Honestly, when we are organizing with clients, we are working so quickly that I don’t always remember to take photos. But every now and then, we have a chance to take more photos so I can show you more of the process here. This is the anatomy of organizing a kitchen cabinet.

You were expecting this, but we really do start by taking everything out of a crowded space like this. (Starting with a written goal is step 1 of SORT and SUCCEED.)

We were grouping things together as we were taking them out and sitting them on top of the island.

The we reduced and released. There were a few things she didn’t want to keep. Not much got released, but even reducing by a few things will help in a tight space like this.

We had a little discussion about this Corning ware set, totally useful, but hardly ever used. It’s ok to be on the fence. If you have enough space, go ahead and keep them. It’s not life or death.

Weirdly-shaped and rarely-used items like this are real space-suckers. Instead of putting this back on the shelf, we hung it up out of the way, and still close by. Why are 3M Command Strips better than a regular hook? Check out this video of how 3M Command Strips work. 

I recommended that they install another shelf in this cabinet to add storage. These shelves can be custom cut at most hardware stores, and are usually about $20. It’s a quick upgrade, and allows you to place things on a shelf, instead of having to stack items on top of each other. Take a picture of the note where you write down the size of the existing shelf, so you have it when you drive by the hardware store. Pro tip: You’ll need more shelf pegs, too. Take one of the shelf pegs with you to be sure you get the right size, or at least take a picture of your shelf pegs and ask for help in the store.

I made a bid to move the KitchenAid stand mixer to the kitchen counter, where it would get used more, and I shared the many ways that I use my stand mixer every week that go way beyond baking. When it was done, everything was easy to get to, and very few things were stacked higher than 2 items high. If you stack higher than 2 items, it makes it much harder to get to items, and to stay organized. This is the 2×2 rule I mention in my book: max out at 2 items high by 2 items deep. 

I also wanted to get those rolling pins (shown on the left of this photo) into some sort of vertical storage, but we didn’t have anything perfect on hand to make that happen that day. Remember, you can keep tweaking your project after you get it mostly organized. Tweaking is step 5 of SORT and Succeed.

If you need more tips on organizing your kitchen, especially in the midst of a busy season, start here: 

Do you have a kitchen cabinet that you want to organize? Does it seem less overwhelming now that we’ve shown you how to get through it quickly? Pin for later.