Bloggers tell all: The best organization tips for your kitchen

Other than our bedrooms, the kitchen is probably the place most women spend the majority of their time. We cook, clean, make lunches and prep meals daily — so it’s best to be as organized as possible to make our lives a little easier.

Clean, organized spaces are welcoming, relaxing and soothing. No one wants to cook in a messy kitchen where you can’t find anything and nothing has a place. If your kitchen’s not organized, you end up spending twice as much time cooking and preparing meals. To us, this just isn’t worth it. Let’s commit to getting our kitchens super-organized this year. With the help of some highly organized bloggers who are sharing their best kitchen organization tips, this process won’t be as difficult as it sounds.

Anna — Ask Anna Moseley

Anna — of Ask Anna Moseley — is all about cleaning, organizing, decorating and being green. We love that she encourages readers to ask her questions regarding any of the previously mentioned topics, and she’ll create a whole post just for her readers answering that question. Now that’s a good blog! Anna has a rather small kitchen, so it’s extra important to be organized. Here, she shares her best tips with us:

• “I love open shelves because they scream organization! Using open shelving to organize dishes, glasses, stemware, etc. is also a great — free — way to decorate your kitchen.”
• “I think pots and pans can be one of the toughest things to store. In my kitchen I don’t have a lot of cabinet space, but I have very deep cabinets so all my pots and pans are stacked and then layered (some in front, some in back). This makes it easy to access the pots in the front and the back. I store my baking dishes in the back of the cupboard because I don’t use them as often.”
• “In the spice cabinet, group similar items together. For example, all baking spices should go together, all cooking spices together, oils, etc.”
• “A great way to organize the kitchen is with baskets! I use baskets in my cupboards, pantry and refrigerator. Use baskets to group similar items together and also to hold items that fall over easily, like water bottles.”

Becky — Clean Mama Blog

Becky — of Clean Mama Blog — does it all. She’s a cleaning and organizing expert, wife, mom of three, business owner and teacher. Her blog features monthly cleaning routines and free printables, including quick-prep meal starters, weekly menu plans, deep-cleaning schedules, to-do lists and more. Regarding kitchen organization, Becky says:

“There are oodles of ways to add some organization to your kitchen. For me, the most effective way to save time and energy in the kitchen is create zones. Taking a little time to organize like items together is an effective way to simplify your prep and clean-up time. What are my favorite kitchen zones?

• The Dishwasher Zone — Easy access and put-away-ability is the key to this zone. Dish soap, silverware, storage containers, dish towels and dishes are all within close proximity to the dishwasher so I can stand in one place to empty and load the dishwasher. Nice and easy.
• The Baking Zone — I keep baking supplies, flour and sugars, my stand mixer, spices and my cookbook holder all stored or on display near each other to make a great baking zone.
• The Coffee Zone — Store mugs and coffee mix-ins near the coffee pot and coffee grinder to create a mini-zone in your kitchen. Bleary mornings are brightened up a little more quickly with all the coffee supplies in one place.”

More on kitchen cleaning

Kitchen cleaning shortcuts
Spring cleaning: Kitchen edition
5 Tips for a sparkling-clean kitchen