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10 Organization Tips for Kitchen Utensils

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No need to struggle to keep your kitchen utensils organized thanks to these  organization tips for kitchen utensils. There are so many different types of utensils you can gather over the years. Some you use on a daily basis, while others are designed for very specific purposes which you may only need once a year. You’ll be able to cook with ease while limiting the clutter on your counter with these utensil organizing ideas.

wood kitchen utensils in red and white striped container

How to Organize Cooking Utensils

  1. Declutter, declutter, declutter
  2. Separate into categories
  3. Identify frequent-use and seldom-use kitchen utensils
  4. Place utensils in drawers near where they will be used
  5. Place in a utensil holder on the counter
  6. Repurpose pitchers or vases you already have
  7. Use vertical wall space
  8. Use the sides of upper and lower kitchen cabinets
  9. Use the inside of cabinet doors
  10. Use the side walls inside the pantry

Organization Tips for Kitchen Utensils

The trouble is, when you’ve built up a large collection of utensils, they can easily become cluttered. This makes it difficult to find what you’re looking for, can cause drawers to jam and can be extremely frustrating. Who wants to cook in or live in a frustration situation? No one.   Organization tips for kitchen utensils to the rescue!

Why is it important to consider how to store kitchen utensils?


Utensils are used for most of your food preparation and cooking.
When you need a utensil, you often need it immediately (Pot boiling over? Potatoes need to be flipped now? Sauce needs to be stirred before it burns on the bottom of the pot?)
Utensils easily get jumbled and tangled together.
They can jam the drawer so that you can’t open it.
They can get tangled together so you can’t remove just one from the holder.

Utensils seem to multiply in the dark of the night and we’re often surprised to see how many multiples of utensil we have as compared to how many we need. This is why the first step of these organization tips is to declutter.

Wooden kitchen utensils and wire whisks on counter

Declutter Your Utensils

You should always start any organization project, especially kitchen utensil organizing, with a thorough decluttering. Don’t let things you don’t use take up space in your life or your kitchen drawers. Be honest and only keep what you’ll really use right now, not someday in the future or that you used to use in the past. I’ve shared concrete tips on decluttering your utensils in Purging Tips for Kitchen Utensils.

I originally wrote about decluttering utensils during my 31 Days of 10 Minute Purging Tasks series. If you missed that valuable series, you definitely want to check it out.

Keep Essential Utensils in a Drawer

Turquoise kitchen utensils organized in drawer

The simplest idea is to place all of your frequently used utensils into a drawer. You can easily pick up utensil organization trays and  expandable drawer dividers to keep them nice and neat in the drawer. Having utensils organized away and off the countertop will help to make the kitchen appear tidier. Remember to keep essentials in a drawer near where you use it so that you have everything at hand when you need it.

Keep Non-Essential Utensils in a Container

Once you’ve sorted out the essentials, it’s time to separate and store away utensils you only use occasionally. Plastic containers can be a fantastic, affordable storage solution. You can use kitchen organization containers to store specific groups of utensils together. These containers can then either be kept in a separate drawer , cabinet or in the pantry.

wooden kitchen utensils in black pitcher and silver utensils in green leaf vase

Use a Kitchen Utensil Storage Container or Jug 

Although, keeping kitchen counters clear is always the goal, sometimes it just makes sense to keep kitchen utensils on the counter. If you don’t have a spare drawer available, it may make sense to keep them in a utensil container on the counter. This rotating utensil holder makes sense in a small kitchen. You can use a repurposed drink pitcher or a porcelain canister to hold larger utensils. This is the perfect opportunity to repurpose a jug, pitcher or container that you already have and don’t use frequently. This allows you to keep cooking utensils within easy reach near the stove.

Organizing your drawers and countertops doesn’t have to be expensive – I can even tell you how to organize your kitchen drawers for free!

Cutlery Baskets

Cutlery baskets can be placed on the wall with a nail or removable hook and used to group together specific utensils. You can add attractive labels to the baskets to make them useful and charming. Taking advantage of that otherwise unused wall space is an inexpensive, effective way to keep utensils off the counters while still ensuring they’re easy to reach.

Metal kitchen utensils hanging in front of blue and white tile wall

Use Wall Space

There are a variety of ways to hang kitchen utensils on the wall. You can use cup hooks, Command hooks (there are even pretty silver ones that don’t look like traditional Command hooks), a bar designed to hold kitchen utensils and a magnetic wall-mounted bar. 

If you’re looking for a more unique utensil storage solution, a large kitchen pegboard may be your solution. This could be hung above the stove, or on a nearby wall, with hooks used to hold the utensils. Pegboard is surprisingly affordable and you can have your local hardware store cut the pegboard to your preferred size for free.

An additional benefit of this storage solution is it can be used to create a feature wall. So, it doesn’t just act as a storage area – it also adds style to the kitchen.

How to Arrange Utensils in a Small Kitchen

The top tips to organize utensils in a small kitchen are:

  • Ruthlessly declutter and keep only the utensils you truly use in the kitchen.
  • Use a drawer organizer to maximize the usefulness of storing utensils in a drawer. This adjustable acrylic drawer organizer is a favorite of mine.
  • Use a pitcher or container to hold utensils on the counter.
  • Use wall space to hang utensils.

How to Organize Kitchen Utensils without Drawers

Organizing a kitchen without drawers can be a bit more challenging.

  • Use a bin you can pull-out to hold utensils in a cabinet. The pull-out bin in effect creates a drawer for the utensils. 
  • Use wall space and the sides of a cabinet or china hutch to hang utensils.
  • Use a pitcher or container to hold utensils on the counter.
  • Use the inside of cabinet doors to hang utensils.

Don’t be intimidated by unique kitchen storage challenges. There are plenty of ways you can keep your utensils organized. Use these organization tips for kitchen utensils to create a kitchen that works best for you and your unique kitchen space. Pin for later inspiration.

More Kitchen Organizing Ideas

neatly organized counters in a white and black kitchen with text overlay reading Kitchen Organizing Ideas Tips to Organize Everything in Your Kitchen

Find all my best Kitchen organizing ideas, printables and favorite products in the table below. You can scroll though the table and look for ideas or search for specific ideas with the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner (on desktop). Click on the topic and then click through the specific article.

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2 Comments

  1. Kitchens rarely have enough drawers!!! If you’ve never seen it, check out these “prisms” that are optional in bulthaup kitchen drawers. I thought they were pretty great! Why drawers don’t all come with some internal structural options is a question!!

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