Once you’ve thinned out the contents of the kitchen it’s time to regroup into THEMES. Sort like items into a category and store them together. Pots and pans live together, cookie sheets under the oven/in the broiler, muffin pans and such all go in one place.

Often items get spread out into multiple places. Examples are medicines, vitamins, first aid…all the non-cooking items that get stashed in more than one place. This is the time to round them up and reunite them.

I used sticky notes to temporarily label groupings into categories. This doesn’t mean this is the final resting place- this is all about getting like items together.

Meds and vitamins were found in 3 locations but now are all together. By placing them together you can visualize how much space you will ultimately need for the category.

Now that like items are together I know what size storage items I want. You do not have to add containers but it’s more pleasing to the eye to contain some items.

This home has kitchen cabinets, a pantry and some storage space in the adjacent laundry room. The home has plenty of storage options and now that items have been eliminated some cabinets are even empty!

This concludes Step 2 of organizing your kitchen using themes. Next step is to add storage baskets, bins, lazy susans and more for a well organized and aesthetically pleasing space.

Cheers- Kristen