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With items constantly coming in and out, shuffling spots and being pushed to the back when dishes are put away, keeping kitchen cabinets tidy is a near-Sisyphean task. And sure, part of that challenge is knowing which kitchen items to remove in a declutter — but at the end of the day, there’s just a lot of utensils, pots, and pans to fit into a small space. The real secret? Effectively making use of the space you have.
You can apply this to cabinets in a whole lot of ways, but ultimately, the biggest issue that plagues this part of your kitchen is an inability to reach everything inside without displacing everything in front of it. Thankfully, the solution is simple: pull-out shelves. Whether on a slide track like Dekava’s cabinet organizers or a hinge like Hasanen’s pull-down shelves for tall cabinets, this allows you to have a specific spot for each item and get it back into that spot after use without knocking over a dozen other items in your attempts to reach back for that one rarely used banana bread pan. After all, the only organization hacks that are actually going to work for longer than a week are the ones that make your life easier, not harder.
Getting (and keeping) your kitchen in tip-top shape
There’s an art to kitchen organization. Part of that involves pairing relevant items, and pull-out shelves are a great way to do that. Dividing cabinets into two or more levels allows separation that makes everything more stackable and helps keep items from becoming a jumbled mess. For example, you could put Tupperware on one shelf, and lids on another, or pots on one shelf, and frying pans on another. To find the one you’re looking for, no need to move everything out — just pull the right shelf for easy access to everything.
If you want to upgrade your system even more, combine organizational hacks for an even more put-together arrangement. Add long dividers to keep baking sheets separated within a pull-out shelf, repurpose cheap office organizers or plastic bins like Yihong’s clear pantry organizers to keep chip clips, measuring cups, and other small kitchen items organized. If you have a tendency to forget where you put things, try labeling the front of shelves with everything that’s inside. Use a lazy Susan in your kitchen cabinet to make items in the front extra-easy to access. And most of all, make sure you’re regularly reassessing and decluttering your existing supplies — with pull-out shelves, it’s much easier to see and remember what you have and what does and doesn’t get used. And all those things you find you’re never reaching for? Time to make a donation to your local thrift shop.
