I’m sharing eight quick and simple budget-friendly kitchen organization ideas to whip your kitchen cabinets and drawers into shape and keep them clutter-free!
It seems like you can never have enough cabinet and drawer space in a kitchen, right?! But storing everything in your kitchen in an organized way helps so much for maximizing your space and making everything easy to find too. I’ve had homes with some super small kitchens over the years and have figured out several ways to organize them without spending a lot of time or money.
Today I’m sharing eight kitchen organization ideas that all take less than 20 minutes and $20 to do. Let’s get to it… (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here}).
1. Divide & Conquer Your Food Storage Containers
Ready to whip your teetering stacks of food storage containers into shape? First make sure you have a matching food container top for every bottom – get rid of any loners. Then to organize them, the best way I’ve found is to stack the tops separately from the bottoms. Just doing that alone can free up a surprising amount of space with zero money and hardly any time spent!
If you keep your food storage containers in a drawer and want to take things next-level, dividing your drawer into sections using expandable drawer dividers like {these dividers} work beautifully to keep everything neat and in its place:

Other sources: Glass food storage containers | Drawer pulls | Round wood beaded tray
If your drawers are deeper than this one, you can stand the lids upright and save even more space. And if you keep your food storage containers in cabinets instead, a lid organizer like {this one} that stands them upright can be a big organizational help:

2. Install a Grocery Bag Dispenser
I bring reusable bags for my groceries most of the time but when I forget them, I like to keep the plastic bags for future use. To tame the chaos, I installed {this grocery bag dispenser} on the inside of one of our cabinets (this pic is a little blast from the past from before our kitchen remodel!):

It beats a piled up mess of bags in the cabinet and makes room for storage of other more important things.
3. Keep Your Sponge Tucked Away
Just like making your bed in the morning has been shown to motivate people to keep the rest of their bedroom clean, I feel the same way about our kitchen sink. Having a clean, clutter-free sinks motivates me to keep the rest of our kitchen that way.
For me, having a home for your sponge is a must! One option is {this suction cup sponge holder} which keeps your sponge from cluttering up the countertop (and it also dries faster this way):

and another option is to keep your sponge and soap on a tray next to the sink like this:

My striped tray is no longer available, but you can snag a pretty faux marble tray that’s also the perfect size for this space {here}.
4. Go Vertical With Your Pans
If you have mostly cabinets instead of drawers in your kitchen, take advantage of every inch of your vertical space with smart organizers! One of my favorites is this stand-alone pan organizer found {here} that allows you to stack your pans but still be easy to grab:

It’s one of the simplest home organization ideas but also one that will make a big difference in how efficiently you use your cabinet space! You can also use the pan organizer horizontally in cabinets and deep drawers if that better fits your space:

5. Get Your Cookie Sheets & Baking Pans in Line
Avoid a cookie sheet & baking pan avalanche by adding a simple metal rack such as {this one} I used in my old kitchen:

Simple, inexpensive and makes a world of difference! You can also put permanent rack dividers in your cabinets spaced at the exact distance apart that you want them – that takes a lot more time to do and more money too but is one of the kitchen cabinet storage ideas that I love most!
6. Rack Up Your Cans!
Keeping your food and drink cans organized and taking up the least amount of space is as simple as racking them up! As I recently shared as one of my pantry organization ideas, a stackable can rack organizer like {this one} is a huge organizational help:

7. Magazine Holders Work Great for Water Bottle Storage
If you’ve got extra magazine holders laying around like I did, you already have what you need to store your water bottles without spending a dime! Simply flip them on their back and take advantage of the vertical storage space by stacking your bottles up:

You can use several individual magazine holders side by side like I did above or a single three-section holder like this one:

The exact ones I have are no longer available but there are plenty of available options that would work. I recommend getting wood or plastic magazine holders such as {these} rather than cardboard holders that will warp if you put a not-yet-totally-dry water bottle in them.
8. Place Hooks on the Back of a Cabinet Door For Your Most-Used Spray Bottles
I know that I said 7 tips but I had to add an 8th after adding these hooks to my kitchen recently and loving them so much! Instead of keeping spray bottles out on your kitchen counters adding to the clutter, store them right inside of one of your cabinet doors so they’re hidden away but still quick and easy to grab:

All it takes is adding a few of {these spray bottle hangers} with removable Command strips that take just a minute or two to install!
Cord Organizers
I’m going to cheat and add one more! I love {these cord organizers} that stick onto small appliances and so that you can wrap the cord around for neat storage. I have them on my air fryer, crock pot, mixer, and several other things. This specific brand sticks great if the surface is flat and is clean before sticking it on (other brands I haven’t had as much luck with!)

That wraps up my favorite tips – do you have a favorite to share?! If you’d like to see more storage and organizational ideas for you kitchen, my post with ALL of my kitchen cabinet storage ideas. In that post, I walk you through our remodel kitchen to share all of the built-in features packed inside:
I also think you’d love my post on the best kitchen drawer organizers – it has lots of great organizing ideas!
XO,






N-Hance says
I always admire how people make the most out of their space, it definitely takes creativity! We just finished up a kitchen remodel job with those corner drawers, I’ll have to send them this blog to show a few other ways they can optimize their small kitchen. Thanks for sharing!
Malena says
Definitely the spray bottle holders! Haven’t seen those before, so I’ll be looking for them. I love the corner drawers in the kitchen cabinets. We are having new cabinets made for a remodel, but my husband and the cabinet-maker both nixed them because of the added cost. (We are remodeling a large house, with a lot of cabinet real estate, and since the price of wood went up because of all of the shut downs, our cost is almost twice what it would have been when we first bought the house.) lol My husband made other compromises, though, so that’s ok.
Michelle Kimmel says
Kris,
I enjoy all your helpful organizational advice. I’ve chosen to use several of them.
Thank you!
Michelle K
susan Hyland says
i wish you could come and help me do my house!..lol …3 years in and it doesn’t feel like home yet! thank you for the tips and showing us your lovely home.
Angela says
I love your ideas. They give a fresh new look that im looking for. It’s easy on my wallet and my eyes.
I purchased spray paint for plastics and added a splash of color to my magazine racks. (Mine are plastic, purchased at the dollartree. ) also bought mirrors there and wooden trays. I painted the trays with chalk board paint.
C says
I LOVE your beautiful kitchen!! Wondered if you have an update on how your cabinet hardware is holding up? I purchased the same exact pulls and handles for our mini kitchen update and noticed some scratches and dings on them even before install! Would love to know how yours seem to be wearing!! Thank you!
Kris Jarrett says
That’s really surprising to me unless they switched how they’re making them. I’ve had ours for about 1 1/2 years now and they don’t have a scratch on them!
Nippon says
Keep growing!! You are doing great Job.
Margot says
I use the magazine holders for storing anything that needs to be corralled that I don’t want creating visual clutter – reusable bags, lightbulbs & extension cords are some items I hide. The other thing I do is collect like items together in decor-coordinated binders. For instance my laundry is in a closet next to my kitchen and is visible sometimes (hence the lightbulbs in magazine holders) I keep my appliance (Washer, dryer, iron, etc.) manuals, their receipts in a pretty binder along with stain removal tips and a chart showing the clothing care symbols and their definitions. It’s compact and nice to have that info at my fingertips.
Paul says
We love in-drawer outlets but then again we are biased.