Smart Kitchen Organisation

7 Ways to create Insta-Worthy Storage

Organising and personalising your kitchen or pantry is a great way to feel less cluttered and a step towards the kitchen of your dreams. Right now is the ideal time to make a start on organising your kitchen cupboards, don't forget custom stickers! And, if you take the time to do it beautifully, you will smile every time you open the cabinet door.

Have a look at our 7 ways to kitchen cupboard organisation heaven!

Organise your herbs and spices with Avery labels

1) Sort items, matching like for like

Whether you're organising your kitchen cupboards or attacking clutter in the garage, sorting everything into groups is the first step.

A lot of peoples' first instinct is to dump everything into one big pile, sort and then put items back... but this can result in a huge jumbled pile that can make you feel like you've just made a bigger mess! This can result in the task becoming all-the-more intimidating.

Instead, try to put your items into piles of like for like as you empty the space. Here's how:

Set up 4 areas where you can pile things together
Area 1: Bin - expired items that are no longer safe to eat
Area 2: Donate - items you know you won't ever use, but are still in date. Give these to your local food bank.
Area 3: Condense - dry food that be combined or condensed into other containers such as flour, coffee, cereal, sugar, rice, pulses and snacks.
Area 4: Keep - cans and tins and other items that can't be combined

As you pile your items and gradually empty your cupboards, you can then repeat the sorting process for the items within your Condense and Keep areas. This time matching food type as well as packaging size.

(Want this look? Try using our round labels)

Label your cupboard's jars with Avery Labels

2) Make the most of Vertical Space

There are lots of options on the market that can help you make more use of vertical space within your cupboards, such as shelf inserts and tiered shelving units.

In addition, if you condense items into glass jars with rubber seals, these are easier to stack on top of each other. And, as a bonus, they do a much better job of keeping food fresh than cardboard packaging.

If you want a polished look recommend using our glossy labels.

Use Avery Clear Labels on glass jars for a fabulous finish

3) Make everything look smart with beautifully printed labels

You will be surprised how much adding lovely-looking labels will do to boost your mood. For a really smart finish, use Avery Clear Labels to identify your glass jars when organising your kitchen. Not only will they bring you joy every time you open a cabinet, they are waterproof (and Jam-proof!) too, so will continue to look good no matter what gets spilled on them.

As well as bringing joy, labels make it easy to do a quick inventory of what you have (what you have too much of) and what you need.

Remember, you are organising your kitchen cupboards for daily use, so the labels need to be easy to read and something you want to look at every day. Use our free Avery Design & Print online label creating software to find pre-designed templates that suit your kitchen in terms of colours and style.

If you have never made labels before, there's no need to be intimidated. Avery have put together instructions and guides to help you every step of the way.

Click here for written guides

Click here for demonstration videos

Avery Labels can help you organise your kitchen

4) Consider why you're organising your kitchen

Making the most of the space available isn't the only reason to sort your kitchen cupboards. If you also take a moment to consider how you use your kitchen and what items you need to access most often, you can reorganise your cupboards to help you be more efficient when cooking. A good storage system will just make it easier to accomplish meal planning (because you know what items you have in stock) and prep.

It sounds obvious, but keep items used most often on shelving at eye level, and towards the front. If you constantly have to get the kitchen steps out to reach the olive oil you use every day - move it to somewhere more accessible!

Also think about who uses what items the most. Keep kids' cereal on lower shelves they can reach, and maybe the baking supplies you only get to use at weekends at the top back spaces.

(Like the sleek oval look? Here they are)

Avery Labels can make your herbs and spices worthy of display

5) Try keeping some items out of cupboards

Don't feel like you have to hide all your cooking ingredients away when organising you kitchen. Sometimes the best storage organisation is just knowing when to migrate items you use frequently from the cupboards to display shelving.

For items you use regularly, decant them into gorgeous glass jars and add personalised labels. This way you save cupboard space and also add some features to your kitchen's décor!

Make sure that your labels stay looking pristine by choosing waterproof, perfect resisting daily wear and tear!

6) Set yourself up for Success

You will be doomed to failure if you make your storage organisation difficult to maintain. Your new system needs to be simple enough for every member of the household to understand where the "correct place" is. (Although, if you live in a house that's anything like mine, this might take a few years of training, no matter how simple you make it...)

Keeping everything visible and labelled makes it easier to do quick clean ups regularly, as well as at-a-glance stock take.

Try this:

Weekly - do a quick inventory to jot down items for your shopping list
Bi-Weekly - a quick check of expiration dates will help you meal plan, to use up the items that need to be eaten
Monthly - wipe down shelves and top up containers. Label new jars.

Want to change up your look or find new label style buy blank labels.

Avery Clear Labels look great on Glass Jars

7) Save your label designs for quick use

Any new organisation system needs to have flexibility built in so that you can adapt and change it as you start to use it every day. Your toddler will outgrow their current snack favourites, your teenager might suddenly get into cookery. (You may want to try removable labels to help with this)

An easy way to be able to print new labels for any changes you make is to save your label design so that you can quickly make changes to the label's words and print off new labels really quickly.

Not only are Avery label templates easy to customise using Design & Print, you don't need to download or install anything - you can design online from any device - including your mobile phone!

A free Avery Account will give you access to all your previously created designs, so you can make sure all your labels use the same, cohesive design.

Ultimately, the kitchen of your dreams is not out of reach - everyone has to start somewhere. Even if it's small, focus on the important things to make you happy in your space.