Ok, time to vent...Let's hear the most frustrating place in your kitchen to keep organized. Be specific an maybe there is someone out there who has solved your problem.

Lately my biggest pain has been my kitchen drawers. I have one for towels and rags that isn't bad. I have two for kitchen gadgets and one for silverware that are a mess. I never seem to have enough space and my gadgets never fit the trays i buy at the store. And then there is my catch all junk drawer - i think i have just resigned to let that one be.

Let's hear it - who else hates their drawers? What else?

The two lower corner cabinets -- they have lazy susan's in them but they were not installed properly and so don't really work. So LOTS get shoved to the back and LOTS gets put there because they DO hold a lot! If I ever get new cabinets that's the first thing I will remedy!

The good news about that is that they are rather tall spaces so it is mostly BIG things which does make it easier when I get around to cleaning them out and straightening them -- once or twice a year!

Martha

My kitchen drawers are fine, and when I had a new bank of cabinets made for my refrigerator wall, I had the bright idea of having my carpenter build deep drawers instead of lower cabinets. That was the best idea I ever had. My problem area is the pantry. It is a small closet space with upper and lower shelves. One shelf is dedicated to spices and herbs, and it is in a continual state of disarray. My snooty (smile) daughter never fails to complain and to brag that SHE keeps her spices and herbs alphabetized!

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who else hates their drawers?

I would like to complain about my drawers except I have nary a built in drawer in my small kitchen.

I do have this stand (this has been painted since photo taken) which my Dad first and then DH made drawers for. But they are not deep enough for any long things.

The junk drawer can get messy but most have only one category of contents (spoons, knives, forks, nail polish & emery boards; ice cream scoop & can opener etc)

It is my counter tops that get most messy. I also have only one base cabinet and that can't hold much. Then I devote my cupboard space to dishes so sometimes I hardly have room on the counter to put down a cup! Microwave, coffee pot and toaster oven all must stay out. Then I have a scale (not strictly necessary) and lately I seem to have a straw basket with seasonings in it (don't know how that happened)

How many drawers do you have? I keep rags folded till use on a shelf in my broom closet. Don't you have silverware trays that contain the silverware? Think outside the box when looking for containers for your drawers. You don't need to be limited to traditional "kitchen drawer" containers. For instance I use a tool chest hung on the wall over my counter to contain lots of kitchen things like tea bags, salt, peppercorns, thumbtacks, scrap paper, bouillon cubes, etc. etc.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lady of shallot,

"wasibiwillie," Great topic for a first post and welcome to the boards!

Understand what you are saying about your drawers, gadgets and silverware. I've bought a number of containers through the years but they either don't fit or don't hold "my stuff" the way I would like so I have resorted to placing those "mesh" fabrics in my drawers and making my own placements.

Everyday silverware (dinner forks, soup spoons, salad forks, teaspoons, butter knives, iced tea spoons and serving spoons) go in one drawer AND in that order. Surprisingly, they stay organized and don't fall over into each other.

I use a second drawer for cooking utensils with the same mesh and organize it based on frequency of use ~ makes sense to me! And a third drawer for items rarely used like the turkey baster and the big silverware serving pieces (all of which are positioned at the back of the drawer) is used for plastic sacks, quick ties and such.

Works for me but to answer your question? Probably my "junk" drawers are my biggest problem ~ if I didn't force myself to empty them out and clean them out every couple of months or so, I swear things would start multiplying and take over my kitchen!

I have one junk drawer that is junk & junky & I don't try to keep it neat or organized. I can usually rummage through it to find what I want/need.
Everything else, including my pantry & cleaning/paper goods closet are organized and stay that way. I don't let DH put any thing away other than his cereal.
My main problem is my freezers...I'm always moving something around in there & it gets unorganized frequently.

The biggest problem area in my kitchen? The lower cabinet that holds all my Rubbermaid type containers. I think I could organize it daily and it would still be messy!

I'm incredibly lucky to have enough drawers in my kitchen so that I can keep everything organized by type. Even my "junk" drawer is organized with a comparmentalized insert.

What's harder for me to keep organized is my linen closet. Because I like to collect vintage sheets and the linen closet is deep, sets tend to get "lost" in the back of the shelves because they aren't very accessible. Twice a year, I take everything out and re-stack it all so that the current season's choices are in front, but I wish I had drawers or pull-outs of some kind rather than just shelves.

My mess is in the cooking utensil drawer. When we had new cabinets installed, I "overlooked" the fact that the drawers were considerably shallower and narrower than the old ones!!! What a pain. But, I've made it work.

The other problem area is my table!! DH and I both wind up laying too much stuff on it because it's an open flat surface. But, we do have to clean it off every couple of weeks when the cleaning lady comes. Otherwise, the kitchen stays pretty good. Its big, so there's a place for everything.

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the linen closet is deep,

Mine is too, Gracie and I also wish I had drawers or trays that pull out. Years ago I got a nice rectangular basket that I use on one shelf but alas have never found anything like that again.

