16 Of The Property Brothers' Best Tips To Keep The Kitchen Organized

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Having helped hundreds of clients create their dream home, contractor Jonathan Scott had just the right recipe when it came to renovating Park House, the five-bedroom Georgian revival he and fiancée Zooey Deschanel purchased in 2020. To whip up their perfect kitchen, the two blended traditional cabinetry with gothic arches, modern Viking appliances, and a whole mess of organizational systems. "Have you ever opened your cabinets only to discover a tornado of mismatched lids and plastic containers, and it's just a nightmare?" Jonathan stated on Drew & Jonathan, the online destination he created with twin brother and fellow HGTV personality Drew Scott. "Well, I also had the same problem, so we have some hacks for you."

Among the life-improving tricks he and real estate expert Drew have cooked up: technology upgrades that make grocery shopping easier, tips for hiding unsightly appliances, and endless drawer dividers, storage bins, and built-in shelving. But the most crucial ingredient for revamping the heart of your home is patience. "Everybody gets overwhelmed by storage and organization," explained Jonathan. "Just bite off what you can chew a little bit at a time." He and Drew are serving up their best tips to get you started.

In the 1938-built Los Angeles home Jonathan shares with the "New Girl" alum, there's a place for everything — even in the fridge. Drinks go on the top shelf, dairy is in the middle, and one area is earmarked for leftovers so they know where to find them and "make sure we eat it," said Jonathan. "Otherwise we forget." To create your own system, he advised, "Try to cluster all of the things into one area that you might need."

Other tricks for organizing your fridge like a professional chef include transferring foods like eggs from their unsightly containers into those that make them more visible, and maintaining a use-first drawer for ingredients that need to be cooked up ASAP. And, if your fridge allows, don't be afraid to adjust the height of shelves so that they better suit your needs. Or, rely on a tool like OXO's Good Grips Fridge Shelf Riser to create a bit of extra shelving.

Who among us hasn't found themselves standing in the produce section wondering if we have any spinach at home? Not Jonathan and his bride-to-be, thanks to one cool feature they've installed in their Viking fridge. "When you're renovating, try and choose technology that's going to make life a little bit easier," Jonathan explained of his stance. Not only does their appliance remove some of the gases that cause produce to wilt faster, but, "We also have cameras inside the fridge," said Jonathan, "so if we're at the grocery store and we're like, 'Oh, do we have eggs? What do we have?' We can actually look from an app inside the fridge and it will show us."

It's just one of many aspects to consider when choosing the right refrigerator for your kitchen. (Other crucial musts: picking one with the right size, capacity, and door configuration.) But if you're not in the market for a new icebox, you can transform your existing one into a smart fridge by installing a wireless camera, like the Smarter SFC01 FridgeCam Wireless Camera, that also recognizes when you're running low on staples and adds them to your shopping list.

Eager to stay on top of countertop clutter, Drew is a fan of what he calls an appliance garage — built-in cabinets with storage to house the toaster, coffee maker, and other must-haves. As he explained on the 2025 Season 10 premiere of the brothers' "Celebrity IOU" series, "Nothing is worse than seeing a counter that is full of — in fact, you can't even see the countertop because there's so many appliances on it."

Handy types can customize their own version by creating a frame and a door out of plywood or MDF. But the simplest way to DIY an appliance garage for your kitchen is to purchase a single upper cabinet and paint or stain it to match your existing set. Then, mount in a power strip and, et voilá, you have a new home to stash everything from your air fryer to your blender.

Wanting to ensure they have no reason not to eat fresh, Jonathan and Zooey grew their storage space by building a Marvel produce drawer into their spacious kitchen island. "It's a drawer style refrigerator, and this is where we put all of our fresh veggies, fresh fruit, stuff like that," he detailed of the area dedicated to their homegrown fare. "And it just gives you a little extra space in your main fridge when you have this separate."

He advises anyone who's undergoing a renovation to plant one in their lower cabinetry. And if you do, there are a few crucial things you'll want to consider when buying an under-counter fridge. Measure carefully so yours can fit and still have an inch of buffer space on both sides. Also, opt for one with a front-facing vent, so when it's installed flush against the cabinets, air can still flow out. For a high-quality version, you should expect to shell out upwards of $1,500.

