Kitchen Organization Must-Haves for My Kitchen

And the time has come when I’m giddy with excitement to walk my house armed with a garbage bag in one hand and plastic tubs in the other. January means nothing other than a clean slate, organized spaces, and a huge refresh of house and home. I love the holidays more than most, but come January, I’m ready to have a little simplicity again around here. I’m a bit overstimulated by this time and I need a change.

The one area that gets the most wear and tear during the holiday season and needs major rehab is the kitchen. Meals have been cooked, cookies baked, guests served, parties held, and nothing put away in the right place. Sound like your place, too?

It’s time to kick start the year with a bit more organization and less clutter and the place I’m starting is in the kitchen. Below is a group of kitchen storage essentials that I’ve personally used in my house over the last year to drastically overhaul the junk, or have recently purchased to fill in the trouble areas.

With these products, I’m able to SEE what I have, what I need, and I’ve stopped overbuying dramatically. It’s also kept a system that even my youngest can use. My kids help put away groceries because they know where things go. My husband actually sees the vegetables instead of claiming he “never knew they were there.” 🙂 It’s been almost a year with these organization pieces in place and they are STILL fully functioning in my kitchen. No better way to describe it than game.changers.

4-Pack Spice Rack Organizer // This is one of the new purchases for the new year. The reviews are great on this product, people rave about their simplicity and their ease of installation, which I love. I personally use the lazy susan (below) for my spices in my cabinet, but I want to try this in my pantry wall to see if I like this system better. Dump spices into matching glass jars and label them, and this system is probably the most simplistic and easiest to use to control the amount of spices in the kitchen.

4 Piece Airtight Acrylic Canister Set // These are my must-haves to hold my sugar, flour, powdered sugar, and brown sugar in my pantry. I love how the two small canisters can stack on top of one another to save space. The wide mouths are awesome to refill and allow for all measuring scoops to easily fit inside while baking. I’ve loved these canisters and they’ve held up so well over the last year.

157 Pantry Labels for Containers // There are label people and there are not. You guessed it…I’m a label girl. I especially love this listing on Amazon because the script is really cute, it holds up well even after washing, and they do custom orders if the 157 labels is missing one that you need. I did a custom order of a “marshmallow” label and it was delivered within a week. Great company to work with and these labels have been a perfect fit to our pantry.

4-Pack Bamboo Drawer Dividers // This is another new purchase of the new year that I haven’t gotten yet, but I’m excited to try out. I have two drawers of utensils that I have organizers for, but no matter what organizer I’ve found, it just doesn’t work exactly as I need it to. It’s either too wide, too long, the compartments aren’t the right fit, or it doesn’t flow the way I want it to. I’m tired of working around a pre-made organizer with my utensils. I want to try these with my bigger kitchen utensils and serving spoons to see if this makes a more logical way to organize them. The reviews are great on these and they seem to be really substantial. An added bonus is that if these don’t work in my kitchen, they can be stacked and used to organize your clothing drawers. If it’s not for my kitchen, it’s going straight to my dresser!

24 Count Egg Tray // When I overhauled my fridge this past week, I needed a solution for my eggs. Cartons are fine and they’ve always been for me, but I feel like the space ABOVE the eggs is wasted space in my fridge. When I put them in this hard container, I’m able to stack on top of the eggs, if needed. Twice now, I’ve packed Jerod’s lunch the night before and was able to store it sitting right on top of the eggs. Never could I have done that before. It’s a space saver that I never realized how beneficial it could be!

White Bamboo Lid Storage Container // Can’t you just picture this under your sink holding all those sponges, rags, garbage bags, magic erasers, etc. etc? Add. To. Cart. Love the look and love the lid on this one.

2-Pack Foldable Handwoven Water Hyacinth Cube Storage Baskets // These have been great additions to the floor of my pantry. They sit just a little out from the depth of the shelves, making it so easy to grab sandwich bags, parchment paper, paper plates, and napkins right out without having to pull them out and root through. They’ve held up through a lot of wear and tear, and have even been used a few too many times by my 2 year old as she scales up to get the snack she isn’t supposed to reach. 🙂 Very sturdy and look beautiful in the pantry.

