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The kitchen is the hardest-working room in the house, which is exactly why it can go sideways so fast. And to top it off, most kitchen clutter hides behind doors and inside drawers. But that doesn’t lead to a functional kitchen, and that’s the goal here! So, to get your kitchen easily organized, here are four fixes worth doing (and remember to measure first!).
Build the Perfect Drawer System
Most kitchen drawers are one undivided tray. Knives slide around, dulling their edges against each other; cutlery migrates, and the utensil drawer is a giant rat’s nest of spatulas and egg beaters.
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Three simple bamboo-made systems do almost everything you need in here. Bamboo is the right material in a drawer: rigid enough to hold a line, it wipes clean with soap and water, and a rub of oil once in a while keeps it from drying out. Plus, it looks a little fancier than a plastic counterpart. Just don’t soak it or run it through the dishwasher.
A set of adjustable bamboo drawer dividers helps to sort out utensils and everything else in the drawer with no home. They’re spring-loaded, so they push into place and hold without any hardware. They have completely changed my drawer from dysfunctional to absolutely magazine-ready.
An in-drawer bamboo knife block keeps knives stored safely and lying flat, with the blades separated so they stop knocking into each other. It also gets rid of the clunky countertop knife block that takes up valuable counter space. It comes in 7, 9, 13 and 19-knife docks, which cover your kitchen knives and your steak knives.
An expandable bamboo cutlery tray is the nicest way to store your cutlery – no matter the drawer size. The sides adjust from 12 to 21 inches, and the line runs twelve sizes from under 7 inches to 28 inches wide, so you can combine trays in a big drawer. I’ve had mine for close to 8 years, and it’s in near-new condition. I love it! Place drawer liner underneath to prevent it from sliding around.
We all have this one (at least!) embarrassing drawer. You know the one. Move a single item and everything else collapses, and it feels impossible to organize because no off-the-shelf system fits the odd mix of stuff you keep in there.
The Umbra Peggy organizer tray solves it by letting you build the grid around what you own, instead of accepting some company’s generic compartment sizes. Thirty-two pegs move wherever you want them, the non-slip feet keep it from traveling, and it sets up in seconds with no tools. It works in a drawer, a cabinet, or on an open shelf. Best for lighter things like mugs, small plates and lids, rather than a stack of heavy dinner plates. Major game changer – you go from looking scattered to slick in seconds.
Cutting boards and sheet pans stacked flat are a daily irritation, because the one you need is inevitably always on the bottom. Getting it out means lifting everything above it one-handed, usually with something cooking on the stove or a kid asking you a question at the same time!
An expandable rack fixes this beautifully. Boards and pans slot in upright, the rack expands or contracts to fill the space instead of rattling around in it, and the dividers move so you can customize it to exactly what you own. This creates so much calm in an otherwise chaotic space.
Plastic and foil wrap and parchment paper often have nowhere to live, so they end up out on the counter taking up valuable counter space you need. And then there’s the box itself: a bent corner or a failed cutter strip turns tearing off one sheet into a moment of frustration. Add the paper towel situation, and that’s a lot of counter space gone.
A 3-in-1 wrap dispenser consolidates plastic wrap, foil, and parchment into one mounted unit with a built-in cutter and a paper towel bar underneath. And you can mount it magnetically or with an adhesive strip, making it flexible and rent-friendly. One quick note: it comes in three interior sizes, so measure your longest roll before you order.
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