As we’re in the midst of the holiday season your Kitchen is probably getting some heavy/messy use. And with the new year approaching fast, it might be time to make some resolutions and have a big sort-out. Even if you have a spacious kitchen with loads of cabinets and drawers, it’s easy to let them get muddled and chaotic. Not only is this unpleasant to look at, it’s also a big distraction that will put you off cooking up a storm.

But while organising cabinets and drawers might sound like a simple task, approaching it with a smattering of logic and know-how will make it much less of a headache to complete and maintain. Here’s some advice.

Planning

Prior to reorganising it makes sense to have a thorough clean of your kitchen. Having greasy surfaces means you won’t want to put anything on them, and a dirty floor or stove won’t get you in the joyful mood many of us need to summon for tidying. But before you start pulling everything out of drawers and cupboards and creating an even worse mess, it’s best to form a plan - let’s call it divide and conquer.

Divide your kitchen into areas of focus - this all depends on the size and layout of the space. Then, designate an area of the kitchen table or counter where you can deposit the contents of drawers or cabinets - now is the time to make a more orderly mess. You will want to clean empty drawers and cabinets as you go along, so keep dishcloths and scrubbers, as well as your vacuum cleaner, within reach.

Kitchen drawers

OK, so you’ve prepped and you’re ready to begin. Most of us have problems maintaining order in our kitchen drawers for the simple reason that kitchen equipment is not uniform in size and doesn’t generally stack well. Follow these steps to create order and avoid clutter.

Remove everything

That’s right, everything! Open your drawers and divide the contents into three piles - keep, donate, and chuck. Anything that is broken or missing a part should be chucked (preferably recycled), and intact items that you never ever use can be donated to charity or friends in need.

Be ruthless! There are things in there that you bought because they look pretty, or await the day you finally get around to learning choux pastry. Never used it? Get rid of it. You’ll be surprised how much space you free up.

You might also discover that you have several of the same items. Spatulas do not breed, nor do egg whisks, nor do measuring cups - you’ve just bought too many over the years. Keep what you’ll use - donate the rest.

Assign things to places

You should now be looking at an intimidating pile of assorted debris. It’s time to form order out of chaos. Make piles of similar items - spatulas, fish slices, and all those other utensils you use to prod food in pans while you’re cooking - those are usually of similar size. Placemats, serviettes and tablecloths are also pretty easy to group. Everyone has some quirky items that don’t fit in anywhere, so you can always assign some drawer space for those little outcasts to mingle.

This is also the time to consolidate those bits and pieces we all have - I have small packets of baking powder, miniature bottles of vanilla extract, yeast, etc, all over the place. They’re now safe in a small Tupperware box labelled ‘baking bits’. Speaking of labels - if your handwriting is anything like mine, you’ll probably want to print the labels out yourself. Especially if you live with a spouse who gets annoyed trying to decipher your esoteric scribbles.

Luckily, printing labels at home is easier and cheaper than ever, and can often be done with a regular home printer. Another tip learned from experience: Don’t close all the boxes and then try to label them.

The next step is to apply logic to the situation and assign your stuff to the drawers where they will be most convenient - you’ll want your cooking utensils as close as possible to the stove, for example. A cutlery drawer usually sees heavy traffic and is traditionally above, below, or next to the utensils. You might have a baking drawer for your tins, moulds and cutters, and you probably have a drawer with rolls of tin foil, cling film, and greaseproof paper. Your kitchen set-up and cooking habits dictate where you put things.

Measure for drawer organisers

To really get to grips with the situation it’s advisable to enlist the help of some drawer organisers. You’ll need to measure the drawers first, and then go back to the previous step to make sure everything is going to fit. Remember to be neat, and don’t overstuff the drawers to preserve harmony for as long as possible.

The best practice here is to measure, then make a list of items to be stored in each drawer, and then hit the shops to buy the perfect organisers. These come in all shapes and sizes, and have, helpfully, been designed for people exactly like you, for the exact same reason you’re buying them. Having the drawer dimensions does make it even easier though.

For deep drawers, try to stack like with like - even if a casserole dish and a saucepan are a complementary size, accessing the one on the bottom becomes much more of a hassle. Again, for sanity’s sake, don’t overstuff those deep drawers.

Cabinet solutions

In principle, organising kitchen cabinets is the same as with drawers - remove, discard, assign, replace. But cabinets are anatomically different, and therefore are suggestive of different but equally ubiquitous organisers - most of which you can buy, others you can do-it-yourself.

If you keep roasting tins, baking sheets, etc, in your cabinets, file them as if they were on a bookshelf. This removes the need for precarious removal and replacement when they’re horizontally stacked.

Rotation is your friend. Spices, bottles of oil and other items can be kept on turntables within the cabinet. This means no need for fishing about in the back of cupboards, an activity which always has catastrophic potential in a kitchen scenario.

Use your space wisely - chopping boards, pans, etc, can be hung on the wall. For those with compact kitchens, using the sides of cabinets to hang utensils means a more economical use of space and easier access when cooking.

The kitchen is the frontier between utility and luxury. When you’re reorganising and push comes to shove, utility always wins. Remember - clutter is your enemy, as are overcrowding and mislabeling. A successful organisation project should see you through, at least until this time next year.