Overcoming Busy

Organizing the Kitchen Utensil Drawer

June 24, 2010 by Marci

In my kitchen, and probably my house, the utensil drawer has been the last organizing frontier.  I have re-organized my kitchen twice in the last year, but haven’t touched the utensil drawer.  It is a mess!! You might have a drawer just like it.  That would be the one filled with soup ladles, potato mashers, melon ballers, cheese graters and measuring cups.  The one you risk life and limb digging through just praying  you don’t get cut or stabbed by some hidden kitchen tool.  Yes, that one!  This week, I finally decided to tackle it.

Before I start, I have to tell you that somewhere in the process, I lost my before pics!!!  So, I just want you to go to your own unorganized utensil drawer and look.  If yours is already organized, remember the chaos in the drawer before organization!

In my search for the perfect drawer organizing system, I looked at stores and online sources.  So many choices!

Here are the main types of organizers that I found.  The top two pictures show a customizable gird insert and a modular system from The Container Store.  The bottom two are bamboo inserts and an expandable bamboo tray from Stacks and Stacks.  While I liked the way they all allowed me to section off my drawers and would probably fit my custom sized cabinet drawers, there was still something about dropping all my tools into little bins and rustling through the piles whenever I needed something.

After considering my storage options, I went back to the basics of organizing.  The first step is to de-clutter.  I emptied out the drawer and got rid of any tool I haven’t used in 2 years.  There were some I only use once a year for Christmas caramels and such – I kept them.  I got rid of my cake serving set from our wedding, knives that were too dull to use and too cheap to be sharpened, doubles of my pasta server and melon-baller.  There was quite a little box to be thrown away and given away.  But, when I looked at my utensils, I still had quite a pile!  Next to my utensil drawer was a drawer I had been using for manuals and papers.  Pretty silly since I have a manual file in the office.  So, now I had two drawers to work with!  However, I still did not have a storage solution I was happy with.

Then, I got an idea.  Consult an expert. (Without her knowledge!) My friend Lori is the best housekeeper/organizer I know.  She has 3 active kids and her house looks magazine perfect anytime of the day or night.  She is amazing.  Lori and her family are at Disney this week and we are feeding the turtle and the lizard.  While I was in the kitchen, I took a peek in her utensil drawer and there it was.  My answer!  All her tools were laid out nice an neat.  No digging required.  She had some sort of sticky vinyl shelf liner to keep everything from moving around.  Ah ha!!

I immediately went home to try this out.  I have learned from various moves that the typical shelf liner, even the ones that claim to be non-slip, rarely are.  After being frustrated about the lack of stickiness of these liners in the past, my wise hubby came home from Lowes one day with this:

Yep, its a non-slip rug pad!  Works awesome in shelves and drawer and guess what…it’s really non-slip!  I had some left over from a previous project so I cut it to size and slipped it in my drawers and viola!

What do you think?  I like it!  It is simple.  I can find everything I need at a glance.  There is no digging.  It didn’t cost me any money!  All the things I look for in an organizing system!

What do you use to organize your kitchen utensils? What is your last organizing frontier in your house?