Kitchen Decluttering and Organizing

I generally like to break my decluttering up by focusing on one area of my home at a time. If I don't I will end up ripping everything apart and it will look like a bomb went off. Did you ever read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? Well, I am pretty sure that I inspired that book, even if I have never met the author. Yesterday morning the girls wanted to pack their lunches and I discovered that cupboard was a mess, so it just sort of spiraled from there. Before I knew it, I had decluttered a third of my kitchen cupboards. I had to cut myself off because there is still a lot of post-Christmas-recovery work to be done in the rest of my house.

Here is just a random list of things I decluttered in the last week or so...

I seem to always start in the kitchen. It seems to be the room that we use the most and it gets cluttered pretty easily.  Fortunately, it is also pretty easy to find better ways to organize in the kitchen. If something isn't working out, like my lunchbox stuff, I am not afraid to move things around and try something else.

I try to find ways to make do with what I already have and I can't afford to spend much money on my kitchen. The absolutely MOST helpful thing I have ever done to organize my kitchen was to start using plastic bins on the cupboard shelves. I got most of my bins at the Dollar Tree (it can be hit or miss there) or Walmart. I am super short, so I can't reach those upper cupboards and the ones with the handles mean I don't have to drag a chair over or climb up on the counter!

In these bins up above my stove I have some gadgets (immersion blender, electric knife, apple peeler), cupcake liners, decorating supplies (candles, sprinkles, food coloring, etc.), and spices.

Here I have more spices on top. The next shelf has a bin entirely dedicated to chocolate- cocoa powder, chocolate chips, etc. My husband thinks I have a problem. The other one has my baking supplies- cornstarch, baking soda, baking power, etc. The bottom shelf has been promoted from sippy cups to water bottles. (sniff sniff)

I also use bins in another area to store medicines. The adult medicines are in one bin and the kids' medicines and cough drops (which I am oddly stocked up on) are in the other. This was another huge help to me- especially when someone is sick and the last thing I want to do is climb up and look for the right medicine.

Besides my chocolate issue, I do have a bit of a problem with cupcake liners. It seems extreme, now that I am blogging about it, to have an entire bin full of cupcake liners. I use them a lot, probably more for freezer muffins than cupcakes, and I can't resist a good clearance deal on cute ones!

They get smashed really easy, so I had been looking for a pasta container to put them in like I saw on Pinterest. I never could find one and one day it occurred to me that I could just use some wide mouth pint mason jars.

I also seem to have a spice problem, so I plan on showing you what I have done to organize those later.

What are your best kitchen organization tips? Have you found anything that has worked really well? I am always looking for ways to make things more efficient around here.