Not one sliver of space goes wasted at Jonathan's spread. For example, a hidden pull-out cabinet next to their fridge provides a home for cooking necessities like parchment paper, plastic storage containers, and the to-go vessels they offer up for guests to take leftovers. Jonathan explained, "This is our storage container we have if we're doing a dinner party and we just have some stuff that we want people to take with them when they leave."

That same space houses their collection of Tupperware, but there's an even more clever way to organize those plastic storage container lids. A lid organizer like the EVERIE Extendable Food Container Lid Organizer can neatly stash toppers of various sizes. Both the length and the interior dividers can be adjusted, meaning it can be customized to fit your space.

To ensure they make use of every last bit of space, Jonathan doubles down on their kitchen drawers. Meaning that in deeper ones, he added a secondary drawer that lets them utilize precious inches that would have otherwise gone empty. "If you ever find in your cabinets, you've got a lot of wasted space, we just added an extra drawer and have everything divided to keep it organized," he explained of the strategy.

Though, if it's one that's not feasible for your kitchen, there's a simpler (and cheaper!) solution. A multi-compartment stackable organizer, such as the Simplify 3 Compartment Stackable Bin with Adjustable Dividers, will allow you to get the most out of your deep kitchen drawers. Just be sure to pile on strategically, putting lesser-used items (think: holiday dishes and fondue pots) on the bottom and everyday necessities up top.

Anyone who's had to dole out snacks to their kids every time they're feeling peckish (read: every few minutes or so) understands the need to keep things within reach. At Jonathan's house, Zooey's daughter, Elsie, and son, Charlie, "have their own drawer for all their juice boxes, yogurt pouches, things like that," the contractor explained. Keeping those essentials just a few feet above the ground means little ones can help themselves to any parent-approved eats at any time. Said Jonathan, "I highly recommend putting in the fridge style drawers as an addition to your fridge if you have the room for it."

You can also dedicate some cabinet real estate to storing their plethora of cups and bottles. For a cheap solution that helps you easily organize water bottles in your kitchen cabinet, head to your local Dollar Tree. There, you can snag a plastic magazine file or a wine holder that can keep it all contained for less than a cup of coffee.

Junk drawers have no place in Jonathan's home, where he relies on a sizable collection of drawer dividers and cabinet organizers to ensure there's at least six degrees of separation between his flatware, utensils, and other kitchen necessities. "It's easier to know when and where to put things back when you have compartments for all of those things," explained Jonathan. "You can open any drawer that we have and it's the same thing — we try and keep everything totally organized."

Their drawers are outfitted with wood, plastic, and steel containers of "all different sizes, fully adjustable," he noted. "So you can use every single little space." Among his favorite drawer dividers: KitchenEdge's Adjustable Bamboo Organizer, this Royal Craft Bamboo Drawer Organizer Set, and Noble Home & Chef's In-Drawer Bamboo Knife Block. Brother Drew, meanwhile, likes Kitchen Inventions Lemans II Set 2-Shelf Lazy Susan to outfit tricky corner cabinets.

As the chef of the family, Zooey was tasked with finding the perfect recipe for organizing their cook space. "No one knows the kitchen better than you do," explained Jonathan. "How do you use the kitchen — when you're standing at the sink, where do you like things to be when you're reaching for them?" A sound strategy, said Jonathan, is to "let the person who is dominant in that space have the final say."

Their setup was cultivated so that within one step, Zooey "can get to where she needs to go for anything that she needs." Do a walk-through of your dinner-making process, so you can figure out where you'd like your spices to be and which utensils should be within arm's reach. Or borrow these simple tips for a perfectly organized kitchen. Start by placing your most-used items on the easier-to-reach lower shelves and install cabinet racks to keep pots and pans neatly organized.

When it comes to the kitchen pantry, more space can easily translate to more problems. If you're the type to just throw everything in and hope for the best, it's easy to end up with a situation where the aluminum foil lives next to the cereal and it's pretty much impossible to find where you shoved the spice rack. The good news, noted Jonathan, "Once you have a well-organized pantry, it is a lot easier to maintain. The reason most people's pantries turn into total chaos is because they've never set up that system."

His carefully cultivated plan involves using a plethora of baskets (that's where they tend to stash their favorite snacks), jars (for staples like nuts, quinoa, and dried beans), and building custom shelves into the threshold perfectly sized to hold their assortment of spices. To create your own pantry system that works hard, group similar foods together — i.e. canned goods, baking supplies, snacks — rely on risers to utilize every last inch of space, and place your most-used items towards the front for easy access.

