Super organizers! Cupboard Quandary - what goes where??

[thegreekmythsII]

How do you organize your kitchen cupboards? What goes where? I can't seem to get into a good system, and things are in weird places. Fizzy water and dried apricots next to the cling film

Kitchen units I have: 8 cupboards with 2 shelves in each.
2 pan drawers (currently housing tins - beans, lentils etc)

Users: 2 adults - 1 school child, 1 toddler.

This is how I organise my kitchen:

Cupboard 1: Dinner plates, side plates and bowls

Cupboard 2: Glasses of all kinds, measuring jugs, water bottles

Cupboard 3&4: Food cupboards.
One section for tins, jars, sauces
One section for oils
One section for dried: pasta/rice/lentils
One section for cereals
One section for snacks (incl. dried apricots)

Cupboard 5:
One section: Cooking ingredients like herbs, spices, stock cubes, gravy, cornflour
One section: baking ingredients like flour, baking powder, honey, icing sugar, etc

Cupboard 6:
Teas, coffee, sugar, etc at the top. Mugs at the bottom. This cupboard is above the kettle.

Cupboard 7&8:
Saucepans, colander, sieve
Chopping boards
Tupperware
Roasting trays, Pyrex bowls,

Cupboard 9:
Kitchen gadgets (elec. steamer, processor)
Cling film and foil

Cupboard 10:
Pet food, bin bags

Cupboard 11: (Under sink)
Cleaning products, sponges, dusters, any extra kitchen rolls, etc

Cupboard 12: (Has a glass front)
Cookery books on the bottom
Items that are nice to see on top (vintage crystal cake stand, nice China cups/saucers)

Drawer 1: Cutlery
Drawer 2: Other non-cutlery implements like rolling pin, can opener, electronic kitchen scales, corkscrew
Drawer 3: tea towels and cloth napkins
Drawer 4: Junk drawer!

Mine is double cupboard uptop for plates, all sizes

single cupboard - mugs, glasses - both near dishwasher

corner carousel tupperware, baking dishes

2 glass fronted top cupboards hold posh glasses and nice mugs either side of hob

small cupboard down - pasta, rice, t bags biscuits, plus drawer above utensils

3 drawer unit - cutlery, pans, chopping board

single cupboard - crisps, crackers, some tupperware and a gadget.
double corner cupboard - tupperware (again), pans, things not used

uptop corner cupboard - jugs, bowls, mixing bowls, infrequent use stuff up top

top cupboards - baking ingredients, and spices, small packets,
underneath cupboard - cereal,tins, oil

above wall oven cupboard - baking tins and mixer
underneath drawers x 2- baking sheets, teatowels and cloths,

sink cupboard - cleaning stuff

Quite scary how much stuff I have, there were 5 of us. I also have a dresser cupboard with naice china etc

Cupboard 1: Best crockery and serving dishes
Cupboard 2: daily crockery inc childrens plates
Drawer 1: knives, scissors, best cutlery
Drawer 2: daily cutlery and small utensils eg corkscrew
Cupboard 3 (small): overflow glasses, jugs, vases
Cupboard 4: mugs, glasses, tea and coffee. Above kettle
Cupboard 5: Tupperware
Cupboard 6: colanders, sieve, trays
Drawer 3 (under hob): utensils eg spatulas
Drawer 4 (under hob): deep drawer for saucepans
Drawer 5 (under hob): mixing bowls and pans
Drawer 6: (under oven): baking trays and dishes
Drawer 7: (under oven): cake tins
Cupboard 7: cereals and baking
Cupboard 8: oils, vinegars, drinks
Cupboard 9: tins, flour
Cupboard 10: pull out larder so has spices, pasta, baby food and anything not in above categories. Cupboards 7,8,9 and 10 are in a block of four so all the food is in the same area bar the fridge and the tea and coffee
Cupboard 11: cleaning cupboard. IKEA one that has ironing board and Hoover, mops etc
Drawer 8: cling flim, bin bags etc
Drawer 9: gadget bits eg food processor blades. This is admittedly a bit of a junk drawer
Cupboard 12: gadgets eg slow cooker, pasta maker
Cupboard 13: under sink - recycling, dishwasher tabs.
Shelf with toaster and other frequently used gadgets
Cookery books on bookshelf elsewhere.

I didn't realise I had quite so many cupboards! I don't have anything out on the worktops except the kettle. I did spend some time trying to work out what should go where. Try to put things near where you use them, and put the things that you use most frequently close to hand, and the less frequently used items further away (or get rid of them).

gosh this is interesting. I'm going to have to go over these and come up with some common themes and work out some rules. I think my first rule will be to completely separate food and non-food.

Stumbly - i like the way you have grouped things to put liquids in - measuring jugs, glasses and waterbottles. I have something similar - things with holes in - sieve, colander, cheesegrater (!)

Camel - is there a cross over with cupboard 7 & 9 - flour and baking?

Yeah, there is a bit of crossover there but I don't bake that often so all the baking bits eg icing sugar are in a big box on a top shelf. The flour won't fit in the box so that goes on the same top shelf but the adjacent cupboard.

Think about where you'll be doing things. So put teabags/coffee/mugs near to the kettle. Oil, salt, pepper, wooden spoons near the cooker. Breadbin near the toaster.
I try and arrange things so i can easily put things away when emptying the dishwasher (not at the moment as we moved acyear ago and still haven't sorted the kitchen). I like a wall cupboard for crockery and glassware, pans in low cupboard but between dishwasher and cooker. Cutlery in a drawer next to/near the dishwasher.
Set up 'stations' for different activities: eg. I had a baking 'station' which was a worktop-height cupboard which housed the food processor, electric mixer and all the different types of flour/sugar/raising agents/baking tins/flavourings/cake cases I might need < weeps for old kitchen >

Also a 'larder' cupboard or several, assuming there's no actual larder), so tins, pasta sauces etc. in one, herbs and spices in another (again in easy reach of the cooker). Oils, vinegars, soy sauce etc. would go together. Also a cereal cupboard which the DCs can reach once they're able to serve themselves (encourages independence enables lie-ins).

Can't find it but remember reading something about splitting your kitchen into zones - so food prep, cooking, serving and baking (I think). So all our stuff is now organised so it sits in the groups that belong together. Saves lots of walking round the kitchen. Tea stuff together; breakfast stuff together; lunch box stuff together.....

Yes that's what I meant by 'stations' - think I must have read it in an American book!

I use this system dynamic space, well I don't have thousands of pounds of fancy pull outs but the general zoning of stuff works really well.

Zone 1 - larder and food ( 1 tall and one short cupboard)
Zone 2 - saucepans, utensils, baking trays etc. (2 cupboards and drawer stack) plus couple of items on worktop/hooks.
zone 3 - sink with bins and few cleaning bits under, dishwasher
Zone 4 - mugs, glasses (wall) - cutlery and crockery (1+2 drawer unit) kettle is on this unit too.

Due to layout of our kitchen the fridge had to go in a corner between 3 and 4, and tupperware in a random drawer, but otherwise it's OK.

Reading back quite a lot of other posters have something like this - a "serve ware" area, "food" area and "cooking utensils" area