to use mine no more placing them under the sink!
Love the basket idea. I reuse coffee cans also
Great tips. I sweep through our kitchen every night before bed with a basket and take items left in the kitchen to the right place. I can’t stand clutter. I also use those plastic baskets in our “junk drawer” in our kitchen. I also use labels for everything so you can see what’s in canisters, cans, jars & containers an also date them to know if they’re still good or not.
Thanks for sharing these tips! I am always needing more space!
We use a ton of baskets!
What great tips! Thank you so much!
I love the idea of baskets for the snacks… what I tend to do is since I buy some in bulk I use the biggest box from the snack bags and then dump ALL the snacks into that box… saves so much room.
Love all of your ideas
Thank you for your tips, I need all the organizational help I can get for my kitchen! I need to go out and get some bins and shelves for under my cabinets!
I love using baskets for all kind of things: organizing, decorating, serving. I have quite a collection that i have accumulated over the years.
So I was really surprised when you said the squarefootage of your home! Oh my goodness, how DO YOU DO THAT??? I’d be constantly stepping on someone’s toes that way! Plus, you homeschool! WOW! I think you just reached a new level of awesomeness in my book… 😉
Oh. And great organization job! Baskets are one of my fave things to use too. We got toys and books in ours.
I love the before and after shot of your drawer! And, great idea using a flower pot to hold the utensils!
Good tips…I also use a clay flower pot for my kitchen utensils. Keeping my kitchen organized is hard for me. I need to slow down and put things away.
Very organized! I always have trouble organizing my cabinets. I try to arrange the spices by which ones I use most, but once I do, I need one from the very back.
can you come and organize my kitchen?
Great tips for getting organized. My drawers are scary. I have this thing about keeping counters clean, but open a cabinet and yikes! Very scary! 🙂
I love this! I even have little Dollar Store baskets in my bathroom medicine cabinet (one holds q-tips, one holds cotton balls, and a tall one holds toothbrushes!
I do all of the same things that you do to stay organized in the kitchen! I also use baskets in the refrigerator to organize stuff!
I am constantly organizing and re organizing my house. The place that I am constantly organizing the most is my kids closets.
i can GET organized easily. i love doing it. then the kids get home.
your organizing made a big difference!
We live in a large house and still find the kitchen to be the least organized area! I think the kitchen is a high traffic area and hard to keep organized. You have some great ideas!
Great ideas! Thank you for sharing. I definitely need to get some organizing done!
Great ideas. I love the flower pot utensil holder.
These are great ideas, esp the baskets! My pantry is a mess and it needs help.
I have a basket for the kid’s snacks in the pantry and it works wonders! I need a few more baskets to help organize the rest of the pantry.
I can’t even tell you how much I need organizational help! At this point, I’ve just started throwing everything out. Not sure if that’s good or bad in the long term!
We have a few baskets we use for snacks, it really helps a lot!!! I need to get more organized though, and do some more cause it is still a little bit of a mess!
Those are great tips. My utensil drawer is always a big mess. I may have to utilize some of your ideas.
Awesome! I use a flower pot for a utensil holder, too 🙂 And there are so many storage baskets around here… a great way to keep things (sort of!) looking neat and organized for us. It`s still difficult with such small children to keep things from wandering around the house, and winding up in the least likely of places…
I always love seeing kitchen organizing ideas. I use a flower pot (that was decorated by my son’t class for me) under my sink to hold plastic bags.
Baskets are a life saver at my house too! With a family of 6, it’s so much easier to have a spot where everyone can easily access stuff and see what we’ve got!
I want pull out drawers in my pantry! I think the biggest thing I did was to color code our glasses. We always had so many glasses on the counter that it was driving me crazy. Now at least I know who the culprit is.
Such helpful organization tips. I needed to read this. lol. I am always trying to organize better. Thank you for sharing.
I love the little baskets for the drawers. Makes for less clutter.
I love organizing with baskets. I need to make another trip to dollar tree!
I use a lot of baskets and bins to organize our kitchen too. The utensil holder is a MUST since drawer space is in short supply in our kitchen. Love all your tips!
I love using bins to organize. Not just in the kitchen, but throughout the house.
I love all of these ideas, and need them!
I finally began using 2 baskets for kids snacks, stored in the closet. Looks so much more organized and saves me time in the morning when I’m packing kids lunches.