Welcome to Day 10 of my month long series “How to Organize Your Kitchen Frugally in 31 Days”. Every day during the month of October I will be sharing an organized space in my kitchen with you. My goal is to inspire you and give you ideas on how you can organize your kitchen.
If you missed it, you may want to read why I’m embracing my outdated kitchen. It might give you a little perspective on why the pictures of my kitchen organization won’t be “magazine worthy”, but helpful for real life organization.
Yesterday I showed you how I organize the gadgets in my kitchen. Today I’ll show you how I organize my cooking utensils.
Today’s post is a super simple one because it is a simple concept to grasp: Only keep utensils you use for cooking in the drawer next to your stove. Don’t have a drawer? Use a crock or other container.
Do not fall into the trap of feeling like all utensils are created equally and deserve to live together in one huge drawer. Keep like things together and you won’t have to dig through a big pile of utensils to find what you’re looking for.
Every single utensil in this drawer is something I use at the stove when I’m cooking. Serve ware, gadgets, measuring cups, food prep items, etc. are all stored in other drawers. I have three drawers in my kitchen that are used for cooking utensils, gadgets, and baking/serve ware. That’s it.
Another bonus to this way of storing utensils is it’s simple to explain if you have company and they are helping you clean up after a meal. Simply say, “Any utensil I would use for cooking at the stove belongs in this drawer”.
Eliminate items you don’t use so your drawers will not be overcrowded. I’m OCD about some things, but my utensil drawer is not one of them. I don’t care if they are in a pile in the drawer as long as there aren’t too many and it remains simple to grab what I need.
In case you’re wondering, I store my pot holders and hot pads in the drawer below this utensil drawer. They are easy to grab when they are stored next to the stove.
I used to keep my dish towels here for lack of a drawer near my sink, but I solved that issue and now keep dish towels under my sink.
Tomorrow I’ll show you the drawer where I keep my baking utensils.
I have to admit that I almost didn’t read this series because I thought, “I already do that.” But I just finished a total kitchen remodel so I have new cabinets to organize so I’ve read your articles each day. I have learned something new with each article — thank you! My dishtowels will not be stored with my pot holders in my new kitchen, thanks to you! And probably 50% of my gadgets & utensils are headed to the Goodwill.
Ginny,
I thought I was the only person to have multiple drawers for utensils. I have a silverware drawer, a knife drawer, a varied utensil drawer and a drawer beside the stove. I haven’t figured out how to make it with fewer drawers and keep things easy to work at the couple of workspaces. I have been enjoying seeing how someone else arranges her workspaces. I wish when we remodeled a few years ago, that we had put in more drawers. BTW I don’t have any shelves in my under cabinets only drawers. Top cabinets and a pantry do have shelves.
Jill
I like to tell my clients to put their cooking drawer on the side that they would most likely grab cooking utensils. For example, if you are right handed, you would put your cooking utensils in the drawer to the right. If you were left handed, you would put your cooking utensils to the left drawer. Thanks for sharing this challenge. I will definately share with my clients.
I have a built- in knife drawer (thanks to our renovation 11 years ago), which is under a cutting board and a built-in silverware drawer. My baking gadgets are in another drawer, and I keep pot holders and some cooking utensils in a drawer next to the stove, and have some on the counter in a utensil holder. I know purging some things will help, but may have to re-think the utensil storage after reading today’s post. Thanks!
I am wondering if you line all cupboards and drawers with that tacky cushion liner? I don’t know what to put on the bottom of cupboards