Small kitchens can be tough to organize. There never seems to be enough space for everything and a lot of times gadgets, small appliances and random stuff can overwhelm counter tops. With the holidays right around the corner, this is the perfect time to put a little effort into winning the kitchen clutter war. If your kitchen is looking more like a catch all dump and drop, you’re in the right place today. Stop riffling through jam packed drawers when you need a bottle opener or shrimp fork 4 times a year. Let’s spend a few minutes creating kitchen storage zones to keep your stuff organized and accessible every day so you don’t have to stress when you’re cooking those magnificent holiday meals!

The zones I’m referring to are your fixed locations: the sink, refrigerator, and stove. You may have the kitchen triangle, where you have an invisible triangle between the sink, frig and stove. Or you may have a galley style kitchen where everything is in a line, punctuated by storage in between and opposite the utilitarian fixtures. Either way, consider what you do in those spaces: how should you set up your kitchen to function best for you?

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Zone One: Sink Area

You need a place for dish soap, dishwasher soap, towels, dish rack a dish strainer for drying dishes. Sponges, bottle brushes, hand soap, etc.

Instead of keeping everything on the sink or counter top, you can contain them within easy reach:

• Keep sponges inside a flip down door behind the sink cabinet front. It looks so much nicer and keeps your sink tidy and you don’t have to spend extra time moving things out of the way or hunting for a sponge, magic eraser or scrubber when you need them. I like to keep a few extra dishwasher pods in there too. They’re right at hand when I need them.

• One of the most underutilized spaces in any kitchen is the inside facing cabinet door. It’s a wealth of storage. This is a perfect space for a small towel rack for hanging wet kitchen towels out of sight. On the other inside cabinet door, you can hand a couple small Command Hooks for bottle brushes.

• Think about installing a hand soap pump in the sink basin: your hand soap is always in a fixed location, not in a random plastic bottle that gets shuffled around. I like this because it blends in with the sink top and isn’t a focal point. Plastic soap bottles and mismatched containers can make a small space feel cluttered and unorganized.

Zone Two: Refrigerator

• Don’t just jam everything into the fridge because you run the risk of buying things you already have and don’t need. Use the built in drawers for storing the things they are meant for, cheeses, produce, meats -if you eat meat.. Use the doors for the things you need there: water bottle, milk containers,

• Use clear containers for things like eggs so you can see what you have. Tip write expiration dates on the egg container with a dry erase marker.

• Keep an eye on expiration dates and get rid of stuff that is out of date. Pick a day of the month that works for you to do this and put a dry erase board on the side of fridge to keep track of when you last did it and to plan for the next purge.

• Freezer side: Place containers on that side to stack on shelves. Put like items with like items. Things you use or buy consistently should be on the top shelf so you can easily see what you need at a glance.

Zone Three: Stove

• Don’t store things in the oven! If you have stuff in there, you need to purge, organize and re-evaluate what you have in other places in order to keep the oven clear. ( I’m reminded of that episode of The Middle when the blanket they store in the oven catches on fire…Remember that one? Ha!! )

• Kitchen Cabinet storage: Keep pots, pans, and lids all within easy reach when it’s time to prepare a meal. You don’t want to struggle to find a pan out when you want to cook eggs for breakfast. Keep pans stored vertically in a rack. Pots can be stacked on the shelf above, easy to grab quickly.

• Ladles, slotted spoons, spatulas, etc. take up a lot of drawer space. Hang them on Command Hooks inside the cabinet door so they’re easy to grab and not loose in the drawer.

• Keep plastic wrap, foil and parchment paper stored in slots on the other inside cabinet door.

• Eating utensils can be kept in a slotted bin, additional cooking utensils in another, and the stuff you need occasionally can go to the back.

• Casserole cookware that you need often should be close by. They can be stacked neatly with the lids up-side-down so you can stack one container on top of the other using as much vertical space as possible.

Zone 4: Pantry Storage, (The bonus zone!)

If you’re lucky to have this find of storage, it can be a true sanity saver in a small kitchen. You can make this space beautiful or it can be very utilitarian. Whether it’s a small shallow closet or a space you can walk into, the pantry is precious real estate in a small kitchen. Mine, pictured here, is nothing fancy. It consists of a metal kitchen storage rack from the hardware store but, it provides perfect pantry storage for everything I need.

• All the kitchen gadgets you don’t use on a daily basis can be stored here. Blenders, choppers, crock pots, air fryers, grills, etc.

• This is also my cleaning supply closet, I keep my floor sweepers, vacuum, dusters, mop and bucket in here. The wall is ideal for hanging mops, vacuum accessories, ironing board and floor dusters.

• This is also storage for dog food and all my extra dishes are also hidden away in modular plastic containers. They’re protected and safely stored away.

• Up top, I have closed storage for everything I need from time to time, extra tissues, cleaning supplies, light bulbs, batteries, etc.

When everything is put away neatly, you don’t have to hunt for things. It’s all right at hand and easy to grab and go when you need it.

Conclusion:

Having the 3 most important areas of the kitchen: The sink zone, the refrigerator zone and the stove zone organized will save you from unnecessary stress during meal prep times and when undertaking holiday entertaining. If you’re lucky to have a pantry space, you can really niche out storage for every detail you need.

When these three zones are neat and tidy, you’ll be able to whip up family favorites and have energy to enjoy the process of holiday entertaining too! Now when cousin Barney needs that bottle opener and aunt Clara wants a shrimp fork, you’ll know exactly where they are!

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you did, please give it a like and a comment below. Tell me about your small kitchen organization tips, tricks and hacks. I’d love to learn your favorite hacks. Let me tell you, I love being able to open a cabinet or drawer and know exactly where anything I need is. Let me know if you feel the same way?

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I’m so grateful that you decided to spend a few minutes with me this week. I enjoy sharing my knowledge with you and I look forward to sharing again with you next week, same place, same time! Until next week, stay amazing and keep your dreams big for your small space!

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Michael is Principal designer and blogger at Michael Helwig Interiors in beautiful Buffalo, New York. Since 2011, he’s a space planning expert, offering online interior e-design services for folks living in small homes, or for those with awkward and tricky layouts. He’s a frequent expert contributor to many National media publications and news outlets on topics related to decorating, interior design, diy projects, and more. Michael happily shares his experience to help folks avoid expensive mistakes and decorating disappointments. You can follow him on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook @interiorsmh.