How do I organise kitchen cupboards?

[neonheart]

I moved into a new home a couple of months ago and didn’t really think too much when unpacking everything into the kitchen. Some things have a specific place but others (mainly food) are just shoved into cupboards with no real thought and everything looks cluttered.

I want to just take it all out and start again but no idea how to organise it all.

First I would get all the food out and lay it out on the kitchen table. Throw out anything that’s out of date or that you know you’ll not use and see what’s left. Have a look at the cupboard space you have to accommodate it all. Stuff that gets used regularly should be easy to reach.

I bought a couple of Wham Studios boxes one for spices and one for packets. It's made a huge difference to be able to pull out the basket rather than rummaging around for spices

I have all breakfast type things together, cereal, porridge on one shelf, bread, butter, jam, marmite (etc) on another, and tea coffee biscuits sugar on another shelf.

In another cupboard I have pasta, lasagna, tomato tins, tomato sauce in a jar. (A separate cupboard for spares eg I buy 5 packets of pasta. So one on the shelf, one in the ‘spares’ cupboard.) Spices, flour for sauce on one shelf. Packets of rice, dal etc one shelf.

‘Sweet/baking’ cupboard. Things ready to eat eg tin of fruit, tin of evaporated milk, custard etc one on the one shelf. Ingredients on one shelf eg flour, sugar, sultanas etc.

I have big kitchen drawers plus a set of narrow drawers beside the hob (utensils, tea towels, tinfoil etc, aprons and oven gloves.) I've two tall cupboards plus a long deep shelf for food.

My categories for the big drawers are

1. Cutlery and utensils. Plus a small drawer beside hob for utensils
2. Mugs, glasses, bowls and side plates
3. Dinner plates, salad plates, pasta bowls
4. Saucepans
5. Lasagne dishes, casserole dishes, pyrex jugs

Food categories are

1. Cereal and juice/ olive oil (tallest shelf need the height for juice)
2. Seasonings
3. Sauces
4. Tupperware, food flasks and drinks bottles go in my food pantry on the bottom shelf
5. Herbs, stock cubes, pasta
6. Spices
7. Dry things like semolina, lentils, seeds etc mostly decanted into jars
8. 2 shelves of baking items- ingredients and bowls, scales, pastry cutters

Then mixed tins.

Think about the things you do often and the trips you tend to make around the kitchen. I have…

Tea, coffee, sugar bowl, hot choc etc in a cupboard near the kettle. Mugs in the cupboard next door.

Crockery in a cupboard near the dishwasher to make unloading easy.

Spices, oils, stock cubes, condiments in a cupboard next to the stove, handy for cooking.

Dry food like pasta, tins, breads, cereals together.

Snacks in tubs on shelves I don’t look at unless I want a treat.

Baking stuff in tubs on a top shelf as I don’t bake often.

I have;

.Plates / bowls / tupperware in one cupboard (2 shelves)
.Glasses and mugs
.Bits and pieces like lunchboxes, flasks, cheese grater etc
.Baking stuff
.Spices / oil / bottles of soy sauce etc
.Tins / jars and pulses
.Pasta in the small end one
.Bread stuff and cereal in the other small end one

.A drawer for snacks like crisps and school snacks etc
.cutlery drawer
.Drawer for pans
.Drawer for pots
.Drawer for baking pans etc
.Drawer for random things like tin foil and tea towels

My last kitchen had about 4 usable cupboards and one drawer, I somehow ran out of room quickly in this one 😅