Learn About Kitchen Cabinet Organizers and Make Your Kitchen Cabinets Functional

And it's not just drawers. Think about your cabinets and pantry. How are you going to find anything if it's all mixed up and disorganized? I can't count how many times I've gone to the grocery store with a list of items I needed, only to find out when I began putting them away that I already had them. That's not only frustrating, it's a total waste of money and can blow your budget.

I don't know what your kitchen looks like, how it's laid out or how big it is. So, I'm going to offer a few simple steps you need to take to get control of your kitchen accessories using kitchen cabinet organizers.

Categorize Your Junk

Before you start shopping for kitchen cabinet organizers, you need to understand what you've got. Pull one of your drawers open. Do you know what you've got? I didn't think so. It's way to overwhelming when you have 150 gadgets stuffed into a drawer or a kitchen cabinet. So, start by breaking these items out into groups. Here are a few suggested categories:

• Eating Utensils - We all use forks, spoons and knives. In fact, these items are used the most, so you've gotta keep them organized.

• Knives - While you can spend all day coming up with sub-categories for this, just start by separating your knives out from the rest of the junk. You can fine tune these items later if you need to.

• Spatulas, Serving Spoons, Ladles and Serving Forks - Sure, you can break this down further if you have a lot of each. But for the sake of starting out, let's just group them together.

• Whisks - I break these out because they are oddly shaped and don't play well with others (or themselves).

• Openers - Can openers, bottle openers, corkscrews. Starting to see a pattern? Everything is being group by functional similarity

• Tongs - Long tongs, short tongs - whatever. If they are tongs, put them in their own group.

• Scissors - Everyone has scissors. Sometimes there is a place for a pair in your knife stand, but we'll get to that stuff later.

• Thermometers - If you're like me, you have a variety of temperature gauges for the oven grill or for food. Keep them together.

• Peelers and Slicers - Pizza slicers, potato peelers and whatever else you have that's designed to take the skin off, or slice your food.

• Measuring Devices - Whether it's measuring cups, measuring spoons or a scale, put it in this group.

• Spices - Yes, we're including food type stuff here as well. Spices are notorious for causing organizational problems.

• Pantry Items - If you're like me, you're storing bulk foods and other long shelf live provisions here. You've still got to keep them organized!

• Pots & Pans - Do I really need to explain this one?

• Aluminum Foil, shrink wrap and parchment paper

• Linens, Table Settings and Wash Rags

• Miscellaneous - Meat injectors, specialty gadgets, skewers, whatever. If it's something you got from Pampered Chef, it's probably only used occasionally and belongs here for now.

You should now be gasping in disbelief as your kitchen has now been transformed into a pile of junk. Do you really need have of this stuff? Seriously?

Identify What's Really Needed

Listen, if you have a budget like most of us do, you can't go out about buy kitchen cabinet organizers for everything or you'll break your bank. In fact, you may not have room anyway. So, take a moment and identify the kitchen accessories that you most often use. Split your categories into two, one for the items you use regularly, and the other for the items you seldom or never use.

Now, the stuff you don't use can be stored away somewhere less convenient since you don't really need them. I've got all sorts of stuff like that and it simply gets in the way until it's dealt with. And don't buy any more of it!

Now that you've eliminated the true junk, you probably have a smaller pile to deal with. That means it's time to begin your search for all of the cool kitchen cabinet organizers and drawer organizers on the market. Trust me, it's going to be overwhelming.

Identify Your New Kitchen Cabinet Organizers

OK. We're ready to select some really cool storage and organization devices so we can get this mess back in its place. You have a few options. There are container and organization specialty stores cropping up all over the place. And there are the tried and true house ware stores like Bed, Bath & Beyond. But, if you've ever compared prices, you'll know that these places can be as much as 30% higher than other places.