We could also put tracks on the shelf top and then have a "drawer" made with a corresponding track and just pull that out. Thing is with my closet there is a framed door so the shelfs are wider than the opening so would lose that much space with any sort of drawer arrangement.

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Originally posted by Florida Farm Girl:
.......The other problem area is my table!! ....

Since DH made the built-ins with 10 extra deep drawers and he's making new kitchen cabinets everything is pretty much organized now. But like FFG, since we have a large dining table right next to the kitchen in the front of the house it seems to be a drop off point for everything: mail, newspapers, deliveries, tools etc. It seems like I'm cleaning it off every day.

My hot spot in my kitchen is my island counter top. It ends up being the place everyone who comes in through the back door drops their stuff. There are usually little piles of car keys, wallets, mail, cell phones, etc. I tried putting a basket at the end of the counter, and asked my family to drop their things into that, but apparently they don't like their stuff to be mixed up with other peoples stuff. The basket will be empty sitting next to all the piles. Kind of drives me nuts.

cocok, Know from your tone that you aren't seriously annoyed but had an idea? What, if, instead of one big basket, you put 4 or 6 smaller baskets out, labeled with names depending on how many live there?

That way, they might actually use them for self-preservation ~ they love their phones ~ and you might get a clear island counter in return.

That just might work, Idaho Resident! Great idea. I am going to give that a try! (and you are right, I'm not too seriously annoyed, but it would sure be great to not have the mess!)

My blind corner cabinet is a mess. I have to get down on all fours and put my entire head into the deep cabinet to acccess the contents.

I wanted a Rev-A-Shelf organizer that attached to the door and allowed the shelf to swing out when the door was opened.

It cost a fortune! So, I'm still on my knees.

My kitchen is very well organized and I know where everything is. I did a big cleaning and dumping of unused items a couple years ago. My problem area is the counter as you walk into the kitchen from the hall. Actually, the counter isn't my problem, it's DH. He comes in from work or wherever and empties his pockets onto the counter right next to the coffee maker. Wallet, keys, phone, work papers. It really bothered me, so much so that I actually emptied a drawer that is right below the spot that he dumps everything. Told him this was his very own drawer, open it and dump your stuff in there. Couldn't be easier, could it? Does he use it? No. Still dumps all his stuff right there in front of the coffee maker. Thanks for letting me vent, lol!

My two recent organization projects for our kitchen include:

Peg board on the wall to organize those kitchen gadgets that are odd shaped and don't easily fit drawers. It looks like a piece of artwork. If Julia Child's kitchen had pegboard, our's can, too. In fact.....our Kitchen Aid mixer attachments....spell out C-O-O-L.

Next, is the pantry. You might say....I've created a "smart pantry". I was tired of being asked where an item was, going out buying a duplicate, and then locating said item. So....using Excel, I created a table keeping the columns the doors and the rows became the shelves. I listed each item on the shelves. Now, in the FIND drop down on Excel, I type in the item and it HIGHLIGHTS which shelf & cabinet the item is in. Yes, it took time to do this project. But it is VERY helpful!

The shelves where I store plastic containers & lids. next worst is ME

Tessa89, I can relate to the plastic containers and lids. Hub went out to get matching containers w/ lids that matched. I bought a fabric basket to hold the lids. It is easier to pull out of the basket that holds the lids to locate the match. And lids no longer slip behind the containers.
With a very small kitchen, we still use the hallway closet, basement, dining area for storage. This is the reason to create the smart pantry when there are so many various areas to locate all the items.

Junk drawer without a doubt tho I must confess I do address it more often than any other drawer. I also purchased a tiered drawer organizer to contain small items and organize by catergory for this specific drawer. It's perhaps the most used drawer in my kitchen. In addition, my kitchen desk area, especially the surface gets lots of papers which has to be attended to quite frequently especially since it's highly visible. I did invest in a small desk top multi drawer box (w/ numbers for ID) a number of years back for often used things like glue/stamps/biz cards/embossers/pens/pencils, etc.. It's been a worthwhile investment when it comes to kitchen organization and storage. I found it at Pottery Barn on sale.

The drawers and the pantry I can close. How about the island itself! Between the overwhelming amount of mail and my son's homework it is really difficult to keep the counters clear.

The hardest place to keep organized in my kitchen is where I keep my pots and pans. I have my grown daughter and son-in-law live with me and my husband and I only have one small cabinet for my pots and pans. With four people constantly using them, they are never put back in the same place they took them from. I am a bit of a neat freak and it tends to get under my skin when I constantly have to reorganize this cabinet. It is very hard for me to get down to organize this cabinet due to health issues but I cannot stand when it is not organized! I guess it is time to reorganize my kitchen and get rid of what I do not need and put what is used every day in cabinets I am able to reach easily!

suegottey, we have our pots and pans on an open shelf of a stainless steel worktable. Someday, they will be behind closed doors. The only positive thing about them being seen, they look professional. If you asked my dh, he'd tell you we don't have enough of them either. lol He just has one request: don't bring in my mother's tornado pan. lol

If you are having too much trouble with your kitchen and managing stuffs, I would suggest that you should think over redesigning your kitchen drawers.