7 Kitchen Cabinet Organization Ideas for Your Remodel
Besides labor, cabinetry is typically one of the biggest investments you’ll make when remodeling your kitchen. Depending on the options you choose, it’s not unreasonable for your cabinets to make up 30-50% of your overall kitchen budget. With that in mind, you’ll want to make sure that the cabinets you’re investing in are going to serve your organizational needs for the long term. We’ve gathered our best kitchen cabinet organization ideas to help you consider which features you’ll want to discuss with your kitchen designer.
1. Hide Small Appliances
Accessible storage is critical to a well-functioning kitchen, but all too often accessible storage turns into counter clutter. Cluttered countertops reduce the amount of workspace for meal prep and clean up; they are more difficult to keep clean and gather unsanitary dust, stale crumbs, pet dander and in extreme cases attract nasty insects (none of which you want near your food). Not to mention, cluttered countertops look awful. They don’t make it easy to find what you need quickly, and they don’t inspire a great feeling about your home. Your environment has a direct impact on your emotional and physical health and cluttered countertops don’t help support either.
Hiding small appliances is one of the best ways to keep countertop clutter at bay. If you have one small appliance you use daily such as a toaster or juicer, leave that out and hide everything else in a designated place where you can access it easily when needed. If you have several items you use daily or at least four times a week, group those together in a concealed space such as an appliance garage. This lets you keep them plugged in and accessible, without having to watch them gather dust.
We love hiding small appliances in countertop appliance garages, lazy susan cabinets, and in kitchen islands. Another great kitchen cabinet organization idea is to designate a separate zone such as a morning station, to house the small appliances you use daily, together in one place.
2. Hide the Microwave
Just like dishwashers, microwaves are something most people have, but they aren’t that attractive and certainly don’t deserve to be a focal point in your beautifully remodeled kitchen. Hiding the microwave behind a cabinet or in a pantry is a great way to keep it easily accessible, but out of sight.
Microwave drawers are another way to clean up the visual clutter from your kitchen. Because they’re installed below your sight line, it makes them less visible without storing them behind closed doors. Microwave drawers are also a much safer alternative for families with children. Since they’re down low, they discourage climbing on top of the counter or reaching overhead to grab a warm snack or beverage. And if you’re worried your kids try to microwave the pet hamster, don’t worry, they have a locking mechanism. 😉
3. In-Home Coffee Stations
One of the kitchen cabinet organization features most requested by our clients is an in-home coffee station. Whether you’re a self-described coffee addict or enjoy the ritual of a single cup in your favorite mug after your morning workout, a coffee or tea station can be a great enhancement to your morning routine. We’ve outlined four different ways you can include one in your kitchen design right here.
4. Donate and Discard to Maintain Kitchen Organization
One of the best ways to keep your kitchen organized is to prevent the accumulation of things you don’t like, you don’t use, you forgot you had, or that don’t work. Holding on to impulse purchases, or well-intentioned gifts you never use guarantees a cluttered, disorganized space eventually. Another trap is the “but someday I might want to” trap. Someday I might want to learn how to roll my own sushi; host Super Bowl parties for thirty or forty people; bake all our kids’ birthday cakes from scratch… you get the idea. If you haven’t done it in a year, it’s time to let those items go. Donate or sell items in great condition and recycle or discard the rest.
5. Ergonomic Kitchen Storage
The kitchen storage sweet spot for average height, typically abled people is the space just below and just about the countertop. Anything that is used daily needs to be stored no lower than the middle of the base cabinets, and no higher than the first or second shelf of the wall cabinets (adjust to within easy reach based on your height). Store items that are used often, but not daily on the fringes of the sweet spot so they’re still easily accessible. Anything seldom used should be stored at the very top of the wall cabinets, or in a harder to access space such as underneath the kitchen island stools. Only store those seldom used items after going through each one and deciding if it’s really necessary to keep those items in the first place – remember, they’re living rent free in your home, so they need to be worth the space they occupy.
6. Kitchen Cabinet Organization Ideas
Gone are the days of crawling on your hands and knees to find the matching lid to that storage container. Built-in cabinet storage options are worth the extra investment every time. Some of our favorite base cabinet organization ideas include deep drawers for pots and pans; roll-out shelves for the functionality of drawers, but with the added flexibility of being able to adjust the height; trash and recycling cabinets; pull-outs for spices, oils, utensils, and trays; heavy duty, wooden lazy susan cabinets and of course the myriad ways to customize kitchen drawers.
7. Drawer Organization
When it comes to kitchen organization, drawers are their own category entirely. Due to the more functional operation of drawers, we’ve seen a surge in popularity as savvy homeowners jump at the chance to maximize storage while saving their knees and backs. As a result, the storage options available to customize kitchen drawer organization are ever changing. We’ve outlined some of our favorites here.
We hope these kitchen cabinet organization ideas have been helpful in getting you to think differently about what you place where to maximize efficiency in the busiest room in your home. You can see many of these storage solutions (and some we haven’t mentioned) by appointment at our design studio in South End. When you’re ready to put ideas to paper and begin the process of redesigning and remodeling your Charlotte area kitchen, we’d be happy to help. Get started today by filling out this form, and someone from our office will be in touch shortly.