WHY are my kitchen cupboards overflowing?! *photos*

[ShakiraIsMyNameOnSaturday]

Please help! We have what I think is a reasonable number of kitchen cupboards - 11 cupboards and three drawers. Yet we are bursting at the seams! Everything is a disorganised mess.

What am I doing wrong? Do we have too much stuff?!?

Any suggestions that might help would be gratefully received.....

Possibly squeezing too much stuff into too small spaces? The last pic especially looks crowded. Hmmmm. We have a 'sweet' cupboard for puddingy things and a savoury cupboard for sauces etc and a dry cupboard for pasta and rice and packet mixes etc. A cereal cupboard, a crockery cupboard, glassware cupboard. Pots and pans cupboard. Tea/coffee/milkshake/squash/hot choc cupboard x

You might have a lot of cupboards but they are very small especially those to the right of oven.
There is a fair bit of "chucking it in" going on. If they were tidier you'd fit more in.
Are those big bags at bottom pet food? Could they go elsewhere?

Is that pet food in the bottom left? We don't have that in the kitchen, or cookbooks, or appliances in our cupboards. That would free lots of space, but no good if you have nowhere else for it! I have a shelf along one wall with one appliance and some cake tins, my flour/icing sugar etc on, and a handy carousel cupboard which I think makes our space go further.

Isn't that why they're for?

They look like funny shapes and sizes, so you might need to gst clever with storage solutions. Instead of stacking things in top of each other use boxes with lids, or shelf inserts. Do you have an ikea near you? Revolutionised my kitchen

What not why

I like your Bob Marley sticker BTW

They are quite small cupboards. Could some of the stuff go elsewhere? Books for example onto a bookshelf or windowsill?

You don't have too much stuff, you just haven't organised it to make putting things away easy.

Pull it all out, sort into categories and put back. Preferably with some sort of pull out baskets to make things easier. It also helps to decant stuff into jars and other containers, if they are see through you can see stock levels instantly and then the packaging doesn't take up space.

Do you need that many recipe books and is there anywhere else they could go.

Under the sink - you could get an under sink stacking thing, or at the very least some tension bars you could hang the spray bottles over to give you more room.

As for the rest it looks thrown in. You can get in-cupboard stacking stuff.
www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-hanging-shelf-storage/p/0435938
www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-kitchen-organiser-round-2-tier/p/0450000
www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-fridge-can-organiser/p/0449086

Get rid of the cookery books and use the internet
Also pull everything out and go and buy boxes and then put back in .

Looks fine to me- nothing seems to be at risk of falling out when you open the cupboards

I have basket shelves screwed to inside of loads of cupboard doors.
Obviously you get less in the cupboard but it's easier to find and less things to remove to find things at the back.
Also pull out baskets. Take time to find ones that fit best in your cupboards.
I also added an extra shelf in all my wall units

I've got these in various sizes

www.robertdyas.co.uk/novo-medium-kitchen-organiser

@BreakfastAtSquiffanys I have those ones too, I think I bought some from asda and some from tkmaxx.

I have some of these IKEA cupboard tidy shelves, they're cheap too!

You have quite a lot of things in your cupboards I don't have in mine.

Books - kitchen windowsill or use the internet
Toaster - on a surface (ours is actually in top of the microwave in the utility)
Slow cooker? - left out if in use, more long term storage (utility/under the stairs/garage) if not.
Pet food - under the stairs in storage bins.

But it doesn't look too bad really.

We also have pans and utensils hanging on racks to save cupboard/drawer space.

I'd totally rethink those narrow cupboards left of oven.
There's a lot of wasted space, plus things balanced on top of each other.
Have one cupboard for tall things (the cupboard over oven had bottles in it) put all tall in that cupboard.
Get extra shelves for skinny cupboard - I took one shelf to b&q and got them to cut three more the same size plus got more shelf supports.
Then get pull out baskets (like the Robert Dyas ones above)
You can then see the entire contents of one shelf at a glance

I think my DH may have a secret second home :(

This is his style - I have actually had things fall on my head when I open the door!

I prefer to be able to see what's in there and not pack them to the front so this is a common marital issue!

But I mean cupboards are for putting things in so really they will have stuff in..

Anyway
Pic1:
Can you put the books anywhere else?
Apart from them the tall stuff in on the less tall shelf and vice versa. I'd put the biccies sauce flour tall box on the top and the short stuff on the bottom so it isn't all tipping over.
A basket without holes in the side might make it look neater.
Try not to have too many layers
Go through and use up/ chuck old stuff regularly

Pic 2: Can you put more shelves in? They are really high so everything piled on top of each other.
narrow deep cupboards are always tricky

Pic 3: Hard to see due to sideways gravity defying effect! They look fine to me TBH

HTH

Look like mine. But I wouldn't put books in a cupboard. In fact they don't look that full to me

Thanks so much everyone! Ok, I'll move the books and the Ikea shelving stuff looks good. Not sure if it would add loads though as the cupboards are already quite stacked high!

No ability to put stuff in cupboard under stairs as it's full of DP's fishing gear / tools / other crap. Perhaps the real solution is to get a shed

I hadn't even thought about trying to get more shelves cut for the narrow cupboard. Genius!

Is it normal to need a whole cupboard each for mugs, glassware, and plates?!

Here's a couple more shameful photos. I'm going to start having a go at decluttering as a first step now. Dear god, my Saturday nights have changed!

PS if anyone wants to share photos of a normal person's kitchen cupboards to make me understand what I'm supposed to be doing inspire me, they'd be most appreciated

And I've just noticed the irony of all my diet books on the shelf above a tonne of shite food

"Is it normal to need a whole cupboard each for mugs, glassware, and plates?!"

Yes

I don't think there's a "norm" here just your personal comfort levels.

Some people are happy with them packed to the max and some like a more minimalist approach.

If I showed you DH baking cupboard you would feel much better. If I showed you a cupboard I control you'd feel worse Horses for courses innit.

I draw the line at things falling on my head though!

I think you carry a lot of "stock". Who needs that many tea bags?! What is behind them?

Foil should be in a drawer.

Why so many cleaning products?

What's on the shelf underneath the tea towels?