Top Small Kitchen Drawer Organization Tips

Are you plagued with small kitchen drawers that never seem to hold everything? Check out my favorite kitchen drawer organization tips to help get those small drawers in prime storage condition!

Some of you may know that we recently moved. While I absolutely love our new home (see my new home tour), it’s been interesting getting used to my new much-smaller kitchen.

One of the trickiest things has been trying to make it work with two small drawers. Oh yes, you read that right…two. I went from 6 large drawers to two that are (combined) about the size of one of my old ones.

When we decided to buy this house, our plan was the remodel the kitchen. And YES, I’m super excited at the prospect of remodeling the kitchen! We’re hoping to do it next summer, but we’ve changed our plans to possibly add a new addition to the house, so it may take longer until we can get to the kitchen.

In the meantime, I’m determined to make this new kitchen space work for our family! The first project I HAD to tackle was my small kitchen drawer organization problem. 

It was driving me nuts. I couldn’t find what I needed because everything was SO cluttered. After facing the prospect of not being able to make dinner one night because I couldn’t find my can opener, I knew I had to organize THAT day.

And yes, I did finally find my can opener. It was at the bottom of this drawer, buried under the mound of all that stuff. 🤦‍♀️

Top Small Kitchen Drawer Organization Tips

Okay, so here’s what I’ve learned… or you could say that these are my tips for organizing small kitchen drawers.

These simple ideas have transformed my kitchen drawers (without spending any money), making it so much quicker and easier to put things away. But most importantly, it’s made it possible for me to find kitchen utensils/tools when I need them. 

Before you begin anything else, take everything out of the drawer. Wipe it clean too.

(Bonus for me – I managed to fix the drawer that fell forward each time we opened it. Sweet!)

Tip 1: Declutter

I didn’t have a lot of things to get rid of since I did a major declutter of my kitchen before we moved over the summer. However, if you need to declutter your drawers, now is the time to do it. 

Throw away broken stuff. Donate anything you don’t use.  

That old butter knife you last used three years ago? Get rid of it. I am not too cool to cut butter with a regular knife. Do you really need 8 serving spoons? Maybe you do, but maybe you don’t.

Be merciless and GET RID OF IT!

Tip 2: Don’t Cram It Full 

Now that your drawer is cleaned and decluttered, only put away your essential I-need-to-access-this-often tools. Don’t cram that beautiful drawer full again! 

Speaking of beautiful drawers… I would love for my drawer to look like this gorgeous kitchen drawer from Kevin & Amanda. SO PRETTY!

Sigh. Sweet dreams. Maybe someday. But I am not handy like that, nor do I have time to learn how.  Not now anyway. 

So, back to reality.

Tip 3: Use Kitchen Drawer Organization Supplies To Keep Things In Place

Utensil trays make excellent kitchen drawer organizers. I took the utensil trays I already had and changed the layout of my two drawers.

One side has my kitchen knives, scissors, and can opener. (It finally has a home – yippee!) The other side has serving utensils, tongs, and a serving knife. 

I put the sharp knives in a bin in the front for two reasons: 1) It keeps the main trays from sliding forward and backward, and 2) It keeps the sharp knives out of the main silverware drawer where the kids can grab them. 

My main silverware drawer now looks like this. (Joshua was my helper and put them all away for me. Didn’t he do a good job?)

Much better, compared to this before:

I have one more small bin in the back, again to keep the main silverware tray from sliding around and to store two small things. 

I used a longer white bin at first, but the main tray moved too much, and that bothered me more. So the smaller, wider square bin won out. I’m still not thrilled with this part and may try something different later, but it’s still far better and more user-friendly than before. 

Now, doesn’t that look better?

The drawers have been organized. But what to do with the remaining utensils and tools that we didn’t have room for? I have a few ideas for that too.

Tip 4: Relocate

It’s time to find a new home for the items you don’t have room to store in your drawers. Think about a good place in your home for these items. Here are some ideas:

• Your pantry
• Basement
• Garage
• In a high or underutilized kitchen cupboard
• A utensil crock on your counter, etc., for storing extra kitchen tools

Look around your kitchen and see what will work for you!

My Relocation Spots

For my house, I came up with two alternative storage areas for my kitchen.

Since I don’t have a big pantry, the first area is storage shelves in my basement. The items I use less than once a month went into a bin and down on the shelf. {You can do the same for larger things in your kitchen too – my huge soup pot has to stay in the basement too.)

My second storage area is the upper shelf space in my cabinets. Because it’s so high up, this is often underutilized space. We don’t necessarily want to put mugs or plates there because there’s an increased risk it might fall and break.

But it’s still available space and a great place to store a couple of bins with extra kitchen tools. I have two storage bins in my upper kitchen cupboard.

Tip 5: Train Family Members

Take it from me: if you want your new kitchen drawer organization to last, give your family members a quick run-through on your new organization system.

We all know how quickly they can un-organize everything – especially if you have a husband and/or older child who helps empty the dishwasher. 

Kitchen Drawer Organizer Ideas

When it comes to kitchen drawer organization, I’ve found that using bins and trays is immensely helpful for keeping everything in place so that it doesn’t slide around.

You can also try cutting some non-slip grip to size and gluing it to the bottom of your trays.

Baking Supplies Bin

For example, I found a nice-looking bin (from Target) that I’ve turned into my baking bin. This holds my measuring cups, tablespoons, cookie scoop, extra beaters for my Kitchen Aid, etc.

That way, everything I need for baking is in one handy bin that I can pull out as needed and put away when I’m done.

I love my white baking bin and plan to pick up another from Target, so my second bin will match. In the meantime, this random plastic container I had in my attic works well for my miscellaneous bin.

It stores stuff like chopsticks, the apple corer/cutter, egg slicer, pastry blender, etc.

Utensil Crock

Lastly, I pulled out this lovely utensil crock someone gave us for our wedding a long time ago. I’ve only used it sporadically in the past because I prefer not to have extra stuff on my counters.

However, when you have super small kitchen drawers, you need to use the counters for some things. And for right now, it’s perfect. 😉

I keep it next to the stove, so it’s easy to grab a spoon or whatever I need when I’m cooking.

Looking for a utensil crock? Here’s a nice one that will match any kitchen: Utensil Crock

Kitchen Drawer Organization Final Thoughts

I hope these small kitchen drawer organization tips help inspire some organization in your kitchen! It doesn’t have to take long, you don’t have to spend much or any money at all, and you don’t have to be a talented DIYer. 

So, now it’s your turn. Look around and see what works for your kitchen. 

Leave me a comment and share your best kitchen drawer organization tips for small drawers. I’d love to hear your ideas, and I may even add them to this post! 

More Organizational Inspiration

• How To Organize Spices The Simple Way
• How To Organize A Small Closet With Lots Of Clothes
• 7 Best Tips For Organizing Kids’ Crafts Supplies And Things
• 5 Creative & Easy Tips For Organizing Kids’ Toys

Want to save these tips for later? Pin the image below to your organization board!

Follow Musings from a Stay At Home Mom’s board Organizing: A Place for Everything on Pinterest.//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js