How to Rearrange Your Kitchen Cabinets

by Quick and Dirty Tips

If you're constantly bending, stooping, or searching to get at frequently used items in your kitchen, it might be time to reorganize your cabinets. Domestic CEO has easy tips to optimize your kitchen.

Flickr//Katherine Miller

In a kitchen, it’s important to have your cabinets filled and arranged in the handiest possible way. Sometimes you can live in your home for a number of years before realizing that things aren’t stored in the most obvious spots.

If you find that you’re constantly bending down to get dishes you use all the time or having to reach to the back of the cabinets for your favorite pot, maybe it’s time to rearrange your kitchen cabinets to make your daily kitchen time a little easier. I recently helped a friend with this project in her house. Here's what we did:

Flickr//lakelandliquidation

Take stock and make notes

Before removing everything from your cabinets, go through each cabinet individually and notate what’s working and what isn’t. Maybe the items stored in a cabinet are in the best spot in the kitchen but the items themselves need to be reorganized. Other kitchen items may need to be relocated.

Flickr//Paul Watson

Remove and relocate

Put things where they make sense. Glasses and coffee cups should be near the refrigerator. Why walk all the way across the kitchen to get a cup? We created a beverage station in her cabinets. The coffee maker and espresso machine are on the counter with the coffee cups, coffees, filters, cups, and glasses all in the cabinets above. Now, that makes sense!

Before, all her food storage containers were stored in a lower cabinet that required bending down and reaching back to find the correct container. Using these storage containers is a daily occurrence so it made sense to move these to an upper cabinet that doesn’t require bending, stooping, and digging around.

We moved all small appliances to the lower cabinet the containers were previously in. Regularly used appliances are in the front where it’s easy to grab and less used items are in the back.

Flickr//Mike Rohde

Sort and get rid of stuff

Cleaning out your kitchen cabinets is a good exercise in deciding what you no longer need. Those dusty glasses stuck in the back corner of the top cabinet probably can go. If you haven’t used something in over a year, donate it or toss it. Once the extra stuff is gone, reorganizing cabinets will be much easier.

Flickr//Howard Lake

Label new location

Once everything is loaded back into the cabinets, be sure to give a temporary post-it note label to any newly located items. It will cause less frustration for you and your family until everyone’s used to where things now go.

Flickr//Dean Hochman

Be sure to keep your neat, organized cabinets…well, neat and organized. Take those few extra seconds when putting things away to keep your kitchen tidy. You’ll be happy you did!

how to rearrange your kitchen cabinets, how to, kitchen cabinets, kitchen design

Originally posted here: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/organization/how-to-rearrange-your-kitchen-cabinets

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3 of 7 comments

Dianne on Feb 13, 2016
The best thing I have done for myself after purging. I painted the inside of each door with chalkboard paint and list what is on each shelf. Like most of us we put the seasonal and less used items on top shelves but which cabinet and which shelf? No more guessing.

4 Reply
- Jewellmartin on Feb 13, 2016
  I've been looking for a way to label what's inside several cabinets! I use file folder strip labels for certain drawers so that friends who help clean up after a meal or party will know where I prefer certain things, and it helps. What will help more is if I purg the kitchen things! Thank you.
  
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Sandy Hartnett on Feb 14, 2016
This is a must do for me. I will have to try to get around to doing this you have good ideas thank you… Hugs

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