38 Small Kitchen Storage Ideas, Organizer Tips & Declutter Hacks
Living in a small apartment can be tricky, especially in the kitchen.
It's hard to find space for everything you need, and you often feel like you don't have enough room to function.
Fortunately, there are many kitchen organization strategies, tricks & hacks to help you maximize your limited space.
A well-organized kitchen is a JOY to cook in and easy to tidy - no matter it’s size.
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Here are 38 quick and easy small apartment kitchen organization ideas for you, split into three stages.
This is an interactive organizing experience; First, you’ll head to your kitchen to find some extra storage spaces that you may have missed, next you can put your feet up while I share all of my best organizing tips and tricks, and then it’s time for you to roll your sleeves up and get started:
And - bonus for you - I have ADHD so these tips think outside the box and prioritize making life easier!
Find extra space
I know you want to dive in, but before you start pulling everything out, let’s go hang out in your kitchen and take an actual look around as you read so you can assess your space in real-time:
1) Use the space above kitchen cupboards
Look up! …do your cabinets go all the way up to the ceiling?
If not, are you utilizing the space in between yet?
This is a great space for baskets, boxes, an extra shelf, or small appliances you don't use daily.
We use cute wooden crates like these above our kitchen cabinets. Very scandi-minimalist-esque.
Alternatively, you could consider an addition or a complete renovation and add built-in storage up to the ceiling.
2) Maximize vertical shelf space
Now it’s time to open all your cupboards - are you using each shelf to its full height, or are there empty gaps at the top?
Consider these kitchen organization tools to make use of all of your space:
Extra shelves - Ikea is great for ordering extra components
Installing hooks above to hang mugs, measuring cups, etc.
3) Level up the inside of your cupboard doors
Next, look at the inside of your cupboard doors - can that space be used?
This space is not ideal for bulky items as you want to still be able to close the door easily.
But it's handy for hanging smaller items, such as measuring spoons, collapsible measuring cups, favourite recipes, etc.
On lower cupboards, there’s usually more space, so we add over the door storage.
Nikki from Tikkido.com has a great tutorial on adding a cutting board holder to the inside of a lower cupboard door.
4) Make hard to reach areas more accessible
Are any spaces difficult to reach?
You could keep a space-saving fold-up step stool nearby to reach things up high easily —this one can be wall-mounted for convenience.
You might benefit from adding lazy susan turntables to cupboards, shelves, and the fridge.
Our lazy susans make it much easier to grab spices and sauces.
I often see them second-hand in thrift stores and on Facebook marketplace.
Another great option is to fit large carousel shelves into awkward corner cabinets to avoid dead space, or slide and pull out hardware for cabinets with blind corners.
5) Utilize spaces between cupboards and appliances
Do you have any gaps or space between cupboards and large appliances?
You can take advantage of even the smallest of spaces with half-height or full height pull-out storage that is just a few inches wide or mini shelves to store bottles, foil, etc.
6) Use up spare floor space
Is there any spare floor space?
If you have more space at the end of your cabinets, slim carts on wheels are flexible and can provide extra storage and counter space.
If you have more room along a wall or even in the center of your kitchen, a low-cost kitchen island could be a game-changer.
7) Utilize Ceiling space
Look up!
Are there any areas that would work for extra storage hanging from the ceiling?
If your ceilings are high enough, you could use that extra space to hang pots and pans, install ceiling-mounted shelves, or even dry laundry.
8) Add storage to the back of doors
Check the back of any doors in the area - is there any space to utilize?
We don't have any full-length doors in our kitchen here, but in our old place, we used to store cleaning products in an over-the-door shoe organizer - which I loved, it was so handy. We just have one in the bathroom now.
I like the clear ones, so it’s easy to find what you need.
You could also add hooks, rails, full shelving systems, etc.
9) Install wall storage
Look at the walls - are there any bare spots?
Hooks, rails, shelves, magnetic strips, microwave stand, a leaf drop table ...there are so many options to take advantage of your vertical space!
Adding a pegboard is one of my favorite ways to use spare wall space.
They're stylish and flexible, and you can rearrange the set-up quickly.
Don’t forget the wall space behind the sink (for those who aren't lucky enough to have a window).
10) Consider window storage
If you have no space left on your walls, consider adding a clear window shelf (examples: hanging version & fitted version) across your kitchen window.
It’s an ideal spot for herbs, glassware, etc.
There are even clear plant pot holders with extra strong suckers on them if you want a DIY-free option.
