Kitchen & Pantry Organization
Kitchen and Pantry Organizing Services in Cleveland, Ohio
If your kitchen and pantry feel cluttered, disorganized, or overwhelming, I can help. The first step in any organizing project is to remove any items that are no longer needed or wanted. This will involve going through your pantry and cabinets to get rid of expired or stale food items, as well as going through your kitchen to get rid of any duplicate or unnecessary utensils, appliances, or other kitchen tools.
Once we have decluttered your kitchen and pantry, we will sort your remaining items into categories. This will help us determine the best storage solutions for your space. For example, we may group all of your baking supplies together, or create a separate category for snacks and cereals. We will categorize your items in a way that makes sense for your daily routines and cooking habits.
We can now identify the best storage solutions for your space. This may involve using shelves, drawers, baskets, or other containers to store your items. You may use what you have, or we can assist with purchasing new items. Once we have identified the best storage solutions for your kitchen and pantry, we can label everything to make it easy for you to find what you need.
Many families find that once the kitchen and pantry become more functional, nearby spaces like mudrooms, entryways, and bedroom closets also become much easier to maintain.
With a well-organized kitchen and pantry, meal prep and cooking will become more efficient and enjoyable. I believe that an organized kitchen is the heart of the home and can make a big difference in your daily life. If you're ready to transform your kitchen and pantry, I would love to help!
Pain Points in the Pantry
We help lots of busy professionals in and around Cleveland with their pantries. The pantry represents a special struggle because it’s such a busy and useful space with many items coming and going every day. If you live with other people, there are usually many hands in the pantry. Although “the home edit” style bins can look nice, rainbow organizing is not usually practical for a pantry that gets a lot of action. Busy professionals and families need easy access to breakfast items, pantry staples such as noodles and rice, canned goods, baking supplies and more. Streamlining the pantry often creates a ripple effect throughout the home, helping busy professionals and families stay on top of paperwork, meal planning, and household routines.
Chaotic Mess to Easy Access in the Pantry
The before pictures we take in clients’ homes show nice spaces with a chaotic mess of food items. We take those items out sort them into categories and decide how to contain them. Creating various sections helps the home owner to look on a certain shelf or in a certain area for an item. Containing small items in bins or baskets helps create clear structure in the pantry instead of chaos, especially if there are many small items. We always include labels so that everyone who lives in the house will know what food item goes there, even if it’s out of stock!
The pantry and kitchen are spaces in which specialized organizing containers and systems can make a real difference. With the proper items, you are not just buying excess containers but a system that will keep things organized for years to come. We will evaluate what is needed, thin out items that are not necessary, purchase and install organizers to help keep things neat and organized. The goal is not just creating a beautiful pantry, but building realistic systems that are easy for your family to maintain long term.
Volume, Volume, Volume…Or Lower The Inventory
Many times a person or family just has too much and this can happen especially easily in the pantry. When a person is at the grocery store or ordering groceries, they are thinking about the food they want to eat and meals they need to make, not how much room they have to store items. By the end of the week, fatigue has set in and that last planned meal becomes a quick takeout or sit-down restaurant dinner. As a result, the specialty noodles and jarred sauce don’t get used. When the next grocery haul comes in, they get shoved to the back of the pantry, never to be seen again. If this resonates with you, there very well may be a volume problem. Even the most organized people or best laid plans will be overthrown by too much volume. If you are feeling overwhelmed in a space, the first effort should always always be reducing the volume. The Minimal Mom suggests lowering the inventory. It seems like a good idea to buy 5 multi-packages of ramen at the store because they are on sale, but if you do that with everything and just don’t have the space to store it, instead of smart purchase it becomes a nightmare. The few cents or dollars you are saving costs you aggravation and your mental health every time you open the pantry door! We also help clients identify clutter prevention habits so the pantry does not slowly become overwhelming again over time.
Pantry Photos
These pictures represent a real pantry we worked on in Avon, Ohio. The client wanted a neat and clean view when she glanced inside. We first (after searching high and low) found dog food containers that tucked under the first shelf, instead of sitting next to it. Then we sourced a selection of containers and baskets and she was able to choose what she liked, finally deciding on a natural colored wicker basket mixed her existing clear containers. We moved most of the appliances and non-uniform items to the far right side so that they were hidden behind the door. We added large fabric baskets at the bottom to hide things like dish towels, thermal lunch boxes, and beer coozies. We actually did very little decluttering in this pantry however with the sorting and organizing we did do, we found lots of extra space. We added matching black labels for the final detail. This client was super happy with the result and wrote us a glowing review. We aren’t gatekeepers either, she reached out a few months later wanting to buy more baskets and we shared the link with her to order. A polished and posh pantry, easy to maintain. The client also shared with us that she had her project quoted some years before but hadn’t moved forward due to the cost! We were able to complete the project using 1/4 of the budget that she was previously told!
