ORGANIZED KITCHEN DRAWERS: THE REVEAL

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Today I’m back with my latest organization project in our home, our organized kitchen drawers. I first shared my plans and quick fix for these drawers two weeks ago and I’m very happy to report that after clearing out all of our accumulation and clutter – nine years of it – purging, donating, adding organizing containers where needed, I’m finally proud to show them off!

The contents may not all be the most beautiful, cute or trendy things. Some are years old and still serve their purpose wonderfully. Some are beautiful too. Most importantly, everything I kept was carefully curated and chosen out of necessity for what serves us.

You can head to my Amazon Shop to see some my favorite organizing items that I have linked over there and you can always shop these items in my LTK Shop too.

Affiliate links are provided throughout this post – see my full disclosure policy here. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

ORGANIZED KITCHEN DRAWERS: THE ISLAND

organized kitchen drawers

I am so happy that I’ve finally tackled these organizing projects – ones I’ve put off for far too long. They took a little bit of time and focus, some physical and mental energy, and lots of hard work.

Did you catch my organized linen closet last week? That one is a must-read. I can tell you, doing the work is all so worth it. It wasn’t even really as bad as I thought it would be.

I’d been putting things off, thinking it would be a daunting task, but in the end, not one bit. It feels so good to purge and clean out, and I am so excited to share our organized kitchen drawers with you today!

You’ll see further down in this post all of the things that were taking up useful space and serving absolutely no purpose. Well, I am over that!

Organized kitchen drawers

I’ll be honest – these drawers weren’t so bad at all. I don’t have before shots of these drawers to share with you, because they were in relatively good shape to start. They really needed a good purging though – I cleared out old flatware that we weren’t using.

My brass flatware set that I had sitting in a plant holder on my shelf is now housed in here. I have another, faux horn set I keep in this drawer as well.

Organized kitchen drawers, spoon and fork

I had two stainless steel sets of cutlery in here, that I’ve owned for about 20 years. We rarely used them and this drawer was overflowing.

No use for it? It’s gone….I’m feeling better already. We use my silver plated flatware that my aunt gave me many years ago – this is our everyday set and I love it.

CUTLERY TRAY

Keep your flatware under control and from sliding all over the place.

Organized kitchen drawers spoon and fork

I already had the bamboo organizers here, so I didn’t need to purchase anything to get these drawers cleaned up.

USE ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS!

HOW TO CLEAN SILVER

Using only pantry staples, learn how to clean your silver in minutes!

Next up, the bowls and dishes. Again, these all get everyday use, as does everything our island houses. I have several different sizes and patterns – I always love to mix and match.

Organized kitchen drawers, bowl and plates

From small ramekins to large shallow pasta bowls, the bowls are sorted by size, function, and color. I do love my patterns! It makes me smile when I open this drawer and everything has its place.

Organized kitchen drawers, bowl and plates

Even better, they’re beautiful to look at. This drawer used to be a mishmash, and again, I had bowls in here that I hadn’t touched in years.

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They were given away a long time ago, which is when I cleaned up the contents of this drawer. Keeping them organized by size also helps keep it orderly looking.

organized bowls

I like order. It drives my family a little crazy, but that’s ok, they’re benefitting from it and they don’t even realize!

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Lastly, our everyday dishes are all held in this bottom drawer, and I love to mix and match all of these as well.

organized plates

My gorgeous blue and green set from Williams-Sonoma made their debut on our patio table, in my summer tablescape – if you want to read it, you’ll love the warm weather entertaining inspiration!

Unfortunately they’re not available anymore, along with most of our dishes and bowls. I’ve linked similar styles below for you, that are all just as beautiful.

ORGANIZED KITCHEN DRAWERS: LEFT OF THE RANGE

cluttered drawer

So, this is where the real clutter was happening, as you saw in my recent post, about my organizing plans. The top drawers specifically were a disaster.

I cleaned them out, and couldn’t believe what was lurking in there! Out with the old, and keep only what’s needed. My new mantra.

organized kitchen drawers

Although they’re not the worst drawers ever, they were mostly filled with things we just didn’t need…creating a mess and visual clutter for nothing. You should know by now, I like things neat and tidy.

organized accessory drawer

Too much clutter and I suddenly can’t breathe haha. Now, it’s like a breath of fresh air, and I’m loving our organized kitchen drawers.

