Ten Kitchen Cabinet Organization Approaches

Treat this as a field note from one working house, not a showroom checklist. A strong choice is a well organized kitchen! After sharing the preferred kitchen drawer organizers with you a few months back, it's time to move on to kitchen cabinets and pantries. So today I'm sharing ten kept kitchen cabinet organization approaches.

From whipping your food storage containers into organized shape to adding smart storage for your wraps & foils and tackling the cabinet under your sink, hopefully you'll find an idea or two that makes your kitchen a more functional & organized space. Let's get to it… (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here})

One. Rack Up Your Cans

A smart way to store cans that makes the most of your cabinet or pantry space is with a can rack organizer such as {this one}. It's one of the preferred (and also one of the simplest) home organization approaches! We used it to store canned goods in the cabinet above our pantry in our previous home:

and to store sparkling water cans (I have a bit of a Bubly obsession) in the pantry of our current home.

Another option is to use a tiered riser such as {this one} that progressively elevates each tier of cans so that they're all easy to see and access:

Two. Wrap Your Cords

When storing small appliances in your cabinets, the cords can definitely get in the way. I have and love {these cord organizers} that stick onto your small appliances and allow you to wrap your cord around them. The household has tried others before that don't stick well but this particular brand is great! I have them on my mixer, crock pot, blender and several other small appliances:

Three. Divvy Up Your Cookie Sheets

Without any type of cabinet organizers for your cookie & baking sheets, it's easy to cause a mini avalanche every time you pull one out. Adding simple dividers to your cabinet are a real shift!

You can have a carpenter install wood dividers or there are a few simple options for taking care of the job yourself. Metal dividers such as {these} that attach to the top and back of your cabinets with a few small screws are an easy DIY:

They're available in both 12″ and 18″ heights (choose the tallest height that you have room for in your cabinet). And I like that you can choose your own spacing when you install them.

Another even simpler option is to use a free standing rack such as {this rack} that's similar to the one we used in the deep cabinet under our downdraft kitchen cooktop before we remodeled:

Four. Give It a Spin

Another way to keep items in your cabinets and pantry from getting buried in the back is to use spinning storage. We keep oils, vinegars, and sauces on {this 10″ turntable} in our pantry:

You could also choose a double decker turntable like {this one} if you have a cabinet with extra height. To maximize your storage space, choose a turntable that's almost as deep as the shelf it's sitting on. {This turntable} is a larger 14″ size for deeper shelves.

The same concept works for spices too! In our previous home we kept our most-used spices in a cabinet on a revolving spice rack similar to {this one}:

One spinning storage piece The household has tried that I don't recommend is {this spice spinner}. While it gets good reviews and has a smart design, I found that it wasn't very sturdy (especially the top shelf), didn't spin easily, and it didn't clear the small lip on the bottom shelf of my cabinet.

Five. Add Pull-Out Trash Bins To a Basic Cabinet

When we remodeled the kitchen in our previous home, one of the preferred additions was a cabinet that came with double pull-out trash bins and an integrated paper towel holder:

The good news is that you don't need to wait until you get new cabinets to add the pull-out trash can feature! If you have a base cabinet that has an opening of at least 15″ wide, you can retrofit it with {this Rev-A-Shelf Double Pull Out Waste Container} that attaches to the cabinet door and functions the exact same way. I added this to my sister's kitchen and it turned out great!

Six. Stack and Rack Your Food Storage Containers

In our previous home, we kept our food storage containers organized in a drawer but since drawers are lacking in our current kitchen, I needed an organizing solution for one of our cabinets. What The household has found works best is to stack my food storage containers on one shelf and store the lids in {this lid organizer} on another:

The household has switched my food storage containers entirely over to {these glass storage containers} that I swear by. They are dishwasher, freezer, microwave and oven safe to 350 degrees, don't stain, stack well, and have tops that are straightforward to put on and off.

Seven. Update Your Under the Sink Organization

The cabinet under your kitchen sink isn't always the easiest of places to organize since you need to work around your sink plumbing and garbage disposal. But a few of the organizers that have worked well for me include {this glass penny candy jar} that I put my dishwashing tablets in and {this beverage can organizer} where I store my dish and water bottle scrubbers. I also love that it has a flat lipped top that you can store things on:

While I had drawer space for my dish towels in our old house, in our new house I needed to store them under the kitchen sink. I found that {this 2-tier wire drawer organizer} was the perfect fit for the long but narrow space that I have (I pulled it out of the dark abyss of my sink cabinet to get a better pic!):

A strong choice is that each drawer has an easily moveable divider that keeps anything you store in your drawer in place regardless of how full or empty it is:

Eight. File Your Water Bottles

Do you have any magazine racks for filing away old magazines that you no longer use? Flip them on their back and use them to store water bottles:

It's so much easier to grab the one you need this way instead of wading through a sea of standing bottles to find one that might be buried in the back. {These highly rated stackable racks} will also get the job done.

Nine. Slide On Extra Storage Space

If you have any kitchen cabinets with extra space above the items you're storing, it's the perfect spot for one of {these under shelf baskets}:

You can use them to store wraps & foils, napkins, coffee, vitamins, or any other light weight items (they aren't equipped to handle heavy items like dishes).

Ten. Stack Up Your Pans

If you store your cooking pans in kitchen cabinets instead of drawers, {this pan organizer rack} is a must-have! Instead of having to rifle through your pans to find the one you want at the bottom of a teetering stack, each pan rests in its own slot so your pans stay upright and easy to grab. You can orient the rack either vertically:

or horizontally depending on which works best with your cabinet:

Eleven (Bonus). Don't Skip Your Cabinet Door Backs

There are several clever add-ons to the back of your cabinet doors that will up the organization and functionality of your kitchen. My favorites are {these spray bottle hangers} that hang with removable Command strips. I use them to hang my most often used spray bottles so they're easy to grab but aren't cluttering up my kitchen countertop:

(See my post on our kitchen redo before and after for other kitchen sources)

Another super simple addition you can make to the back of your kitchen cabinets is a set of {these Command spring clips}. You can use them to clip on things such as most used recipes, grocery lists, letters to mail, or coupons:

And with that my kitchen cabinet organization approaches are a wrap! If you want other approaches for whipping your kitchen into shape, these are a few related blog posts that you might find helpful:

Kitchen redo Approaches on a Budget 

10 Best Kitchen Drawer Organizers

8 Budget-Friendly Kitchen Organization Approaches

Pantry Organization Approaches

Thanks as always for stopping by,