5 Easy Tips to Organize Under Your Kitchen Sink

This blog topic is one that came to mind when the cabinet under my own kitchen sink got a spontaneous overhaul just last week! The other day, I happened to need a product (I believed to be) located under my kitchen sink. My hunt for the product lead to me discovering a cleaning spray had exploded in the back of the cabinet who knows how long ago. Long story short: that discovery led to me completely emptying and reorganizing that area right then and there in the midst of my day. (And, it turns out the product I’d initially gone to grab was actually in the garage the entire time. Go figure!) Anyway, it’s that spring cleaning season where you may suddenly and insistently feel the itch to completely overhaul small, cluttered areas of your home one-by-one. Here are five easy tips for organizing under your kitchen sink that will come in handy when it’s time to scratch that itch!

To rehaul and organize any area the best thing you can do is to first empty the space. Get cozy down on your kitchen floor and completely and totally empty that under-the-sink-cabinet. (I’m talking empty!) Once the space is completely bare give it a good dusting and wipe down. Next, you want to declutter the items you had within the cabinet. Look through everything now scattered around your kitchen floors/countertops and sort items as “keep” or “toss”. Get rid of anything expired, empty, broken, or unused.

Look at the items you’ve decided to save and group like items together. Categories for this space may be “cleaning products”, “sprays”, “cleaning tools” (brushes, dish pads, etc.), “dish soap & dishwasher detergent”, etc. You may also have trash bags or recycled plastic bags that you want to continue storing in the cabinet. Categorize like items together and be sure to rehome any rogue items that still have a use but would be better stored elsewhere in your home. (Such as if you happen to find a bathroom cleaning product and new bottle of hand lotion randomly hanging out in your kitchen cabinet.)

Now that everything remaining is categorized (and meant to be stored under the kitchen sink) you can begin organizing and putting everything back inside. Use organizational products such as clear bins and baskets, shelf risers, and drawer organizers. Shelf risers are great for maximizing this small space because they allow you to go vertical with storing items. Turntables are also great for under the sink because they increase visibility of items otherwise cast away and forgotten in the back of the cabinet. You can use stackable drawers or drawer organizers for smaller items such as sponges, dish pads, etc. Our Sorted Out organizers certainly recommend clear storage containers for any and all organizational products used in this space!

Under the kitchen sink is an area that can easily and quickly become chaotic and unorganized largely in part to the cleaning supplies. Cleaning products often stored in the kitchen cabinet come in a wide variety of spray bottles, canisters, bottles, and boxes. This lack of uniformity among products makes it more difficult to organize, but it’s also why we suggest adding your own clear storage containers. Taking items such as sponges, dishwasher detergent pods, cleaning erasers, etc. out of their retail packaging and placing them into your own storage bins will help the organization last. If you have a small cabinet space and struggle to fit everything, consider adding a tension rod to the cabinet door to hang cleaning products there as well. Of course, if you have any hazardous or dangerous chemical products to store you should make sure these items are in a locked cabinet or somewhere out of reach of children and away from pets.

As with any organization project, the last thing you want to do is label all your hard work. Create labels for all the new bins and sections you created when you sorted your items and returned them to the cabinet. This will help you easily and quickly find what you’re looking for. And, although the bins are clear, labels also help ensure that when items in the cabinet are refilled (by you or a family member) they’ll make it to the correct place and keep the organization intact.

If you read this and think, “ ‘5 Easy Steps’…this is doable” but then begin and suddenly feel in-over-your-head or get stuck along the way, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! Our inbox at info@sortedout.com is always open and one of our professionals would be happy to help in any way.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Tonia