Everyone says the kitchen is the heart of the home, which is one of the many reasons why it’s so important to have an organized kitchen. In our house, if the kitchen is cluttered I feel like the rest of the house is a mess too.
I know we all spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so for the next few days, we’re going to talk about how to organize specific areas in it. Today I’m going to give you a few ideas for how to organize kitchen utensils, which I’m sure you use all the time. Organizing them will not only make it easier to keep them organized, but it will also give you a sense of pride every time you look at them and see how nice they look. Every time I open a well organized drawer it makes me happy. 🙂
First I’m going to show you how I organize my utensils, then I’m going to give you a few other ideas because I know we all have different kitchens, and that we all like to do things a little differently.
My utensil drawer has never been super messy but it wasn’t organized. In my mind, I had a method to the madness but whenever someone else would put the dishes away, things would get put in places I couldn’t find them.
I finally purchased these expandable drawer organizers from Zulily, which were exactly what I needed. (I didn’t link to the exact product because Zulily changes there sales so often, but they always have these available, just look under the “HOME” category). You can also find them on Amazon.
After I installed the dividers I labeled them with my handy dandy label machine, so that if someone other than me, was putting the dishes away, that things would get put back in the right places. 🙂
Here are a few other great ideas I found online-
If you don’t want to spend the money to purchase drawer dividers, or you can’t find ones that fit your drawer/utensils, consider making your own. This is a great step-by-step tutorial that will help you customize your own dividers.
I know a lot of you don’t have an extra drawer for your utensils so these DIY Mason jars would be a fun, and colorful, way to organize them on your countertop.
Some of you don’t even have extra counter space, I’ve totally been there! I wish I’d seen this idea years ago when we were living in a tiny little duplex. Using a tension rod with hooks, is a genius way to organize utensils when you don’t have drawer or counter space!
Which one of these will work best in your kitchen? Pick which one you want to use to organize your utensils, and next time you’re out running errands, grab the items you’ll need to make it happen. I bet most of these won’t even take you 30 minutes, you could probably get all your utensils organized while you’re waiting for a pot of water to boil. 🙂
I would love to see your before and after pictures so post them on Instagram and tag me @askannamoseley, or you can use the hashtag for this series – #organizedinlessthan30min.
If you missed one of the posts in this series, here’s a list of what we’ve organized so far –
I have included affiliate links in this post but if you purchase through them you will not pay a cent more than you would otherwise. Thank you for supporting Ask Anna!
The link does not work for customizing your own dividers.
Sorry about that! Thanks for letting me know, I fixed it so it’s working now. 🙂
Great after photo! I have seen this time and time again with my client, they spend so much time thinking about an area to organize and when they actually get around to organizing it, it takes us so little time that they are surprised. Humans are interesting. =) Thanks for sharing.
I really love those expandable drawer dividers! I have several different plastic bins in my utensil drawer as well as that rubberized cut to fit liner so those utensils not in a plastic bin won’t slide around. But I’ve never found the perfect way to organize my knife drawer. Those expandable dividers might just be perfect. Thanks!
You could also buy a flat knife block, here’s a post I wrote about how I organize my knives – https://askannamoseley.com/2014/07/organize-kitchen-knives/.
You have a great idea here. I’d never heard of expandable dividers- your other tips for small kitchens are also helpful- thanks!
Love your ideas! I just moved to a new place and I’m currently truing to organize the storage space in my kitchen. Your suggestions on this seem to be very helpful for me, so I’m trying some. Thanks for sharing all this great info!
I use a magnetic strip, attached to the wall under a cabinet for my sharp knives. No more chunky knife block I the counter. I also added command strip hooks to the inside of a cabinet door to hang stainless steel cooking spoons and utensils. I reduced my utensil crocks from 2 to 1 smaller one and only keep silicone and wooden utensils in it. I moved my foil, plastic wraps, bags, etc from a drawer to a wire basket in a lower cabinet to free up a drawer. The rolls stand on end and are easily accessible. I was able to clean clutter from my countertops and organize it in that drawer!
That’s awesome, I love that! I used to have a magnetic strip at our other house and I loved it, it was so convenient. There isn’t a great place for it in this kitchen but I do miss it sometimes.
Hello! My problem is not grout, but caulk in a shower, thich is nearly impossible to clean. Is there anything short of remove and replace which will get stains out?
Thanks!
I would try bleach but if bleach doesn’t work then the best thing would be to just remove it and start over. Here’s a post of mine on how to do caulking and have it look professional – https://askannamoseley.com/2014/03/how-to-caulk-without-making-a-mess/