Top 5 Kitchen Organization Hacks
Easy tricks & products to turn your small kitchen into a beautifully organized space
THE HEART OF THE HOME
I have always viewed the kitchen as being the “heart of the home,” whether you have a large photoshoot-worthy kitchen or a small, closet-sized Manhattan apartment kitchen where every inch of space is precious real estate!
Of course, one day my goal is to have that beautiful dream kitchen but, honestly, my kitchen size is definitely on the smaller side. This is why I’ve done a deep dive into kitchen organization inspiration and have found exactly what works for me! I hope by sharing my favorite tips, tricks & products that I use myself, that you’ll be able to create that perfect organized kitchen that you’re dreaming about too!
THE PANTRY
When you close your eyes and visualize the perfect pantry area, what do you see? For me, I see a beautiful, and clean walk-in pantry with shelves lining the perimeter filled with all of my most loved kitchen ingredients. Well, let’s be real, most people don’t have dream pantries like this (myself included!)
I used to think that if you didn’t have a nice “designated” pantry area that it meant you were forced to just throw all of your ingredients, canned goods, and pasta boxes into whatever cabinet you had room in. It always starts off being organized, however, slowly but surely all of the boxes, cans, jars, and bags of ingredients start to mesh into one giant (and completely overwhelming) pile of clutter.
Well, let’s say GOODBYE and good riddance to the lovely, overgrown pile of ingredients in your cabinet because I’m about to share my new favorite ways to organize any kitchen that I hope will resonate with you and your space as well!
1. Spice Jars
If you’re like me and are OBSESSED with all kinds of spices, then you’ve felt the same pain of opening up that spice drawer or cabinet and having to rummage through every single container to find the ONE spice that you need. I always hated the look of my spice cabinet because there’s about 100 different containers in there of all different shapes, sizes, colors, and heights, and they almost never fit together nicely. I’ve even contemplated buying those nice, full spice sets that all come together beautifully pre-filled but some of them are ridiculously expensive $$$!
As an alternative, I decided to buy a set of empty spice jars with pre-printed labels and fill them up myself! Filling up each spice jar can definitely be a little tedious, but I can honestly say that the finished product turned out even better than I expected! These square-style glass jars are compact, fit together perfectly and come with a funnel for filling as well as shaker tops for each of the jars! These particular jars do come with their own labels, however, I preferred the look of the labels shown above and decided to purchase and use them instead!
Find these beautiful jars here!
Find the labels I used here!
2. Dry Ingredient Jars
Do you remember that mass clutter of ingredient bags, pasta boxes and pouches that I spoke of before? This is where large pantry jars come into play! These were BY FAR my favorite addition to my kitchen when I was reorganizing. Not only do these jars work amazingly well inside of your cabinet, but I also found myself using them outside of them as well! These jars are so beautiful and sleek that I decided to leave a few right out in the open on my countertops. Not only do they save space inside of your cabinets, but I loved the apothecary-like look that having ingredient jars out in the open gave to my kitchen. Make sure when you’re choosing your dry ingredient jars that you choose jars of multiple shapes and sizes so that you can fit things like long spaghetti noodles in some as well as more compact ingredients like coffee grounds or cacao into others. Also be sure that your jars come with an air-tight seal! There’s nothing worse than storing your ingredients in reusable containers that might let too much air in and possibly cause your food to go stale or invite unwanted visitors like ants.
Don’t be afraid to mix up different styles of jars either! While most of my containers have the same wooden lid that you saw above, I also have a set that have beautiful, round sphere tops that I am absolutely IN LOVE with. The contrast between my other jars and the round, sleek shape of these jars is so unique and really adds character and a fun quirkiness to the space.
Find my favorite Wooden Lid Jars here!
Find my Sphere Corked-Top Jars here!
3. SPACE SAVING RACKS & DRAWERS
Another category of very useful items that reside in my kitchen are sets of small racks or drawers that you can add to any of your cabinets to make the best use of your space! My personal favorites are my spice rack and my tea drawer set.
Once I transferred all of my spices into matching jars and labeled them accordingly, I realized how hard it was to find what I needed when they were all residing on the same shelf level in the cabinet. I would still have to sift through rows to find what I needed until I found my 3-tiered spice rack! Usually, these racks are expandable to fit larger or smaller spaces which makes them extremely customizable. These racks make it SO much easier to find what you’re looking for in a sea of spice jars.
I’ve also seen great laying-down drawer organizers for spices like this one that turn your messy spice drawer into a beautiful, eye-pleasing area!
Besides spices, I used to HATE going through my cabinets trying to find the tea that I wanted. If you’re like me and are a tea drinker, then you’ll know the struggle of having tons of small boxes, bags, and pouches of tea that seem to all form one giant mess in the area where you choose to keep them. I went on the hunt for something easy and affordable that would help me to make sense of the mess and I found the perfect little set of drawers for this! I think it was advertised as being great for holding long boxes of parchment paper, aluminum foil, etc. (which is also a great idea!) but I loved how it worked perfectly for both tea boxes as well as loose, single-serve tea pouches and accessories such as my metal tea infuser.
Find my favorite Spice Rack here!
Find my Tea Drawer here!
4. LABELING
One of the most satisfying things to do after transferring all of your ingredients and spices into cohesive jars is to label them! I never quite knew what I was missing until I purchased a label maker but it is a GAME-CHANGER. Okay maybe that sounds lame to some people who might not find satisfaction from organization, but this simple tool made organizing my kitchen so much easier (and dare I say fun?!)
Instead of buying one of those larger label makers that print out the label for you, I decided to go with a small, handheld labeler that “punches” or embosses the letters straight onto the film-like label. The imperfect stamped look of the letters on the embossed labels give the jars a personal touch that gives you the feeling that you are walking through an old apothecary shop when you look through your cabinets… which I love!!
Find my favorite embossing Label Maker here!
5. USING WHAT YOU HAVE
Do you need to go out and buy sets of reusable jars to transfer all of your bagged and boxed food into? Not necessarily! Don’t hesitate to reuse old mason jars, jam jars, pickle jars or whatever else you might have on hand to create that perfect organized pantry that you’re going for! Although I love all of the organization products I’ve mentioned above, I still reuse old glass bottles and jars throughout my kitchen as well! Simply remove the label, clean them out, dry them thoroughly, and maybe even use that brand new label maker to create fun & quirky labels for each one!
For me personally, I always reuse old jars and glass bottles to store my own homemade jams, jellies, and dressings like my Maple Vanilla Date Butter or my Zesty Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing.
Lastly, remember that whether you buy a beautiful new set of jars or are smitten with your mismatched repurposed ones, there are so many ways to use them for organization! Go beyond the pantry and use them to organize things like cotton balls, bath salts or tampons in the bathroom, or use them in your home office to clear up the clutter of rubber bands and pens that you have. Or if you do use them for the kitchen, bring a few with you to a package-free shop or local health food store, and use them to refill your rice, oats, lentils, and other dry ingredients, straight into the jars themselves!
DID YOU USE ANY OF THESE TIPS?
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