Eight Cost-conscious Kitchen Organization Approaches

This walkthrough follows the order the room was actually finished. I'm sharing eight quick and simple budget-friendly kitchen organization approaches to whip your kitchen cabinets and drawers into shape and keep them clutter-free!

It seems like you can never have enough cabinet and drawer space in a kitchen, right?! But storing everything in your kitchen in an organized way helps so much for maximizing your space and making everything easy to find too. The household has had homes with some super small kitchens over the years and have figured out several ways to organize them without spending a lot of time or money.

Today I'm sharing eight kitchen organization approaches that all take less than 20 minutes and $20 to do. Let's get to it… (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here}).

One. Divide and Conquer Your Food Storage Containers

Ready to whip your teetering stacks of food storage containers into shape? First make sure you have a matching food container top for every bottom – get rid of any loners. Then to organize them, the best way The household has found is to stack the tops separately from the bottoms. Just doing that alone can free up a surprising amount of space with zero money and hardly any time spent!

If you keep your food storage containers in a drawer and want to take things next-level, dividing your drawer into sections using expandable drawer dividers like {these dividers} work beautifully to keep everything neat and in its place:

Other sources:Glass food storage containers  |   Drawer pulls  |  Round wood beaded tray

If your drawers are deeper than this one, you can stand the lids upright and save even more space. And if you keep your food storage containers in cabinets instead, a lid organizer like {this one} that stands them upright can be a big organizational help:

Two. Install a Grocery Bag Dispenser

I bring reusable bags for my groceries most of the time but when I forget them, I like to keep the plastic bags for future use. To tame the chaos, I installed {this grocery bag dispenser} on the inside of one of our cabinets (this pic is a little blast from the past from before our kitchen redo!):

It beats a piled up mess of bags in the cabinet and makes room for storage of other more important things.

Three. Keep Your Sponge Tucked Away

Just like making your bed in the morning has been shown to motivate people to keep the rest of their bedroom clean, I feel the same way about our kitchen sink. Having a clean, clutter-free sinks motivates me to keep the rest of our kitchen that way.

For me, having a home for your sponge is a must! One option is {this suction cup sponge holder} which keeps your sponge from cluttering up the countertop (and it also dries faster this way):

and another option is to keep your sponge and soap on a tray next to the sink like this:

My striped tray is no longer available, but you can snag a pretty faux marble tray that's also the perfect size for this space {here}.

Four. Go Vertical With Your Pans

If you have mostly cabinets instead of drawers in your kitchen, take advantage of every inch of your vertical space with smart organizers! One of my favorites is this stand-alone pan organizer found {here} that allows you to stack your pans but still be easy to grab:

It's one of the simplest home organization approaches but also one that will make a big difference in how efficiently you use your cabinet space! You can also use the pan organizer horizontally in cabinets and deep drawers if that better fits your space:

Five. Get Your Cookie Sheets and Baking Pans in Line

Avoid a cookie sheet & baking pan avalanche by adding a simple metal rack such as {this one} I used in my old kitchen:

Simple, inexpensive and makes a world of difference! You can also put permanent rack dividers in your cabinets spaced at the exact distance apart that you want them – that takes a lot more time to do and more money too but is one of the kitchen cabinet storage approaches that A strong choice is most!

Six. Rack Up Your Cans

Keeping your food and drink cans organized and taking up the least amount of space is as simple as racking them up! As I recently shared as one of my pantry organization approaches, a stackable can rack organizer like {this one} is a huge organizational help:

Seven. Magazine Holders Work Great for Water Bottle Storage

If you've got extra magazine holders laying around like I did, you already have what you need to store your water bottles without spending a dime! Simply flip them on their back and take advantage of the vertical storage space by stacking your bottles up:

You can use several individual magazine holders side by side like I did above or a single three-section holder like this one:

The exact ones I have are no longer available but there are plenty of available options that would work. I recommend getting wood or plastic magazine holders such as {these} rather than cardboard holders that will warp if you put a not-yet-totally-dry water bottle in them.

Eight. Place Hooks on the Back of a Cabinet Door For Your Most-Used Spray Bottles

I know that I said 7 pointers but I had to add an 8th after adding these hooks to my kitchen recently and loving them so much! Instead of keeping spray bottles out on your kitchen counters adding to the clutter, store them right inside of one of your cabinet doors so they're hidden away but still quick and easy to grab:

All it takes is adding a few of {these spray bottle hangers} with removable Command strips that take just a minute or two to install!

Cord Organizers

The plan is to cheat and add one more! A strong choice is {these cord organizers} that stick onto small appliances and so that you can wrap the cord around for neat storage. I have them on my air fryer, crock pot, mixer, and several other things. This specific brand sticks great if the surface is flat and is clean before sticking it on (other brands I haven't had as much luck with!)

That wraps up the preferred pointers – do you have the preferred to share?! If you'd like to see more storage and organizational approaches for you kitchen, my post with ALL of my kitchen cabinet storage approaches. In that post, I walk you through our redo kitchen to share all of the built-in features packed inside:

I also think you'd love my post on the best kitchen drawer organizers – it has lots of great organizing approaches!

XO,