In fact, I've often found items at more general purpose stores that compare favorably to the same item at a specialty store. It's a rip-off if you're the type that's willing to plan what they need and then pick it up as you come across it. If you're not that patient, I'm surprised you've read this far! Just remember that you'll pay a premium for one-stop convenience.

The other option is to scour the Internet. Usually, you'll find decent prices, and quite often you'll stumble across ideas that you hadn't thought of. Keep in mind that sometimes the cost of shipping will wipe out the savings. So, be careful there. Convenience may still be your enemy.

So here are a few ideas for kitchen cabinet organizers to get you started. Let me know if you come across any cool new ideas!

Chrome Stacking Cabinet Organizer - Here is a simple idea for regular old cabinets. A simple wire mesh pull out can be used to store items like shrink-wrap or aluminum foil. You can place whatever your want on the flat top. But, think about what this assortment of stuff might look like if it were just thrown in there. It would be a complete mess.

3-Tiered Shelf Organizer  - These are great kitchen cabinet organizers if you your cabinets are deep. How are you supposed to see what's in the back. Even if you're tall, the stuff in front is simply going to block it. This type of organizer sets the items in back up higher so you can actually see and retrieve them.

Under Shelf Wrap Rack  - While simple, these are a clever way to claim unused space. The gap between a shelf and the top of whatever items are below is waste. If you were designing your kitchen cabinets, you could reduce this space and add more shelves. But, if you have to live with what you have, this is the inexpensive alternative.

Shelf On Wheels  - If you don't like have fixed shelving, here's an option for you. These pullout drawers are great, and can be adapted to fit any kitchen cabinet. No more reaching into the secret back spaces of your cabinets wondering what you'll pull out. No more forgetting what you have stored back there either because it's so simple to find out. Kitchen cabinet organizers on wheels are one of my favorites.

Sliding Lid Rack  - Lids are one of the most difficult things to store. If you stack your pots and pans inside each other, where do you put the lids? You don't often find kitchen cabinet organizers designed to address this problem but here is a very inexpensive idea that you might try. Not only does it store them vertically, it's on rollers!

J.A. Henckels International Flatware Tray  - We all need a way to keep the most common kitchen items in place. This one is wood, but you can get wire frame, or plastic, utensil trays as well. In my opinion, wood looks better.

2-Tier 12-Inch Non-Skid Cabinet Turntable  - Lazy Susans and turntables have been around for a long time for one simple reason; they work. Whether you use them on your dining table or inside a cabinet, they serve the purpose of making inaccessible items accessible. The only problem I have with them is that they are round. Therefore, the don't make the best use of space since most kitchen cabinets are not round.

Cabinet Door Lid Rack - Here's another great use of space and another way to manage those pesky pot and pan lids. The inside of your kitchen cabinet doors can be wasted space, as long as other items aren't flush against the front of the cabinet these kitchen cabinet organizers will work.

Spice Rack Storage/Organizer - There are all kinds of spice organizers. We all have different needs. Take a look at the spices next time you're at your local grocery store. They come in teeny tiny jars, medium sized containers and super large bulk containers. Personally, I buy the big bulk versions, so this type of rack doesn't work for me. But these are a very inexpensive solution for those of you who have a modest spice collection. Forget the custom labeled containers. Keep them in the jar they come in and find a solution that fits it.

Soup Can Rack - This is the same concept as the dispensers you can put in your refrigerator for pop or soda (or beer). The problem I have with this as a soup dispenser is that I typically don't buy all the same type of soup. So, if my mood is for split pea and it's not the next up, it's pain getting to it. But, that's just me.

Under the Sink Storage Shelf  - The cabinets under your kitchen sink are always a problem because of all the plumbing. The limited space doesn't lend itself to efficient storage with traditional kitchen cabinet organizers, but solutions like this make good use of otherwise wasted space.

These are just few ideas to get you started. Once you've found what you need to organize your mess, get it organized! If you find some clever kitchen cabinet organizers, stop back and tell us about them (see below).

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