# How to Organize a Kitchen: A Step-by-Step Plan > To organize a kitchen, work one area at a time: empty it, keep what you use, and put things back in zones for prep, cooking, cleaning and storing, everyday things at arm's height and heavy things low. Move appliances you rarely use out of the kitchen, and keep a list in Hoardo of where they went and what's in the pantry and freezer. Published 2026-11-09 by Hoardo. Original: https://www.hoardo.com/articles/how-to-organize-kitchen How to organize a kitchen comes down to one question: where do you stand when you use it? A kitchen works when the pans are by the stove, the knives by the cutting board and the plates by the dishwasher. It stops working when things live wherever they fit the day you moved in. This guide is a step-by-step plan: empty and sort, set up kitchen zones, then organize the cabinets, drawers, corners, the space under the sink and the counters. There's a section for small kitchens, and one for the appliances and party things you use twice a year. ## How to organize a kitchen, step by step 1. **Work one zone at a time.** Emptying the whole kitchen at once leaves you with nowhere to cook. Do one bank of cabinets or one set of drawers per session. 2. **Take everything out and wipe the shelves.** You'll find the third potato peeler and the lid that fits nothing. 3. **Sort: keep, donate, sell, toss.** Keep what you used in the last year. Duplicates go, mismatched containers without lids go, gadgets that do one thing you never do go. 4. **Decide the zones before anything goes back.** Where you prep, where you cook, where you clean, where you store. More on that below. 5. **Put things back where you use them.** Everyday things between hip and shoulder height, near the zone they belong to. Heavy things low. Rarely used things up high or out of the kitchen. 6. **Live with it for two weeks.** If you keep reaching for something in the wrong place, move it there. ## Kitchen zones Zones are the plan behind every organized kitchen. Each one holds what you use there, so you take fewer steps and things go back without thinking. - **Prep.** The longest stretch of counter, ideally between the sink and the stove. Knives, cutting boards, mixing bowls, measuring cups, the colander. - **Cooking.** Next to the stove. Pots and pans, lids, spatulas and spoons, oils, salt and the spices you use daily, oven mitts. - **Cleaning.** At the sink and dishwasher. Dish soap, cloths, the trash and recycling. Plates, glasses and cutlery in the cabinets and drawer closest to the dishwasher, so unloading is a few steps. - **Storing.** Food storage containers, wraps and bags near the fridge. Dry food in the pantry or a food cabinet (the [pantry guide](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/how-to-organize-pantry) covers that). - **Serving and coffee.** Mugs above the coffee maker, everyday glasses near the fridge or the tap, so people can help themselves without crossing the cook's path. ## Kitchen cabinet organization - **Lower cabinets for heavy things.** Pots, pans, the stand mixer and the slow cooker. Lifting heavy things from below is safer than bringing them down from above. - **Upper cabinets for light, everyday things.** Plates, bowls and glasses on the lower shelves, rarely used serving dishes on the top one. - **Shelf risers.** A small wire shelf doubles a cabinet shelf: plates below, bowls on top. - **Pull-out shelves or bins in deep base cabinets.** The back of a deep cabinet is where things go to be forgotten. A bin you pull out like a drawer brings the back to you. - **Pans on their edge.** A rack that stands pans and baking sheets upright, like files, means you lift one, not the whole stack. - **Lids in one place.** A lid rack on the inside of a door, or a shallow bin, so lids stop sliding around the pan cupboard. ## Kitchen drawer organization Drawers beat cabinets for almost everything below the counter: you see the whole contents from above. - **Adjustable dividers.** One row per kind: spatulas, whisks, measuring spoons. Dividers keep the rows, the rows keep the drawer. - **The top drawer by the prep zone for knives and tools you use daily.** An in-drawer knife block keeps blades covered and off the counter. - **Deep drawers for pots and plates.** A peg system holds stacks of plates in place in a deep drawer, at a height children can reach. - **One junk drawer, with dividers.** Every kitchen has one. Give it small trays for tape, batteries, pens and takeout menus, and empty it twice a year. ![A kitchen drawer from above with adjustable dividers holding cooking utensils in neat rows](https://www.hoardo.com/guides/kitchen-drawers.jpg) *Adjustable dividers: one row for each kind of utensil.* ## Corner cabinets The corner cabinet is the hardest space in most kitchens. Three ways to make it work: - **A turntable.** A large lazy susan brings the back of a corner cabinet round to the door. Good for pots, mixing bowls or bottles. - **Pull-out corner fittings.** Shelves that swing out of a blind corner cabinet. Worth it if you use the corner every week. - **Long-term storage.** If you won't fit anything, give the corner the things you use least: the roasting pan, the fondue set, the extra cake tins. Put them in a bin with a handle so you pull out one bin, not ten things. ## Under the kitchen sink - **Check for leaks first.** Wipe it dry, then look again after a week. A drip ruins whatever's under it. - **A two-tier pull-out or a U-shaped organizer** that fits around the pipes. - **A tension rod across the top** for spray bottles, hung by their triggers. - **Cleaning supplies only.