14″ Plastic Turntable // Chalk this up to the purchase of the month for me. You know all those condiments and jars that occupy your top shelf in your fridge? The ones that you’re constantly moving aside to reach for the one you need in the back? Get this. It will change your life. The 14″ fits perfectly on my top shelf and currently holds 14 jars for me. FOURTEEN! Spin that little dream around and grab what you need. Believe me, it will completely change your life! Note: Be sure to measure your shelf for height, width and depth. This listing on Amazon has multiple sizes including 9″, 11″ tiered, and the 14″ I purchased.

Set of 5 Glass Canisters with Bamboo Lids // If you need a good pasta container that fits in your pantry, these are not only sized well, but are also beautiful! The bamboo lids keep it airtight and they just look stunning enough to even keep on your countertop.

Adhesive Storage Container // This is another one of those that I didn’t know that I needed, but now that I have, my life is exponentially easier. The image shows this container holding sandwich and storage bags, which I could see being extremely useful on the wall of your pantry or cabinets; however, I used this under my sink to hold my dishwasher tabs. Typically, I’d have a bulky box that was completely in the way of all other cleaning products under the sink. I dumped in an entire box of tabs and it was only 3/4 of the way full. Buy in bulk? You can still use this. The adhesion is extremely strong and can hold significant weight.

If you fear having tabs out in an open container to be seen, try these cabinet locks for your under the sink cleaning storage. We’ve used one for years and 1. we’ve never lost the key and 2. I’ve never had a child be able to figure out how to do it themselves without being shown first.

9″ Non-Skid Pantry Turntable // This is what I use to organize my spices and my baking needs in two of my upper cabinets, and I live and die by these. There’s no more rummaging around to find a spice. Everything faces out, everything can be seen, and I just have to spin. I LOVE these! When I purchased last year, I nabbed them in white with a gray rubberized bottom. Now, there are nearly 20 color choices available so you can really make these fit your kitchen well!

4 -pack Flip-Tite Square Food Storage Container Set // Just recently, Walmart took my favorite pantry containers and put them together in a set. You used to have to purchase them all separately…and they cost more back then. These plastic containers have been key to my pantry staying organized. My children can all open and close them correctly, their easy to take in and out of the closet, and I’m able to SEE what I have left instead of overbuying week after week. To see exactly how I purchased these, read about my Full Pantry Reveal to get the sizes I purchased and for what food.

8pcs Clear Plastic Bins // This is a new buy for the month and I’ve used all 8 between my fridge and my under the sink storage. For my fridge, I was able to move my vegetables out of the drawer (where they seem to go “hidden” and uneaten) to the main shelf where they’ll be more likely to be eaten. I filled others with my kids yogurt tubes and the many fruit containers we go through a week.

Under the sink, I could fit kitchen cleaning items in one, house cleaning pieces in another, sponges and Magic Erasers in one, and a roll of garbage bags through the last.

Bonus: the containers have an opening on the side that you can pull your garbage bags through and get one bag at a time.

3-Tier Pantry Organizer, 15-Inch // Finally, I love my 3-tier oragnizer for holding all of my cans within my pantry. There’s plenty of room so I rarely need to stack cans and I can see them all when I walk in. No digging or rooting around. You see what you have, what you need, and can access them easily. I use the 15″ but there is also a 10″ version as well as about 15 color choices to make your pantry the best fit for you!

Nothing on this list is expensive. Nothing on this list is difficult to work with. And nothing on this list is something that I don’t personally use or are planning to use in my very own kitchen. For how to get started and my very best tips and tricks to make your kitchen the most organized space for you and your family, visit My Organized Pantry Reveal. It will give you everything you need to get started without feeling overwhelmed. You can do this…and you’ll be so happy you did when you’re done!

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