Kitchen
There’s a reason our clients tend to be in their 40s or older and often are very busy professionals with or without kids, or retired seniors. When people are young, they usually start out with fewer items in the kitchen. I remember purchasing my first knife set from Walmart when I moved into my first apartment. Over time they buy more and are gifted items. Often these items are upgrades, like the better knife set that we received as a wedding gift. Or a thoughtful present to oneself, that specialty knife I read about in the cooking magazine. However, over time we tend to not let go of the older items and things build up over time. For the kitchen, we need to dig into drawers and cabinets to get at the root of the problem
Clearing the Countertops
Lots of times clients are looking for clear countertops. But how to do it? Many of the items out on the counters are things that we use every day. The secret is to look at nearby storage and remove excess and infrequently used items so that your every-day items can have a place to live (beside the countertop!). This can apply to small things and big things alike. Going back to the knives example, I decided to get rid of our large wooden knife block in favor of a specialty knife holder that fits into a drawer, much like a silverware holder. Our organizers both know these products exist and are able to recommend them to you. Another example would be that we have a cat, and I used to keep the supplies for feeding her on the countertop, which we obviously do daily. I have decided to clear a small drawer of other items and now have space to put the supplies in a that drawer and quickly get them out when I need them. When items have an easy and well-fitting home near where you use them, it only takes seconds to get things out and put them away. Several small changes like this can create tons of space for your countertop! Clearing the countertops can be especially helpful during downsizing or preparing a home for sale when planning a move.
What’s in the Kitchen Cabinets?
Sometimes we go into a client’s home and their kitchen appears spotless…on the surface. Their countertops are clear but underneath, it’s chaos. Drawers are a confusing mess, things are shoved into cabinets with abandon. The key is to look critically at what you have, how much volume your kitchen can hold, and storing items in a way that makes it easy to get things out. Even without seeing your kitchen, if you live in northeast Ohio, I can probably tell you that you have more than you need. For example, consider how many pots and pans you have. Are some from an old set and you don’t even like using them? Get rid of them! Do some have dangerously flaking or peeling linings? Throw those away! Just because you bought or were gifted something, and even if you used it in the past, if you don’t like it today, please get rid of it. I give you permission and even encouragement to do this! Sometimes this is enough to lower the volume to a reasonable amount. Other times, you may have to consider how many you really need and actually let go of perfectly good glass casserole dishes. Think about how many dishes you need and be realistic. Maybe you need 4 for that holiday when you have a bunch of family over, but day-to-day you never use more than 1. In that case, consider offloading the other 3 to a longer-term storage space, whether it’s a pantry overflow area in the basement or garage or a high up shelf. Following these strategies, we can get your kitchen into cooking-ready shape in no time at all!
How long does it take to declutter and organize a kitchen?
Depending on the size of the kitchen and whether or not the pantry is included, most kitchens will take 6-9 hours to organize with an additional 3-6 for the pantry. This is obviously a rough estimate and it depends how much volume of items you have, if you have already spent some time decluttering or not, and how big your space is. We’d love the opportunity to provide a custom quote for your space!
Do I need to buy new containers before we start?
No, you do not need to buy containers before we start. The first step in our process is a phone call or video chat so we can discuss your project and goals. Most of the time, we are able to use what is already there at your home. We bring trash bags and small clear storage bags with us and can also use those. It makes more sense to purchase bins after you declutter and see what actually needs to fit in the bins and what space you have. We often find new, unused storage containers and bins in cluttered messy homes!
Do you serve Avon, Avon Lake, and Westlake, Rocky River and Bay Village?
Yes, we do! Since Devon is an Avon native, and both she and her husband have family all over the west-side after both growing up here, we love to serve our west-side neighbors. If you are wondering, we go outside these cities as well and will travel up to an hour away with no additional travel fees. As our team has grown, we have enjoyed serving more and varied areas all over Cleveland!
Can you help with just the pantry or do you do the whole kitchen?
Yes! We are flexible and can work on whatever area you want us to, whether that’s a narrow pantry-only project or the whole kitchen and beyond. That’s why we start with a personalized free consultation to determine what your goals are and the scope of your project.
Ready to book your free consult?
What service area do you cover?
We provide services in Greater Cleveland: Cuyahoga County, Lorain County, Medina County, Summit County, and nearby areas. Based in Avon, Ohio, we love to serve the west-side suburbs such as Avon, Avon Lake, Bay Village, Westlake, and Rocky River. As our team has grown, we have expanded our area to serve even more clients and have visited homes in such places as Olmsted Falls, Valley City, Brunswick, Berea, Beachwood, Cleveland Heights, Pepper Pike, Canton, Medina, Wellington, Amherst, Northfield and more!
