If you have a small kitchen and no pantry, you probably already know how frustrating it is to have enough storage without feeling cluttered. It’s a common problem, and most people end up just tossing extra food items on their kitchen counters thanks to the lack of available space. Luckily, YouTube creator Keep It Simple Sparkles put out a short but helpful video detailing exactly how she helped to organize a kitchen that just had two to three cabinets!
You can check out the organizational short clip right here:
One thing she pointed out right from the beginning is that you can apply the tips she’s showing us to any size kitchen. That means whether your kitchen has a ton of cabinet space or just a few, these ideas can easily be incorporated into either.
She emphasizes that small kitchens don’t mean a bad thing and that it’s actually a great opportunity to get super creative when it comes to how you organize and sort your most important items. She said that the most important thing to do is to maximize the space in your vertical cabinets. Those are the cabinets that are taller, and they’re usually the upper cabinets above the counters and your fridge.
She starts by showing a couple of dish racks or risers. This basically turns a single-shelf into a double-shelf so you can get more vertical storage in one section. The first riser was placed inside and she put a stack of plates under it, then added a stack of smaller dessert plates on top.
Another larger, wider riser was added right next to the first one, and she put a few small bowls underneath with some coffee mugs on the top. She mentioned that risers are “so darn magical” and I completely agree! She also added text that said she’s found some risers at Dollar Tree, which is a great tip if you’re trying to organize your kitchen on a budget.
I also noticed that she took a small clear acrylic bin and put it underneath the riser on the right. She filled it with a small travel mug and several travel mug lids. This is absolutely ingenious since those darn lids usually seem to end up in random drawers or they get lost or accidentally thrown away.
Now for the interesting part: the YouTuber said that she was organizing the kitchen for a family of four and so she is using “small kitchen rule” which means that you only store two items of each type per person. For example, there would be two plates, two cups, and two bowls for each member of the household.
Of course, she did mention that the exception would be the stuff for the kids, and then the video pans to her stacking a few colorful plastic bowls and plates on the next shelf above. If you have kids, you know they eat quite a lot and younger children aren’t able to wash dishes on their own.
She did say that you can also consider modular dishware. Things that aren’t bulky and that will nest neatly into and next to each other can really help you save space. As she talks, she shows more of those handy little clear plastic bins for colorful kid’s cups to keep them all in place.
Once this portion of the video was done, she showed how the client now has two and a half cabinets for pantry items and small appliances, or whatever else they need to store higher up. This is a great way to show how you can organize what you already have without having to throw things away and give yourself more cabinet space in the process.
Viewer Princess E liked the video and said, “Hi really like your before and after. Can you please do one for pots and pans, frying pans etc? And one for kitchen hand towels. And one for plastic food containers.”
I agree the before and after were really impressive! I may have to go through my kitchen cabinets this weekend and see what I can come up with. An organized kitchen is a great spring cleaning project and it makes life a lot easier since you can always find what you need and avoid frustration.
