12 Kitchen Cabinet and Drawer Organizers That Give Everything a Place

Measure before you buy anything

An organizer that is half an inch too big is useless, so start with a tape measure. Empty the drawer or cabinet first, then measure the inside, not the front.

For a drawer you need three figures: inside width, inside depth and the height you can actually use. Height is the one people skip. A tray can fit the floor of the drawer and still catch on the frame above when you close it. Look for the clearance in the listing. Joseph Joseph asks for 3.25 inches for its DrawerStore, and the Artibear spice insert needs a drawer at least 3.5 inches deep once the jars are in.

For a cabinet, measure the door opening as well as the shelf. Hinges and the face frame make the opening narrower than the box behind it, and a pull-out has to pass through that gap. ClosetMaid, for example, asks for an opening of 12 inches or more. Under the sink, measure the space between the pipes and the back wall, and check whether a garbage disposal hangs down into it.

Drawer organizers by type

Expandable utensil trays

The default fix for the cutlery drawer. An expandable tray adds side compartments that slide out, so one tray fits drawers of different widths and you can use the whole width instead of leaving a gap at each side. Plastic trays are easy to wash and usually have rubber feet. Bamboo looks warmer but needs drying after cleaning. For long tools like ladles and spatulas, pick a tray with a large open section rather than narrow lanes.

Modular bins

For the junk drawer and for anything that is not cutlery. Buy a set in mixed sizes and arrange it around what you keep there. Bins that lock together don't drift apart when the drawer slams. Resist the 25-piece sets until you know what goes in the drawer: spare bins end up as clutter of their own.

Dividers for deep drawers

Spring-loaded dividers press against both sides of the drawer and split it into lanes. They work in deep drawers where a shallow tray would waste most of the height: big utensils, dish towels, rolls of foil, baking tools.

Inserts for one job

Some drawers are worth giving a single purpose. An in-drawer knife block keeps blades covered and frees counter space, but it needs a fairly large drawer. A tiered spice insert lays jars on a slant so the labels face up. A bag and wrap organizer turns the drawer of half-open boxes into rows you can pull from with one hand.

Cabinet organizers by type

Pull-out shelves

A pull-out turns the bottom of a base cabinet into a drawer, and in a deep cabinet it is often the change that helps most. Many screw into the cabinet floor. Some use adhesive pads instead, which avoids drilling but depends on a clean, flat surface, so read which surfaces the maker says the pads are for. Full-extension slides let the basket come all the way out, so nothing hides at the back.

Under the sink

The space under the sink is broken up by pipes, so a single shelf rarely works. Narrow sliding baskets that sit on either side of the plumbing are the usual answer, and some can be stacked if there is height. Wire baskets let a small leak drain and dry instead of sitting in a solid tray.

Pans, lids and baking sheets

Stacked pans scratch each other and the one you need is always at the bottom. Storing them on edge between dividers means you lift out one pan without moving the rest. A pull-out pan rack does this on slides. Food container lids are the same problem in miniature: a lid organizer keeps them upright and sorted by size.

What we'd skip

An organizer bought before you have cleared out the drawer. Sort first, throw out the duplicates, then buy for what is left. Skip anything sized to the exact inside of the drawer with no room to lift it out, and check the care line before you buy: the YouCopia lid organizer, for example, is hand wash only.

Related guides

• Best space-saving gadgets for small kitchens.
• Space-saving kitchen gadgets for small apartments.
• Smart food storage containers: vacuum and airtight picks for the shelves you have just cleared.
• Gourmet spice sets, if the new spice drawer looks a bit empty.