** Dish soap refills, dishwasher tabs, sponges, trash bags. Not food, and not anything you'd mind getting wet. - **A child lock** if small children are around: most kitchen cleaners are dangerous to swallow. ## Kitchen counter organization - **Keep only what you use every day.** The kettle or coffee maker, a crock of cooking utensils by the stove, a knife block or magnetic strip, salt and oil. Everything else goes in a cabinet. - **A tray groups the small things.** Oil, salt, pepper and vinegar on one tray lift off together when you wipe the counter. - **Keep the prep stretch clear.** If you have one long stretch of counter, nothing lives on it. - **A wall rail** frees the counter: utensils, a paper towel holder, a small shelf for spices. ## Small kitchen organization In a small kitchen the walls and doors do the work: - **Go up.** A shelf above the window or the doorway, hooks under the upper cabinets for mugs, a rail on the backsplash. - **Use the inside of cabinet doors** for lids, cutting boards and measuring cups. - **A rolling cart** in the gap beside the fridge for oils, spices or cans. - **Nesting everything.** Bowls that stack, measuring cups that nest, one set of pans with a removable handle. - **Be strict about appliances.** In a small kitchen, a machine you use once a month doesn't get a cabinet. ## Appliances and things you rarely use Every kitchen has them: the waffle iron, the bread maker, the fondue set, the ice cream maker, the turkey roasting pan, the punch bowl and the extra glasses for parties. They take the best cabinet space and come out twice a year. Move them out of the kitchen. A shelf in the basement, the garage or a high cabinet in the hall closet holds them well, in a lidded tote or their own box. The catch is remembering where you put them, so write it down: which shelf, which tote, which room. The next section shows a way that doesn't get lost. ## Keep track of what's stored outside the kitchen The kitchen itself mostly organizes itself once it has zones: you see the open shelves and you know what's in the drawers. Where a list helps is everything you can't see: the spare appliances in the basement, the party things in the garage, and the food on the pantry shelves and in the freezer. Hoardo is a free app for that list. *The kitchen in Hoardo: the pantry shelf, the baking shelf, the freezer drawers and the medicine cabinet, each a numbered box.* 1. **Make a room for each place kitchen things live.** The kitchen, and the basement or garage where the spare appliances and the chest freezer are. 2. **Add each shelf, drawer or tote as a numbered box.** "Pantry shelf", "Freezer drawers", "Party things". 3. **List what's in each one.** Type it, say it, or take a photo of the shelf and let Hoardo list what it sees. 4. **Add best-before dates** to food that can go off, and turn on "Notify me?" for a reminder before it does. Then you search before you buy or before you go down the stairs. Type "tomato" and Hoardo shows the tins on the pantry shelf and the soup in the chest freezer in the garage. *Searching for tomato: the tinned tomatoes on the pantry shelf and the homemade tomato soup in the chest freezer.* For the food side, see [how to organize a pantry](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/how-to-organize-pantry) and the [pantry inventory](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/pantry-inventory) guide, which has a free template. For where the spare appliances can go, see [basement storage ideas](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/basement-storage-ideas), and for the rest of the house, [storage ideas for every room](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/storage-ideas). **Know what's on every shelf List the pantry, the freezer and the things stored away, and search them from anywhere. Free, every feature included.** [Start free](https://www.hoardo.com/login) ## Questions about organizing a kitchen ### Where do I start when organizing my kitchen? Start with the area that annoys you most, often the pots cupboard or the utensil drawer. Empty it, keep what you used in the last year, and put things back next to where you use them. One area per session keeps the kitchen usable while you work. ### What are the zones in a kitchen? Prep, cooking, cleaning and storing, often with a serving or coffee zone too. Each holds what you use there: knives and boards in the prep zone, pans by the stove, plates near the dishwasher, food storage near the fridge. ### How should kitchen cabinets be organized? Heavy things like pots and appliances in the lower cabinets, everyday plates and glasses on the lower shelves of the upper cabinets, and things you use rarely on the top shelf. Pull-out bins and shelf risers make deep cabinets usable. ### What should I keep on my kitchen counter? Only what you use every day: the kettle or coffee maker, cooking utensils by the stove, knives, salt and oil. Keep the main prep stretch clear, and put everything else in a cabinet. ### Where should I store kitchen appliances I rarely use? Out of the kitchen: a shelf in the basement, the garage or a high closet, in a lidded tote. Write down where they went. In Hoardo each tote is a numbered box with its contents listed, so a search for the waffle iron shows the tote and the room. ### How do I organize a small kitchen? Use height and doors: shelves above windows and doorways, hooks under the upper cabinets, racks on the inside of cabinet doors and a slim rolling cart beside the fridge. Choose things that nest, and keep appliances you use monthly out of the kitchen.