Simple kitchen organisation hacks every busy family needs

The kitchen is the heart of the home, which means it’s often the first place to become disorganised and cluttered. If this is the case with your kitchen, these simple kitchen organisation hacks will help you take back control of your kitchen without spending hours rearranging cupboards, or cleaning surfaces.

In this post we’ll cover simple ways to organise your kitchen, including why decluttering your kitchen is an essential first step, how to use kitchen organisation systems, how to take advantage of hidden storage areas, and how to do a nightly reset, so your kitchen stays organised for the long term.

Let’s dive straight in!

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How to organise your kitchen

Let’s get straight into how to organise your kitchen, so you can get started as quickly as possible.

Declutter first

Before organising your kitchen, you need to declutter your kitchen.

Start by decluttering:

• Expired food
• Duplicate utensils
• Unused gadgets
• Mismatched containers
• Small appliances you don’t use

For any items I’m not sure what to do with during a kitchen declutter, I ask myself:

• Do I use it?
• Do I have something similar?
• Does it make my life easier?

If any of the answers are no, then I let it go.

Create zones

After you’ve decluttered your kitchen, the first thing you should do to organise it is to create zones, which means creating areas of your kitchen where you can store similar items, making things easier to find, and put away.

Here are some kitchen zones you can try, and the types of items you can keep in them:

• Breakfast zone – cereal, bowls, spoons
• Lunchbox zone – lunch containers, drink bottles, snack bags
• Cooking zone – oils, spices, salt, pepper, utensils
• Baking zone – flour, sugar, baking trays, baking accessories
• Snack zone – snacks for kids

Use the first in, first out method

Using the first in, first out method is a great way to organise your fridge, by placing items in your fridge in the order of when it was purchased, so newer food items will be stored at the back, older items in the front.

This enables you to first consume items in the front of the fridge, which are closer to their expiry date than the items at the back, which is a great way to reduce food waste, and save money when grocery shopping.

You can also use this method when organising your pantry, by moving older cans to the front, so you use them before they expire.

READ MORE: Simple pantry organisation ideas to refresh your kitchen

Store items where you use them

This is my favourite kitchen organisation tip, and is a great way to simplify your home, which is storing items where you use them, for example:

• Mugs near the kettle
• Plates near the dishwasher
• Pots and pans near the oven
• Lunch containers near your meal prep area
• Oils, salt, pepper, and utensils near your cooktop, I keep mine together in a Lazy Susan.

Use labels

If you use food storage containers that you can’t easily see through, using labels is a great way to find out what’s inside them, and it helps everyone in the family know where to put things.  

Some items you may decide to place a label on include:

• Containers
• Freezer drawers
• Lunchboxes
• Snack bins

RELATED POST: Essential home organisation tips

Organise your containers

One of the most common forms of clutter in a kitchen can be containers, which seem to multiply before you know it.

To help keep your containers organised you can:

• Store lids upright in a container
• Throw out containers with missing lids
• Throw out lids with missing containers
• Keep only one or two sizes per type of container

Create a drop zone

Kitchens are often dumping grounds for paperwork, keys, grocery items, and sometimes even toys.

One of my favourite ways to prevent clutter from entering my kitchen is by having a drop zone.

I do this by having a small tray in the corner of my kitchen where non kitchen items go, so they’re contained in one location, and at the end of the day I empty the tray and place each item where it belongs.

RELATED POST: Decluttering paperwork: How to sort and organise fast

Store cleaning items together

Storing cleaning items together in a cleaning caddy, or by using under sink storage, means you can find any cleaning supply you need when you need it, making cleaning easier and faster.

READ MORE: A busy mum’s guide to a clean kitchen every day

Utilise vertical space

Another one of my favourite kitchen organisation hacks is to utilise vertical space, which means using areas of the kitchen that are often forgotten about.

You can do this by using:

• Floating shelves to hold cookbooks, or small pots and pans
• Over the door shelves for spices, condiments, packets, and small jars
• Kitchen pantry shelves doubles the amount of space in your pantry
• Wall mounted cup holders to prevent cups taking up valuable pantry space
• Magnetic strips for knives so you can keep sharp knives up high

Drawer organisation

Kitchen drawer organisers make drawers more organised, and less cluttered. 

Here are some drawer organisers that I use in my kitchen:

• Pull out drawers for pots and pans
• Adjustable drawer dividers for cutlery, peelers, brushes, and bottle openers
• Foil and plastic wrap organiser to store these items neatly

Schedule nightly resets

My last how to organise your kitchen hack is to schedule it as a nightly reset, which is a great daily habit you can do by setting a timer for 10 minutes each night and:

• Clearing and wiping counters
• Running the dishwasher
• Emptying your drop zone

Kitchen organisation hacks – a recap

The beauty of these simple kitchen organisation hacks is that they work in any size kitchen.

Whether you have a small kitchen, or a large family space, simple changes like organising containers, setting up a drop zone, adjusting where you store everyday items, and using smart storage solutions can make a huge difference to how much time you save in your kitchen every day, and how calm you feel when using it.

In case you missed it, here’s your free weekly meal planner and grocery list to help make family meal planning super simple.

What small kitchen organisation habit could you start this week?

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