KITCHEN DRAWER ORGANIZATION TIPS & INSPIRATION

Welcome to the final week of kitchen organization month…woo hoo! Ready for the final Challenge assignment? We’re tackling kitchen drawer organization starting….NOW!

{DOWNLOAD THE KITCHEN CHALLENGE CHECKLIST HERE}

KITCHEN DRAWER ORGANIZATION

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EVALUATE & PREPARE

Got your decluttering kit and your cleaning caddy ready? Great!

This week’s assignment really is a continuation of last week’s kitchen cabinet organization project. Just replace the word “cabinet” with “drawer”. Like last week, you’ll need to devote some time to mapping out a plan for which categories of items will reside in each kitchen drawer. If you’re struggling with this step, check out this post, where I offer some guidance for assigning homes for your items during the organizing process.

It’s likely that you already made the majority of these decisions last week when you set up various zones throughout your kitchen. As a reminder, the common kitchen zones include:

Food preparation (cutting boards, colanders)

Cooking (pots & pans, bakeware, spices, pot holders)

Clean up (cleaning products, dish towels, sponges)

Eating (plates, glassware, utensils)

Food storage (plastic ware, plastic wrap, aluminum foil)

Utility (candles, tools, office supplies, medications)

Creating these kitchen zones up front makes it easy to figure out what goes into that Relocate bin when it’s time to sort and purge. Remember my tip for using Post-It notes as temporary labels during the kitchen cabinet organization process? This works great for kitchen drawer organization as well.

EMPTY OUT & CLEAN

Not only will you get to cross off “ORGANIZE KITCHEN DRAWERS” from your task list at the end of this week; you’ll also get to cross off one more item from your spring cleaning checklist. Awesome!

You’ve got your cleaning caddy on hand, right? Now’s the time to use it. Start by removing ALL of the contents from the drawer, then give the drawer a thorough cleaning. I’m always amazed at the dirt and crumbs that accumulate in those kitchen drawers (please tell me I’m not the only one).

SORT & PURGE

Ready to sort? Use your purging prompts to help you make decisions about what belongs in the Keep, Trash, Donate/Sell and Relocate bins. You’ll more than likely come across several “no brainer” items to toss during the kitchen drawer decluttering process.  Think duplicates, broken or damaged items, and items you’ve never used.

If you have limited storage space in the kitchen, plan on relocating seasonal items to another area of your home (think basement or garage).

After you’ve completed your initial sort, go ahead and remove the trash, relocate items that don’t meet the criteria you established during the Evaluate step, and place those items from the Donate bin into the car. Now, all that’s left to deal with are the items in the Keep pile.

Sort these items into logical categories. Common categories include:

• Flatware
• Serving/baking utensils
• Potholders
• Dish towels & rags
• Plastic wrap/food storage bags
• Paper goods
• Food storage containers
• Spices
• Tools & utility items (a.k.a. the “junk drawer”)

ORGANIZE

Ready to set up your zones and put everything back? Begin by keeping those basic organizing principles in mind & consider using organizing products that will help keep your item categories corralled within the drawer.

For example, if you have a drawer devoted to spice storage, consider using a tiered drawer insert specifically designed for spices:

Use drawer organizers to create compartments for organized utensil storage:

I also like to use drawer organizers in the kitchen “junk drawer”:

Use a silverware organizer to keep the knives, forks and spoons from intermingling:

If you’re the DIY type, be sure to head  over to my Pinterest Kitchen Organization board to find lots of DIY and low-cost kitchen drawer organizing ideas.

MAINTAIN

Plan to go through this process on an annual basis to keep your drawers in good shape. It’s helpful to schedule your kitchen drawer maintenance session in conjunction with your spring or fall cleaning.

Your Assignment for this week:

{Repeat this process for each drawer in your kitchen}

1. Determine the categories of items you’ll store in the drawer
2. Empty the drawer & clean it thoroughly
3. Sort items into Keep, Donate, Relocate & Trash piles
4. Explore options for maximizing storage & containing item families (if necessary)
5. Put items in your KEEP pile back into the drawer using basic organizing principles
6. Schedule a yearly appointment in your calendar for decluttering and organizing kitchen drawers

Also, be sure to check out a few other posts that you may find helpful as you complete this week’s assignments:

After you’ve completed this week’s assignment, share a photo of the items in your toss pile OR a photo of one of your newly organized kitchen drawers on Instagram (use the hashtag #OrganizeandRefineChallenge and don’t forget to tag me) and/or share it in the Refined Rooms Facebook community.

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This post is part of the Organize and Refine Your Home Challenge

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