No matter what, organizing under the kitchen sink is always a hard task. With all the plumbing and piping snaking every which way, the space you are dealing with is almost certainly an awkward shape, making it hard to store anything neatly. Over time you have cleaning supplies, garbage bags, and who knows what else spilling out everywhere each time you open the cabinet. Fortunately, I’ve been able to maintain this chaos under our kitchen sink with the help of a few products listed below, as well as some tips on how to best organize the space.
PREP THE SPACE
When organizing the space under the kitchen sink, or when organizing any space, it’s important to first clear everything out of the area. Once all the items have been removed, sort them into piles based on similarity in a way that makes sense to you. This could be size, type of item, how often it’s used, etc. For our items, I chose to sort by type. Also during the sorting process, be sure to throw away items, donate items, or rehome things that don’t belong under the sink.
After you’ve cleaned out and sorted the items, you’ll next want to measure the width, depth, and height of the space. Don’t forget to note any posts or other structural items that could affect the overall amount of space available. As you can see below there’s a support in the back of my cabinet that made the space smaller, and often I’ll forget to factor in the ½” or so that overhangs the front door opening.
RESEARCH PRODUCTS
After the items have been sorted, and the space has been measured, it’s time to find key products, like shelves, bins, or tubs that will help organize under the kitchen sink. As you look at these products it’s important to keep the space’s measurements in mind. This way, you’ll know if the product will fit while browsing, allowing you to narrow down items faster during the initial search.
PURCHASE PRODUCTS & ORGANIZE UNDER THE KITCHEN SINK
Once you’ve decided on the products you want, it’s time to purchase them and then get to work organizing! I’ll now detail what I bought when organizing under our kitchen sink.
FLOOR MAT
I started with a floor mat. A mat over the wood floor of the cabinet helps protect the wood from water damage, spills, or scratches. The floor mat I purchased is non-adhesive, so I can swap it out if it gets ruined. I also picked a mat that was easy to cut so I could customize the size to fit perfectly under our sink.
ADJUSTABLE SHELF
The next item I added was a shelf. A shelf allows you to take advantage of the vertical space, significantly increasing the amount of square footage available for storage.
The under-sink shelf I purchased is expandable, and the shelves are made out of moveable panels, allowing the shelf to fit around plumbing. It turns out I didn’t actually need a shelf to accommodate the plumbing, but I love that it can in case I decide to reorganize things again under the kitchen sink at some point in the future.
STORAGE CONTAINERS
After adding a shelf, the next items to get were storage containers to hold all the items I wanted to store under the kitchen sink. I settled on a set of four plastic bins that were all the same size. The plastic bins I purchased were the 8L size and fit perfectly on the shelf I had installed.
I used one bin to store all the spray bottles/containers for various cleaning products. The next bin I used to store the dishwasher soap and hand soap refill bottle. I put one bin on the top shelf to store all the sponges and other small items. The last bin I placed next to the shelf and used it to store the garbage bags and big boxes.
DISH DRYING RACK & MAT
The last thing I purchased for our kitchen was a small drying rack and a drying mat. I stored the drying rack/mat on the top shelf under the sink. Then whenever we needed to dry dishes, we could pull it out and set it on our counter.
The hope was that we’d put the drying rack away whenever we weren’t using it, leaving us with more kitchen counter space. In practice, however, we never actually put it away, because as everyone knows doing the dishes is an endless cycle and there is always something that needs to dry… Oh well, sometimes things don’t go as planned. Since the dish rack is always on the counter this space has become an overflow space, where we put extra dish soap or sponges until one of the proper spaces becomes available.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As always, my biggest advice for an organization project is just start. Figuring out the best way to organize a space for YOU is all about trial and error. So use the products/tips from above and get to work on that space under the kitchen sink! Good luck!
For more kitchen organization ideas, check out:
SMALL PANTRY ORGANIZATION: IDEAS FOR HOW TO ORGANIZE
HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR SPICES WITH DIY SPICE JARS
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