11) Storage options for under cupboards & shelves
Look at your upper cupboards, cabinets, and shelves …could you utilize the space directly under them?
You could add hooks, drawers, rails, baskets, wine glass racks, magnetic strips, etc. underneath your cupboards or open shelves.
They're prime spots for spices as they are at eye level and make them easy to grab while cooking.
12) Utilize end panels
If the end of your cupboards or island is open to the room, that's a large surface that could be used for extra storage.
You could use picture shelves to store books or spices, hooks for pots and pans, or storage for cutting boards.
13) Underneath cabinets
I love this hack as it’s the kitchen equivalent as a secret door in the home library!
Nikki from Tikkido has a tutorial for how to add your own secret toekick drawer!
Small kitchen organizing principles, tips & hacks
Now that we’ve explored your kitchen to find extra space, grab a cuppa, get comfy and we’ll go over some key organizing principles, products, tips, and hacks for small kitchens
14) Counter TOP tips
Wherever possible, avoid the temptation to store anything on counters.
It creates clutter and makes the space look even smaller.
Appliance Garages
I love seeing “appliance garages” increase in popularity recently!
This is where you store your appliances in their own storage space to free up counter space and reduce visual clutter.
We just stayed in a holiday home that had an appliance garage behind magic doors.
The doors could be used normally to hide the appliances or recessed out of the way inside the cabinet for when you need easy access to them for a longer period.
It was genius—you can quickly make a coffee and then hide everything away or leave it completely open if you’re on a cooking or baking binge and need access to all of your bulky kitchen gadgets.
Other options I’ve seen include rolling doors, fancy wall or ceiling cabinets that lower when you want to use them (you can see an example in episode 6 of Hack My Home on Netflix), etc.
Increase counter space
Another way to increase counter space is to add an island/cart or use a favorite hack of RVers and add covers to stove tops and/or sinks.
We use a half-size stove cover as it can stay in place 99% of the time because we very rarely use more than two of the burners at once.
But there are also larger-size versions available.
15) Consider how often you use things
Everyday items should be front and center wherever possible to reduce bending, crouching, stretching up on your tippy toes, or moving things out of the way to get what you need.
Things you use less often can be up high, down low, or behind things.
Putting extra effort into accessing these items is fine because you need to do it less often.
Things you use less than every week or so can be stored outside the kitchen if that’s easier and makes sense for your space.
16) Drawers offer the best storage
If there’s a kitchen reno in your future, I want to make a pitch for you to order ALL of the drawers.
Kitchen drawers are the bee's knees.
After moving from a place with lots of them to our small apartment here, where we have just one, I value them even more!
No more climbing into an awkwardly shaped cupboard to try and pull something out from the back! …With drawers, you stand there and pull everything out to you.
They are so easy to organize, and it's amazing how much you can fit into them—especially the extra-deep ones.
Everything is so much more visible and accessible, and there are lots of options for how to organize them:
You can even fit interior drawer hardware to existing cupboards:
17) Consider installing a pullout pantry
It looks like a tall cupboard, but its contents easily slide out together (like this), so you can quickly see what you have and grab what you need.
18) Install under cabinet lighting
Just a couple of LED lights or a smart light strip under your cabinets can make a world of difference in how easy it is to find what you're looking for and also make your small kitchen look bigger and brighter.
19) Use bins, baskets & boxes
Use them under sinks, inside cabinets, drawers, and the fridge, or even stack them right on top of each other to get more use out of those vertical spaces!
They help keep like with like and make it easier to pull things out when needed.
These containers also serve as limits—for instance, it's easy to know when to recycle plastic bags when the container for them is full.
20) Only keep everyday essentials out
If you need more space, keep only enough crockery, cutlery, cups, and glasses for people who eat in your home regularly.
Our daughter uses her own cutlery and crockery, so we usually have four of each essential for the two of us.
This allows for one set to be in the dishwasher.
For some reason, we had more than twenty of most items (?!), so this tip saved us a lot of space.
21) Not everything has to live in the kitchen
If you don’t use items in the kitchen often - consider if they’d be better off stored elsewhere.
Guest box
Any extra crockery, cutlery, cups, and glasses that are required for guests can be stored elsewhere if necessary.
We keep ours all together in a guest box that we can easily pull out when guests arrive.
Microwave
We rarely use our microwave so now we keep it in the storage cupboard by our front door.
