We are about halfway through our kitchen organization series and I’m very excited about today’s organizing project. I may or may not have a serious kitchen appliance problem! 😉 So let’s jump right into organizing pots, pans, and small appliances.
Staying organized in the kitchen is so essential when your a busy mom. When everything has a home it’s so much easier to clean up after meals and keep your kitchen countertops clutter-free.
So when I set out to really create order in my kitchen, I new I had to come up with a system for all of my pots, pans, and small appliances. Honestly, they were scattered everywhere and there was no rhyme or reason as to where they were stored. I would store items where I could squeeze them. It was chaotic and caused a serious case of the overwhelm for me when I would try and clean up after cooking or baking.
After much trial and error, I’ve finally come up with a system that really works for me and is super easy to maintain. Because if it isn’t easy, I’m probably not going to follow through with it! Can you relate?!
Organizing Pots and Pans
I like to use the lazy Susan next to my stove for organizing pots and pans. My pots are probably the only item that has lived in the same place in my kitchen the entire time we’ve lived in this house. This type of cabinet has worked really well for these pots.
If you have pots stacked, you may want to consider unstacking them and storing them with their lid on. It makes things much quicker and more efficient when you are in a rush to get dinner on the table.
Below my pots, I have two small stacks of bowls. One set is glass bowls for baking and to be used for serving. The other set is a mixture of plastic and metal bowls as well as two strainers.
I’ve really found the circular items like pots and bowls work really well in lazy Susans. If you happen to have one in your kitchen, I definitely recommend trying this method.
Organizing Small Appliances
The rest of my pans and small appliances live in two cabinets. The first cabinet is the large cabinet below. This cabinet stores Pyrex pans, bread pans, casserole dishes, pie pans, a large dutch oven, my stand mixer, waffle maker, crock pot, and electric griddle. Yes, I said it holds a lot! 🙂
My favorite part about this cabinet is that it didn’t take any special organizers to keep everything in it’s place and easy to get to. The items on the back shelf can all easily be accessed. My two most used items in this cabinet are my mixer and crock pot which are stored front and center.
This cabinet has been a struggle for me to keep organized for a long time because it’s just so large. I was previously trying to store too many items in this space. However, I’ve since really weeded through the items that I don’t use often and now only keep the things that I use on a regular basis.
The next place that I store small appliances and pans is in a large pantry style cabinet next to my refrigerator. This cabinet is also located right next to our backdoor so it conveniently holds our dog treats as well! 😉
In this cabinet, we store our blender, food processor, grain mill, pitchers, and indoor grill. We actually used to store food in this cabinet before we build our pantry and it was very difficult because the shelves are very tall, narrow, and deep. While this was difficult for food, it’s actually perfect for appliances.
Above the tall narrow cabinet is another taller single shelf cabinet. I use an organizer to store my larger baking pans like cookie sheets, muffin tins, pizza pan, cooling racks, and cutting boards.
And that wraps up the remainder of the kitchen cabinets. Next we will be on to the refrigerator and freezer as well as the pantry! I’ve said it before, but I feel like it deserves being said again. I think the best organizational systems in our homes are the simple ones…the ones that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
It literally took me 3.5 years to purge my house down to just what I really use and love. It’s been a process so don’t beat yourself up if you are still purging. Once you’ve really purged, then staying organized is so much easier.
Looking for my kitchen organization posts? Check out the rest of the posts in this series:
- Dishes, Glasses, & Mugs
- Tupperware
- Create a Baking Station
- Utensils & Kitchen Linens
- Under the Kitchen Sink
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