Among life's unassailable truths: There's no such thing as too much storage space. So beyond the standard upper and lower cupboards, Drew's favorite play is to sneak some extra cabinetry into the kitchen island. Dubbing hidden storage his love language, Drew asserted in an Instagram reel, "You can never have enough." For those who are renovating their kitchen, he advises tucking some extra shelves onto the back side of the island. "It doesn't have to be super deep," he noted, "but even if you get 12 inches back here, that just makes your island that much wider."

While bigger tends to be better when it comes to the space you'll use both as meal prep and to entertain, you'll want to avoid one classic kitchen island mistake. Leave 36 to 48 inches of clearance on all sides, so that you can maneuver around without bumping into anything (or anyone). You'll also want to consider if your island is so oversized it disrupts your ability to get from the sink to the stove to the fridge — what's known as the kitchen's primary work triangle.

When crafting his ideal pantry, Jonathan designed the drawers so that he's afforded a peek inside. He liked "the idea of kind of being able to see what's in some of the drawers without having to open them," the pro explained. "So I left the faces off the drawers so that you can pull them out and see whatever it is." This is particularly useful when it comes to stashing snacks that you'll want to grab with ease.

Jonathan applied that same thinking to oft-used ingredients like oils and vinegars, placing them atop lazy Susan-style rotating trays. "I love easy access," Jonathan explained, so "nothing is better than having these little turntables." Test out the style yourself with a piece like Landneoo's Non-Skid Lazy Susan Organizers, which guarantee you'll never have to dig for the dressing or spice you're looking for.

Yes, it may feel tedious to tag every last jar, basket, and bin when you're setting up your pantry. But that bit of diligence not only makes it easier for you to track down your baking supplies or favorite snacks, it also lays out exactly where everything should go when you're unloading groceries. "I also love labeling everything," Jonathan explained, "because it makes it easier as well to know what goes back."

While labeling options abound, if you're looking for a less permanent solution, consider this genius erasable marker hack. When you use an EXPO Dry Erase Marker to write on plastic containers, you can easily wipe it off when you feel like switching things up. And any stubborn smudges can be cleared up with the help of a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Jonathan and Zooey have cooked up a sound strategy to guarantee they're never scrambling for a key dinner ingredient. Setting up their kitchen much like a grocery store, they have a separate backstock area for both their pantry and the freezer. In each, "We keep everything bagged, labeled, and sorted," explained Jonathan, "and if we don't use it for a long period of time, we get rid of it, trying to keep everything minimized and organized." The goal is to have whatever they need on hand, without getting bogged down with extraneous supplies. Said Jonathan, "I want to make sure that it's helping me maintain things easier, it's helping Zooey prepare meals easier."

Just be sure to take note of any expiration dates, particularly if you're transferring food items from their original packaging. One trick is to write the date on the bottom of a glass or plastic container using a permanent marker. Then, when you swap in the next batch, simply use an alcohol swap or piece of paper towel with a bit of rubbing alcohol to remove the writing.

Among the laundry list of features Jonathan recommends adding to your kitchen? A hamper. But his doesn't house dirty socks or sweaty tees. Instead, they have a pull-out drawer next to their garbage and recycling bins for dirty linens. "All of this is custom-built because, kids, they go through napkins and everything else, they make a bit of a mess," Jonathan explained in a video tour of their space. "So we built this in." For him, that's the benefit of having a fully bespoke kitchen, "because you can literally design it to make life easier."

But you don't need to go custom to create something that suits your needs. Another option is to dedicate an existing cabinet to your dirty textiles. Install a door-mounted waste bin like the Rev-A-Shelf Door Mounted Trash Can and you've got a spot to toss wet dishrags or the tablecloths from your latest dinner party.

Perhaps the most important part of any kitchen overhaul is not trying to take on everything (and the kitchen sink!). Attempting to completely organize your kitchen in one go can feel overwhelming and could cause you to throw in the (dish) towel. Instead, "maybe you start by organizing the drawers — make that a weekend project," Jonathan recommended. "Once you've got that down, you can start working on the shelves."

And once you've finished the project (and given yourself that well-deserved pat on the back), keep up the good work. Downloading an organizing app like KitchenPal or MealBoard will help you create an inventory of your cupboards and stay on top of what you need. With some, you can even enter the expiration date so that the technology can alert you before that item has a chance to go bad.