Seasonal items & Serving Dishes
Seasonal items & hosting items that you don't use regularly can be stored further away, e.g. in your garage, storage locker, or better yet ...the thrift store ;)
22) Product tips for small kitchens
Space saving items
There are so many innovative space-saving products out there.
Whenever it’s time to replace something, try searching for a “space-saving”, “foldable”, or “collapsable” version.
I love this space-saving cutlery organizer. It was a little hard to get cutlery out of it before we minimized, but now it's perfect and saves us SO MUCH space in our one tiny, little, measly drawer 🙃
Try a universal pot lid to cut down on how many pot lids you need
Magnetic measuring spoons (we have these, and I love that they are dual-sided - it’s handy for fitting the skinny end into spice jars, but also when you need the same measurement of multiple ingredients in a recipe)
Collapsible colander (we have this, which is pretty huge, but it folds down flat and can be stored with our cutting boards. I love that it’s big enough for giant pots of pasta or cleaning fruits and veggies. We clean most things in the dishwasher, but this is also a makeshift drying rack when we dry things by hand)
Tupperware Tip
One last space saving kitchen product tip is to stick with the same make or shape of food storage containers / tupperware - this will make them much easier to store together.
Multipurpose Items
If you’re anything like us, you probably have gadgets and appliances that can do the exact same job, e.g.:
Our air fryer toasts bread quicker and nicer than our toaster ever did
Our instant pot makes rice just as well as our rice cooker did
23) Try a rotating 2 week meal plan
Using similar ingredients and equipment helps us keep our kitchen simple, and the two-week rotation is long enough that things don’t get too boring.
We also add in a new meal a week to keep life interesting :)
BONUS: Grab a free printable minimalist meal plan from Frugal Minimal Kitchen
24) Set up a small coffee station
Everyone knows that coffee is the most important meal of the day.
Dedicating a small area to your morning coffee keeps things streamlined and clutter-free.
Tanya from Our Little Handmade Home has a great tutorial for you.
25) Consider a magnetic knife strip
You'll be surprised how much space you'll save in your drawers by using this!
You can go industrial with stainless steel, or rustic with wood.
26) Use a paper bag in freezer to store food waste
It makes it quick, easy, and mess-free to take it out (no more leaking vegetable goo 😬)
Putting out frozen food scraps on collection day is also much less likely to attract wildlife—essential where we live in bear country!
27) Keep kid items together
Keep kiddo snacks, crockery, and cutlery all together so it’s quick and easy to grab - especially during "snack emergencies".
Consider using a lower cupboard if you’d like your kids to have access to these items.
28) You don't have to decant
If you're short on space, decanting can cause extra headaches, as you need to have space for the container and any unused backstock, too.
It also adds an extra step to the - already exhausting - shopping and putting things away routine.
29) Reconsider recipe books
If you can’t swing a cat in your kitchen, remember that you can skip cookery books and use online or e-book recipes if that helps.
If you want physical copies:
You could print off your favorite recipes and keep them together in a document wallet or binder
One folder will take up a lot less space than 15 cooking books!
If you want to save space but keep variety:
You could borrow recipe books from the library
Alternatively, you could do regular recipe book swaps with friends or neighbours
30) Add baskets to the top of your fridge.
If it’s going to be a dumping ground for clutter (guilty!), it can at least be cute.
We have three baskets on top of the fridge:
Spare brown paper bags that we then use for the food waste in the freezer
Tupperware & meal delivery kit packaging that doesn’t belong to us and that we need to return
A DOOM basket for things we aren’t sure where to put but want them out of the way
31) You don’t need to do an expensive reno to add a pantry.
In fact, pantries are pretty rare in the UK where I grew up. You have a couple of cupboards for food, and that's about it.
This definitely made my transition into small living much easier.
To create our own pantry, we bought second-hand metal shelves and wooden crates.
It's technically not in the kitchen, but it's near enough to act as an unofficial extension of the cooking space.
I love that we can add hooks and small storage pots to the metal shelves.
Another great option to extend your kitchen space could be to add a bakers rack.
32) Move your microwave off of the counter
Bri of Frugal Minimalist Kitchen recommends investing in an over the range microwave as it saves loads of space.
Another option is to wall mount it.
We don’t use our microwave often, so we’ve moved it to our pantry area, which is outside of the kitchen.
33) You don't have to host
There are many alternatives if you don’t have the space or inclination to host large dinner parties!
You can decide to eat out instead, you can order in, or you can cook and then take the food to someone else's home to host.
