Organizing Kitchen Drawers

As much as I love my new kitchen, drawer space is at a premium and keeping them organized is a challenge.

I love how our kitchen turned out and I love cooking in it, plus I just think it is pretty. That doesn’t negate the fact that we are woefully short on drawer space.

When we bought the house, this kitchen was totally inadequate. Not sure how anyone lived here for 12 years comfortably. That island was a joke, just 30 inches wide and one big drawer. See those 12 inch wide upper and lower cabinets on the left of the range, so narrow you couldn’t put anything in them. That was a really sad little drawer too.

When we remodeled the kitchen, we replaced that 30″ island with a 24″ drawer and door unit and an 18″ drawer unit. This was a major plus in the drawer storage department. You can also see the cabinet on the left of the range was changed out to a 24″ drawer and door unit too and a 24″ upper. Both of these changes made a huge difference in the kitchens function. Now to see how I try to keep them all organized.

In the island I use the 24″ drawer for my silverware, steak knives and serving pieces. The silverware unit is a double unit that you can slide across so you can reach silverware on the top or bottom.

The right side has three 18″ drawers. I use the top one for my hand mixer, measuring cups, measuring spoons, rolling pins, thermometer and skewers. Just all those not used everyday things, but things I really need. This top drawer is not as deep as the next two, so this works perfectly.

The second drawer is deep, and where I keep my plastic storage containers and our thermos drink bottles. As you can see, this becomes a mess really fast.

Ok, much better. I took everything out and stacked them all by size, then put all the lids in one of the larger rectangular containers. Much better.

The bottom drawer holds all my kitchen hand towels, potholders, and dish cloths. I have a bunch, but I like to put out fresh towels and dish cloths every day, some times twice a day if I am doing a lot of cooking, so I use a lot of them each week.

As you can see, from this side of the kitchen, there are 3 more drawers. People, that is all, only 3 more. (My last kitchen had 11 really generous sized drawers so I was a little spoiled.)

The 24″ drawer on the left of the range is sort of a catch all drawer. Can openers, cheese slicer, rubber spatulas, potato peelers, ice cream scoops, wine openers, salad spoons, ladle, meat mallet and a couple of whisks too.

The 24″ drawer on the right side of the range has all my daily necessary things for cooking a meal. Spoons, spatulas, cheese grater, whisks, potato masher, meat mallet and tongs.

The small drawer next to the sink holds my kitchen knives. This drawer is tiny, but my knife holder fits in here perfectly. I love having all the knives so I can see them and grab the one I need. Kitchen scissors fit on the side too. Super handy. (The red handle item is a knife sharpener)

Actually I’ve found that a ton of stuff I had in drawers at the previous house were not kitchen related. I had 2 junk drawers and then I had some baking dishes in 2 more drawers. These seven drawers that I have are actually all I need and they do function for me quite well. One thing that makes up for lack of storage is my fabulous pantry. It’s next to the fridge, so super handy. I couldn’t make this kitchen work at all without it. Not only does it hold food but all my small appliances, some casserole dishes and other assorted kitchen items.

Tons of room for all my food.

These wire shelves are a must have for any kitchen. In the last house I had one of these units on the inside of the pantry door. Here I had room for 2 on this wall. All those small things that get lost in a regular pantry are so easy to find and see here.

Even with limited drawer space, I think I have managed to make it function quite well for me. Everything I need on a daily basis is right here and easy to get to. I love having an efficient kitchen.