Organizing Your Cabinets

By: Allrecipes Staff

Reorganizing kitchen cabinets is a great way to restore order in the kitchen and a sure bet for making dinner preparation a bit less hectic.

10 Tips to Make Your Kitchen More User-Friendly

1. Keep a stepstool handy to reach previously inaccessible areas

2. Convert a drawer to a spice or knife rack

3. Install a Lazy Susan or sliding drawers

4. Add vertical dividers for storing cookie sheets and cutting boards

5. Get rid of unused stuff (the extra pizza cutter, the weird spoons)

6. Keep items you don't regularly use outside the kitchen (BBQ tools, extra dish sets)

7. Organize knives, forks and spoons

8. Add baskets and bins for storing loose items

9. Remove and discard packaging so half-opened bags and boxes won't take up space

10.Take a regular assessment of what you're using in the kitchen

Clear Out the Clutter

Clutter turns kitchen cabinets into a catastrophe. The first step to getting organized is tossing out the dead weight to make room for the items you really need. To maximize space, add shelves or install handy pull-out drawers.

Like with Like

When ingredients are arranged scattershot, cooking quickly degenerates into a treasure hunt. Fitting racks and shelves into your cabinets will help keep like ingredients together, organized, and up front-making dinner preparation go more smoothly.

Triangulate

When organizing your kitchen, spatial considerations are critical. Think in terms of a triangle, connecting fridge, counter, and stove. Then arrange ingredients and other items where they're most convenient for prepping, cooking and cleaning-up.