My quick fix : these inexpensive, clear plastic bins. These saved the day, my friends. Even if you like to keep a lot of stuff, these will be your new best friend, trust me.

organized kitchenware drawer

These two top drawers got purged in a major way – there was just too much happening that really didn’t need to be. Again, I kept only what we needed and what we mostly use.

A FEW THINGS WE KEEP IN THESE DRAWERS

  • Cookie cutters
  • Spatulas
  • Handheld mixer
  • Meat thermometers
  • Lighters, matches
  • Cheese grater
  • Bottle openers and stoppers
  • Serving utensils
organized kitchenware drawer

Aren’t those little piggy spatulas cute? They belong to my daughter, and I use them all the time! The things that were hiding in here was a little crazy – scroll back up and look if you missed it.

PLASTIC BINS

Keep your drawers under control, neat and tidy with these inexpensive organizers.

The content of this one drawer was a whole lot of clutter. It’s truly amazing what adds up after years of not paying attention.

organized kitchenware drawer

No longer the case in this kitchen! Like I said, not everything is beautiful, but it sure is well contained, and that’s beautiful to me. I even donated a few old frying pans that were not getting any use. I had no use for five frying pans!

organized kitchen pans

I kept two that we use regularly, as well as my pots. Although we are way overdue for a new set, these function well, but some copper beauties are on my wish list.

Finally, my linens are housed in the bottom drawer.

organized kitchen drawer, kitchen towels and aprons

I had a tone of extras in here that haven’t been used in a long time, so out they came, and in the donation pile, they’ve gone.

kitchen linens

ORGANIZED KITCHEN DRAWERS: RIGHT OF THE RANGE

kitchen drawer utensils

Remember the before shot of this one? It was cluttered and junky looking, and I cleared out knives that got no use whatsoever and that were years old.

That’s all I did. My handy plastic containers saved the day once again – can you believe the difference?

baking tools kitchen drawer

Our bakeware drawer was starting to get a little overstuffed too – I purged some old pans that haven’t seen the inside of our oven in many years.

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Anything that was old, rusty and had no purpose, was cleared out, and I picked up a few new pieces to replace some of the old ones.

plastic container kitchen drawer

Lastly, is our kitchen storage container drawer. Again, it’s not the prettiest, or color-coordinated, but it houses all of the necessities that we use daily.

I still store cold food in plastic containers from time to time, and also for the kids’ lunches, but I got rid of the bulk of our plastic a few years ago. I much prefer keeping leftovers in these cglass containers, I love the snap-on lids.

different plastic containers

We also keep extra storage bags, foil wrap and plastic wrap in here. The upper right drawer on this side holds our wrap and plastic bags that get used daily.

These glass containers are the best for food storage – you can transfer hot food and let it cool in them, which I love, rather than waiting for things to cool first, and having to wash pans later.

clean kitchen drawers and stove

Personally, I prefer having lower drawers in our kitchen over kitchen cabinets – they’re so much more functional, and you can store far more in them.

A FEW UPDATES WITH HUGE IMPACT

OUR UPDATED KITCHEN REVEAL

We installed new custom uppers, some lower drawers, new hardware and so much more!

These organization projects have brought huge benefits to our home and our daily lives. You can read my post about daily organization if you want tips and tricks for keeping life organized every day!

Thank you for reading with me today, I hope my organized kitchen drawers help you feel like getting on top of your projects of decluttering and organizing. If you’re putting it off like I was, just remember – all you have to do is one drawer at a time. Trust me when I tell you, when everything is clean, tidy and organized, life is a lot easier. xo

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25 Comments

  1. Awesome kitchen! What are the dimensions of your drawers?? Thanks so much!!

  2. Melis Tuncay says:

    Hi! Your kitchen is super organized and I love it!!! I also have been using mixmatched bowls and dishes but from my shelves and it is so annoying :) we are going to have a kitchen renovation so I wanted to ask you your drawer dimensions for plates and bowls, looks like just the right size! Thank you so much!!!