As soon as we decided not to host more than a couple of people at a time, our small kitchen seemed like much less of a problem!
And if we take into account the cost of groceries and time spent on research, prep, and cooking - takeout usually ends up being cheaper …and usually tastier 🤣
Get started
Ok - by now you’ve found secret storage spaces, and you’re officially a small kitchen organizing pro!
Now it’s time to put everything you’ve learned into action; so put on something with a good beat 🎶, do your stretches, and pull up your sleeves …it’s time to get started!
34) Pull everything out
There’s no way of knowing how much stuff we have unless we pull them all out at once.
Some things were hiding at the back of my kitchen cupboards that I hadn’t laid eyes on in years 😱.
Try not to make any decisions as you bring items out; it’s much easier to do that once you take a step back and examine everything.
If you’re likely to get interrupted during the process (because, life), then feel free to bring groups of items out at once, e.g.:
Crockery
Glassware
Cutlery
Cookware
Bakeware
Ovenware
Utensils
Small Appliances
Storage Containers
Cleaning Supplies
Linens and Towels, etc.
35) Minimize
Now that you’re looking at a sea of kitchen items, it's time to ditch your dusty gadgets and gizmo impulse buys, and only keep things that you either use or love.
My decluttering method is exactly the same no matter what room I'm working on - I follow the Minimize My Mess Method (MMMM).
Some extra tips for decluttering your small kitchen:
Cleaning products are big, bulky and often awkwardly shaped, so be sure to only keep the ones you actually use.
Duplicates are a common occurrence in the kitchen ...do you really need five spatulas and 17 mugs?
Broken items are often shoved to the back of kitchen cupboards. It you come across anything that’s beyond repair, it’s time to bid it farewell.
Fridge freezers can hold and hide a lot of food. Dig deep to find expired items. One thing that works for us is to allocate one drawer in our fridge for items that need to be used up soon. It’s the perfect spot to defrost items and ensure they get eaten.
Magnets and paperwork on your fridge can make your kitchen look more cluttered than it is. Take a moment to check that everything still brings you joy & minimize anything that doesn’t.
Pots and pans take up a lot of space so make sure that you’re only keeping the ones that you use regularly. I realized that I always reach for the exact same three so I let go of all the others.
Out of date food should be a quick and easy thing to let go of, but I hate food waste so it’s actually a tricky one for me. I use it as a lesson to be more intentional and aware to avoid waste in the future.
Plastic bags seem to multiply like rabbits! We use reusable bags wherever possible and donate plastic bags to a local thrift store that reuses them for their customers. To avoid buying extra reusable bags all the time, we keep about a quarter of ours in the car.
Tackle your Tupperware! Take it out and match it with a lid. Remove anything that's lidless or that you don't use anymore. A great way to repurpose lidless Tupperware is to use them as drawer organizers.
Be ruthless with appliances - if you don't use it often, if you avoid using it because it's too much of a pain to clean, or if you have a multipurpose appliance that can do what this does, etc., let it go!
36) Clean
Before putting anything back, take advantage of the empty cupboards to vacuum and clean the insides quickly.
If you’re fancy, now would be the time to add drawer liners …I imagine 🤷🏻♀️
37) Organize
Now that you have loads of ideas for where to put things and lots of kitchen organization tips, and you’ve minimized down to just the items that you use and love, it’s time to decide exactly what is going to go where.
Organizing is the practice of finding everything a logical home - and then labelling it.
It sounds obvious, but if something isn't labeled, it's easy to forget what you have, and where you've stored it.
BONUS - other people in the home are more likely to put things back in the right spot if there’s a label.
Add labels with a waterproof marker or label maker if they’re likely to get damp.
Labels are especially important in smaller spaces and for us messier people.
38) Optimize
Now that everything you want to keep is where you want to keep it, the last (optional) step is to optimize your kitchen organization.
Live with your new kitchen set up for a few days/weeks and see if there are still any areas that could be easier or smarter.
Here are all of the products we’ve chatted about today if you’re looking for more inspo:
Conclusion
With these small apartment kitchen organization ideas, you’ll be able to free up some space without sacrificing functionality or style.
It’s all about thinking outside of the box and making the most of what you have.
If you’d like to tackle the rest of your home and need a helping hand, I have a free 60 day challenge to help you:
Here are more space saving tips for small homes
And here’s a free downsizing guide if you are about to move into a smaller space
Thanks for reading 💚
