5 Tips for Keeping Your Kitchen & Pantry Organized This Summer

By Horderly, Professional Organizing

With summer around the corner, it's time to get your space organized for the season! Starting off, we are tackling the heart of the home: the kitchen and pantry.

Create a Bar Area

Even if you don't have a designated bar in your home, you can designate a small section of your kitchen or pantry as a bar area stocked with your favorite seasonal drinks, mixers, and glassware. We recommend utilizing those tall upper cabinets for liquor storage. Divided turntables are the perfect solution for organizing those smaller bottles and different flavors of bitters.

Utilize bins to keep barware and mixology items organized in deep cabinets. We love using STAK bins because they come with adjustable dividers to help keep categories separated within each bin.

Create a Zone for Outdoor Entertaining

Summer is the perfect time for outdoor activities- especially outdoor dining! In preparation for the festivities, it's time to get your entertaining items organized. We love using expandable drawer dividers to organize all small entertaining items, such as decorative napkin rings, into drawers. The dividers come in both white and bamboo, as well as a variety of sizes to fit the size and finish of any drawer!

Expandable dividers can be used to sort serving bowls and platters into drawers. Use acrylic organizers to sort smaller accessories like salt & pepper shakers.

Make your guests this summer feel at home by creating a clear coffee/tea zone for them to easily access! We love using tea boxes to minimize the clutter or overflowing boxes. These divided containers easily sort your tea bags into sections, making it easy for your guests to find what they are looking for. Divided bins allow you to sort items easily on shelves like iced teas, coffee beans, and espresso pods. Use acrylic risers to allow additional space to store mugs. Entertaining carafes can be placed with other entertaining items on the top shelf of your cabinet so they are at the ready next time you have guests!

Prepare for Summer Cooking

Set yourself up for success this summer by maximizing your storage space in your kitchen. We recommend storing heavy appliances in lower cabinets to make them easier to access anytime you feel the urge to whip up something delicious.

Large cooking utensils can be sorted in the drawer closest to your stove using expandable drawer dividers or divided drawer inserts. Use acrylic organizers to sort cooking gadgets into categories like graters, presses, scoops and openers.

Use deep drawers to store pots and pans for easy access. If you are lacking in drawer space, try using this expandable cookware organizer to sort pans, lids, cutting boards, cookie trays, and more!

Specialty Serving

Store specialty serving items in upper cabinets using acrylic risers or, if you have the space, in drawers for quick and easy access! Keep "likes with likes", corralling all specialty serving into one area of your kitchen. Use acrylic organizers to sort specialty serving utensils for seafood and grilled corn!

Prep Your Pantry

With summer around the corner, it's the perfect time to clear out any cold-weather foods that will expire before next winter. Consider taking any non-expired items you're clearing out to a local food pantry so it doesn't go to waste! Using bins to sort categories on shelves will create a "drawer effect," so you don't have to riffle through piles to find what you need. Open face bins are great for storing items you want to easily grab from the shelf. Infrequently used appliances can be stored down on the bottom shelves while less often used baking tins can be stored using acrylic risers on the top shelf.