Using open shelving is one of the easiest pretty and practical kitchen organizing ideas.
I’m Keri from One Mama’s Daily Drama, where I share practical ideas for living your best life, not your stressed life. We purchased our home four years ago and I’m finally getting around to tackling my kitchen organizing project.
The room is kind of a funky space because it serves as the kitchen, dining room, and my office. The room gets cluttered easily, but I finally found a kitchen organizing solution that creates a place for everything. My biggest challenge is all the kitchen items that don’t get used regularly. Small odds and ends like party supplies, off-season decor, and candles can take up a lot of space and be hard to store.
I previously had everything in this cabinet above my desk. I don’t have a before photo, but the center section was three shelves loaded with mismatched boxes, baskets, and zip bags. They took up a lot of space and I had to pull everything down when I wanted to find something.
How to Use Photo Boxes for Kitchen Organizing
I started by purchasing the Ivar shelving system from Ikea. The pieces are modular, so I found the combination that would fit my space. After that, it was just a matter of organizing with photo boxes.
What you need:
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Tools Needed:
Supplies Needed:
- cardboard photo boxes
- printable kitchen labels
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Instructions:
1. Sort, sort, sort.
Before I purchased my photo boxes, I went through everything that I wanted to store in them and estimated how many I would need. This is a great time to toss anything you’re not going to use.
2. Organize with photo boxes.
I tried to be smart in how I filled each box. Flat paper items, like party banners, went on the bottom. Heavier items were evenly distributed so that the boxes would be easy to take down from the shelf.
3. Label each box.
I printed one page of the kitchen labels and wrote a broad category for each box. Then I cut them out with my Fiskars paper cutter and slid them into the label slots.
4. Style kitchen shelves.
I wanted to be sure I made the shelves functional as well as pretty, so I started by putting the heavy appliances on the bottom. The everyday kitchen tools, like mixing bowls and cast iron pans are eye level. I put the more decorative items near the top, plus my grocery bags, which are large but light.
I love how simple this was. The photo boxes look nice and don’t take up much space and now I can use the empty covered cabinet space for something else.
What’s Next?
Printable Jar Labels for Dried Herbs
Organize Your Whole House with Just 10 Things
You may also enjoy these kitchen organizing ideas and decorating tips on Kenarry:
- How to Season Cast Iron Cookware and Care for It
- 5 Budget-Friendly Ways to Totally Transform a Kitchen
- Coffee Wall Art: 10 Inexpensive Digital Kitchen Prints
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Keri is a writer, graphic designer, wife and mom of two from Texas. She began One Mama’s Daily Drama when her teens were little as a way to help parents navigate the chaos of family life. She is passionate about planning, organizing and helping other parents find practical solutions to everyday challenges.
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