Kitchen Organization: Drawers Instead of Cabinets

The perfect kitchen needs two things: form and function. I wanted our kitchen to not only be beautiful but to function well for our family and lifestyle. When I asked my Instagram followers what their must haves were for a kitchen renovation, one of the most common answers was drawers instead of cabinets. And that’s exactly what we did!

KITCHEN ORGANIZATION IDEAS: DRAWERS

For all our lower cabinetry and island cabinetry, we tried to incorporate as many drawers as possible. The main reason that drawers are the more popular choice is that they are easier to store things in. With cabinets, items are much more prone to get lost in the back never to be seen again. But with drawers, you can pull them out and easily see everything inside.

You’re also getting more cubic storage. If you have space for one cabinet, you could easily replace that with 2-3 drawers depending on the room you have. And instantly you have more storage space. Let’s look at some of our favorite drawers and pull out cabinets we incorporated into our kitchen!

BAG DRAWER ORGANIZER

This is something you don’t need a custom cabinet maker for. Just purchase this bag storage organizer on Amazon and plop it into one of your drawers. Even if you don’t use all the sizes of baggies, you can replace it with whatever you use often. We don’t use the snack size bags much so I replaced that with baby wipes. One package fits perfectly in there and now I have easy access to my favorite quick and easy cleaning tool 😉

KITCHEN SPICE DRAWER

I shared my kitchen spice drawer with you already, but it’s worth mentioning again. This was something our cabinet maker built into the drawer but you could easily buy a spice drawer organizer yourself and add it in. I never knew how much I needed this in my life. Having all my spices readily available and VISIBLE so I can actually see what I’m grabbing has been such a game changer!

UTENSIL PULL OUT WITH KNIFE BLOCK

I was a little hesitant about this because of having little kiddos, but we haven’t had any issues at all! We had a small space to the left of our sink that was too small for drawers and would have been a weird cabinet so we decided to put in a utensil pull out with a knife block. It filled the space perfectly and gave us the perfect spot to put all our knives, utensils and other random gadgets.

 I hate having stuff on our counters so eliminating a utensil holder and knife block with this made me very happy. And the knife block has the coolest material in it that allows you to just plop your knife right into it and it sinks down. It’s way smaller than a knife block but holds WAY more.

LARGE CABINET DRAWER FOR DISHES

This drawer is HUGE. I get nervous every time I open it that it might break because of how deep it is and all the weight it holds. But it’s not going anywhere 😉 Having our dishes an bowls in a drawer instead of sitting on a shelf has been such an amazing update. It’s easy to see everything, nothing gets lost and we have these cool dividers that help keep everything in place.

Our island is huge and we wanted to make sure we utilized as much storage as we could and we definitely maxed it out with this drawer.

LARGE CABINET DRAWER FOR POTS AND PANS

Beneath our drawer with dishes and bowls is another large drawer for all our pots and pans. Another game changer and update that I love. Never again will I have a cabinet full of pots and pans I can never reach that ends up unorganized every other day. It’s deep enough that we can stack things and wide enough to fit it all – plus some. 

And of course we needed somewhere for our lids! I love this shallow little hidden drawer that fits all our lids as well as some other thinner profile items!

TRASH CAN PULL OUT AND HIDDEN PAPER TOWEL HOLDER

This was an absolute must have for us and pretty much a standard now with new kitchens. We have a toddler and dog who love the trash so having it hidden has been amazing. Although our toddler still finds her way in there. We have two garbage cans that pull out and the cool thing we did was also install a no touch mechanism. So if you have a big messy pile of something in your hands you need to throw away and don’t want to touch the handle, you can just push against the cabinet door with your knee, elbow, back of your hand etc. and it will open! And to close, you simply just firmly push it.

Another thing I knew I needed to have off the counters was a paper towel holder. We were able to create a secret little drawer for them right above the trash cans. It pulls out and has more room in back for extra rolls as well as our garbage bags!

HIDDEN TOE KICK STORAGE

Our cabinet maker suggested including these and I’m so glad he did! Toe kicks are the perfect opportunity to include some sneaky storage. Whether you’re using it for pie pans and casserole dishes or maybe you just need a spot to hide your favorite treats from the rest of your family 😉 Either way, the hidden toe kick storage is another great way to use up otherwise wasted space.

I’m so happy we decided to choose more drawers instead of cabinets in our kitchen. It feels so much more practical and makes kitchen organization so much easier to maintain. If you’re getting ready for a kitchen renovation of your own, I highly recommend including as many drawers as you can! Tell me in the comments, which one is your favorite??