  3. tamaraanka says:

    Hi LaVonia! I don’t have a color name, it was the only black option I had to choose from at the time! That is so exciting that you’re building! It can seem like a lot and overwhelming, but it’s also a fun process!

  4. tamaraanka says:

    Thank you very much Rosemary! I wish I could give you a paint color, these were just the standard options available when we built our home ten years ago – ivory and black! I wish I had more information for you!! Thanks for stopping by the blog! xo

  5. Rosemary Bunch says:

    Love your style and organizing tips! We’re in the middle of a major renovation and I’m going to use many of your ideas. Would you be able to share the paint color of your cabinets, both the island color and the other white cabinets?

    Thank you,
    Rosemary

  6. LaVonia Nelson says:

    Hi! I love your design style. We just put down everything to start our new home build ( literally, a week ago today!)
    I’m so excited, reclusive and a bit overwhelmed. I guess my first question (I apologize now…I’m sure there will be more) is…what color is your island?

    Thank you,

    LaVonia

  7. tamaraanka says:

    They don’t move that much at all! The drawer is full enough and they’re heavy enough, so that’s really not a problem!

  8. How do you keep your dishes from shifting in the drawers when opening/closing? I’d be afraid of them hitting each other and eventually chipping

  9. tamaraanka says:

    That is so smart, such a great idea!

  10. My idea is cabinets that have vertical shelving that are 6 to 8 inches thick and hinged to fold \stack behind the door. Then canned items wouldn’t get lost in the back of the cabinet. Items could then be rotated easily.

  11. tamaraanka says:

    I am so happy you found this helpful! What a huge difference it has made for us! For some reason I forgot to link my hardware in my post, but I just updated it. Here is a direct affiliate link for you: https://rstyle.me/n/c35g6tb5qaf – thanks so much for reading with me!

  12. This is so helpful–thank you! Your kitchen is gorgeous, especially love the mixed metals with the hardware and stove. Are you able to share the resource for the drawer pulls? They’re exactly what I’ve been looking for.

  13. tamaraanka says:

    You can never have enough drawers, right?! They are so much easier for people like us haha! Plus, they hold so much more than cabinets! Thank you for reading with me!

  14. tamaraanka says:

    Dana that is such great advice – thank you very much! I could definitely use better cutlery organization and I love the idea of a knife holder! I couldn’t agree more on how much time you save when things are organized! Thank you so much for reading with me and for your ideas! xo

  15. tamaraanka says:

    Thank you very much, Myrna! I have to say I love drawers so much better than cupboards! And yes, purging feels so good! Thank you for stopping by!

  16. tamaraanka says:

    Hi! Thanks so much for your kind words, I’m so happy you’re inspired! They can be tricky sometimes, depending on what device you use. Always click on the bottom of the image – if you click at the top, it takes you to Pinterest. I’m sorry for the inconvenience!

  17. I’ve noticed I’m unable to tap and shop your photos. Defaults to Pin it on Pinterest. Not just this post but on others as well. Love your style! Thanks for sharing and the inspiration!

  18. I too am vertically challenged, so I love dishes in the drawers. But, my favorite is those blue and white dishes. Thanks for sharing. We all need to purge.

  19. I love the way it looks. I recently moved and when we organized the kitchen it was a nightmare! The previous owner used peal and stick floor tiles in every cabinet and drawer. It took my husband and me weeks to get it all pulled up and clean. I lined every cabinet and drawer with nonskid white lining with no adhesive and used bamboo drawer organizers everywhere. The results were wonderful and it now feels clean and organized. The point of all this was to tell you about the in drawer knife holder I found. It was a life saver and stores them safely. I would recommend them to anyone who has to store their knives in drawers, it holds 11 knives. I love it that I found someone who is as crazy about organization and cleanliness as I am. My grown kids think I am a little overboard, but it saves me so much time in the long run and I don’t spend tons of time trying to find things. I always love seeing your posts!

  20. I see that you were so smart when designing your kitchen and used a lot of drawers. I so wish I had used more when designing our kitchen 26 years ago. My builder thought I was crazy using the number that I did, but today…not enough. I really think I’d have every area under the counter with drawers and no cabinets at all. I am short and drawers are just so much easier for vertically challenged people.

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