Updated on March 24, 2025
Kitchen Organizing Tips. Tips to help you organize plastic storage containers and leftovers to save time and money.
This post is part of the series Task Management Tuesday. Welcome to Week 6.
Does anyone else find it ironic that I am late writing my post about time/home management for the second week? It has been crazy around here, and life has gotten in the way of the ol’ blog.
Each person in my family has been in some state of illness for the last two and a half weeks, and it has completely messed up all of our routines. Hopefully, we will all be on the mend soon!
Kitchen Organization Tips
Today’s topic is some hints I use in my kitchen to keep things running smoothly. Hopefully, one of these tips will help you organize your space and make mealtime easier!
Plastic Storage Containers
First, I will show you how I store and organize my plastic storage containers. I hope to switch to mostly glass one day, but this is what I have now.
All too often, these containers become a jumble of mismatched lids and bottoms. Opening the drawer or cabinet where they are kept is like playing a game of roulette—will they or will they not fall on my head today?
I keep all of these containers on one side of a large cabinet. You can use a large drawer, too, but I don’t have any deep drawers in my kitchen.
I try to keep things together, so my plastic storage is here. This cabinet is above the main work surface in my kitchen and next to the stove, where I need to clean up leftovers.
Helpful Tip: When organizing a space, it is important to ask yourself, “Where will I use this item most, and how often do I use it?”
This cabinet is above the main work surface in my kitchen and next to the stove, where I need to clean up leftovers. I use these containers daily, so I need to be able to access them easily.
To keep the mess at bay, I keep all the same size containers with their lids stacked on the top or bottom. Or, as you can see in the very middle, I have the containers stacked with the lids placed inside. No more searching for that lost lid!
The small cups (1/2 cup size) are the hardest to deal with because they are round, the lids don’t stack very well on top, and the whole stack falls right over. So, I stack the cups in the back and place the lids in an extra storage container. This works well to keep all of those small lids together and not roll all over the cabinet!
Use What You Have
This mug rack was installed in our cabinet when we bought our house. I originally was going to take it down because I don’t store any glasses or mugs in this cabinet (they are stored in a cabinet next to the refrigerator), but I decided to leave it up.
It is the perfect spot to hang my measuring cups, apple slicer, and bottle opener, which I use regularly.
When organizing a space, try to see things in a different light. You can often “shop your home” for items to organize with. Thinking of alternate uses for one item can make a big difference!
To keep things neat, about once every six months, I go through this cabinet to purge stained, cracked, and mismatched lids/bottoms. I recycle what I can and then throw away whatever is left.
RELATED: More Ideas for Meal Planning
Organizing Leftovers
I have a little trick to share to prevent leftovers from becoming scary science experiments in the fridge.
I write the date the leftovers were placed in the fridge on the top of the container with a dry-erase marker. This washes off easily when I do dishes.
You can’t see it well in this picture, but this container has 9/6 written in the indented space at the top. This is the date this item was initially placed in the fridge.
Note: I don’t know how well it would come off with the dishwasher, but I wash all my plastic storage containers by hand. They tend to get too warped in my dishwasher. I have found that the Crayola dry-erase markers seem to wash off the easiest.
Junk Drawer
Recently, I also organized my junk drawer. You can read about it here. This has been very helpful for finding all those little odds and ends when I need them.
With my added storage basket, this drawer has stayed organized since July! I am very excited about that. It is the little things that keep your life running smoothly.
Meal Planning
Lastly, to keep me on track with dinners at our house, I bought this cute, inexpensive days of the week dry-erase board from Dollar Tree.
It is magnetic and sticks to the side of my fridge. Before grocery shopping, I plan our weekly meals and write them on the board.
I don’t always stick to the days I have written down, but it helps me buy only what I need for a week’s worth of dinners when grocery shopping.
Be sure to come back next week. I will share more tips about menu and meal planning, as well as how I organize my coupons.
What tips do you use to keep your kitchen organized?
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