How to Organize Your Cutlery & Utensils Drawers

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It's day 4 of neatntiny.com's 30-Day Spring Tidying Challenge! If you're just joining us, check out the link above explaining how it works.

Here's what we've covered so far:

Day 1: Kitchen Counters

Day 2: Under the Kitchen Sink

Day 3: Dining Area

Today we're kicking it up a notch with the cutlery & utensils drawers!

Also today: check out my first of six weekly posts for the One Room Challenge---we're going to be giving our family room a makeover!

If you haven't already, please subscribe for a free, printable 30-Day Spring Tidying Challenge schedule!

Here's how I suggest attacking these drawers:

1. Empty out your cutlery and utensils drawers.

If you're like me, you'll find a combination of things that don't belong here along with duplicates (and triplicates...) of some things. And, there may even be some 'Wtf is this? Where did that come from????'.

2. Clean. Wipe down the inside of these drawers with your favorite multipurpose cleaner.

3. Decide which pieces of cutlery and utensils you'll be keeping.

Cutlery Purging Tips:

- The amount of cutlery you'll need depends on the size of your family and how often you do the dishes. We're a family of three, who run the dishwasher every other day; we've found that one set of cutlery with service for eight is just right for us. If you have a bigger family or do the dishes less frequently, you might need two or more sets.

We use modular bamboo boxes for organizing our cutlery and utensils.

- If your family indulges in an unusual amount of cutlery-requiring snacks, you may need more. Although, I'm certainly not above scarfing down ice cream with a fork when all the spoons are dirty.

- If you entertain large groups on a regular basis, you may need more.

Shop This Idea

Stackable Bamboo Drawer organizer box ($6.99, Amazon.com).

Expandable Bamboo Utensil Organizer ($24.99, Amazon.com).

Utensil Purging Tips:

- You really only need one of each type of utensil (i.e. bottle opener, whisk, spatula etc.). For each household, there'll be some exceptions. You may need doubles of things you use more than one of at a time...

We ended up having duplicate bottle openers and cork screws. You might be questioning the priorities of a household that thrives on a single set of cutlery yet has a bottle opener and corkscrew for each person of age...

- Get rid of anything you no longer use.

Who needs an egg timer when Siri and Alexa have got your back?

4. Divide the contents of the cutlery and utensils drawers into 4 bins/boxes:

i) belongs in the cutlery or utensils drawer(s)

ii) belongs elsewhere in the kitchen

iii) fit to donate or sell used

iv) garbage/recycling

5. Return only the cutlery and utensils you've decided to keep to their respective drawers and organize.

Utensils Organization Tips:

- Arrange utensils based on where they're used. Ideally, utensils for cooking should be housed near the stove, those for prep work near a large chunk of empty counter space, etc.:

In the drawer to the right of the stove, we keep utensils used right at the stove:

In the other two drawers, to the left of the stove, are more prep work and serving utensils:

This bottom drawer is taller than the other two, so we keep bulkier things in here. Those are my super cool onion goggles. I may not look like a sexy librarian in them, but at least they keep me tear-free when chopping onions!

Want Your Very Own Pair of these Bad Boys?

Tearless Kitchen Onion Goggles ($13.82, Amazon.com).

6. Redistribute the items that belong elsewhere in the kitchen to their appropriate spots.

7. Donate. Take the boxes designated as 'to sell/donate' and put them somewhere out-of-sight, but accessible (i.e. mudroom or basement). You'll continue to add to these each day for the rest of the month, with the casualties of each day's tidying task. At the end of the month, you can make a trip (or several) to your local donation bank and/or go on an online selling spree.

8. Dispose of and/or recycle items from the designated garbage/recycling bins.

That's your task for day 4! Join us tomorrow on day 5, when we'll tackle the Tupperware drawer!