How to Instantly Organize a Counter with Kitchen Baskets

I’m going to show you how I instantly organized my kitchen counter with some kitchen baskets. Organizing in the kitchen can really be frustrating.  And in a small kitchen that is sparse in cabinets and counter space… Maximizing your space is very important. Kitchen baskets make it look great and they work great too.

This post  contains affiliate links which we may be compensated for.  There is no additional cost to you.

Here’s the sad before picture of what I needed to organize.  I really needed to maximize the space and organize the mess very badly.

Why Kitchen Baskets

Why are these kitchen baskets going to “instantly” organize your counter?? Because I’m going to take all the leg work out of it for you.  I’m going to show you what I went through to make this happen so that it happens instantly for you (instead of exhausting, boring, shopping to find what you need). And see how I save you money along the way.

I recently needed to do something different with the way I was storing fruit & veggies and our coffee pods and our bread…  I wanted something on the counter….  To maximize my counter space and look a bit more organized.  That was a lot to ask for from kitchen baskets but I felt like it could be done.  I visualized metal kitchen baskets to do it and set out to make it happen.

Where I looked for Kitchen Baskets

I started out looking on Amazon for kitchen baskets but decided to take a stroll through several local stores.  Yes, they were the big box stores. We really do not have much in the line of local places for these types of wares or I would have done my best to shop local. But I really thought I should be able to find something local rather than mail order.

I had to run to Walmart for something else, so I started there for kitchen baskets….  With a quick walk through their kitchen wares department, nothing really jumped out at me.  I made sure to walk through the home department too on the outside chance that they might have something to fit the bill.  You know… look for different ways to use something other than its original purpose… But really had no luck.

What Does Christmas Shopping have to do with Kitchen Baskets

Later I made a special trip to a neighboring town.  First stop, Kohl’s.  I like Kohl’s.  I have been known to purchase almost my whole Christmas list from Kohl’s in past years.  Especially if I waited until the last week to go Christmas shopping. (No one else does that do they???)

In my defense…  I started buying Christmas presents very early this year.  Like in September. Actually, I tricked my husband into starting our Christmas shopping…  How did I trick my husband into Christmas shopping you ask???  Shhhhhhh…. Don’t tell my boys (they are grown men with families of their own, so they aren’t likely to be reading this).

Here’s how I did it… sneaky me.  Hubs is a retired fireman and now works for the coroner’s office… There is this company for law enforcement that he likes to buy things from and he has actually become a pretty good shopper with them.  They always have specials and he usually buys something that is on sale (trained him well).

He happened to buy himself a heavy winter coat. (This man has more coats than most women have shoes.)  He got it for something like $35 and the original price had been $350 or more (and he checked… a few weeks after he got it, the price had gone back up).  When it was delivered, he had to try it on and show me (see ladies… men are not too different from us).  When he told me all about it… I’m like.. Are they still on sale???  Go buy all the boys one.  And he DID!!!

We are off to a great start on our Christmas shopping list.  At least the boys won’t get a variety of restaurant gift cards this year…. Well not as many anyway…

Back to Buying Kitchen Baskets

Sorry to go off on a Christmas shopping tangent….  Let’s get back to organizing my kitchen…

Kohl’s didn’t have what I was looking for either in kitchen baskets so on to Target I went.  I really don’t do much shopping at Target (I really don’t do much shopping at all.).  I am not one of those people who can shop all day.  An hour and a half to two hours and I am usually pretty much done (whether I bought everything I intended to or not).  My body usually tires out and my head starts hurting.  I can’t think clear when my head hurts so I am usually done at that point. If I can’t think clearly, I can’t make decisions.

So, at Target, since I hadn’t been there in a long time, there were a lot of pretties that caught my eye (I think that is pretty much their intention). Shoes…. I started looking at shoes.  Then I saw that their boots were on sale. Buy one pair of boots, get the second pair half off sale. And YEP!!!  I bought two pair of boots. Ha!

I Said I Would Save You Money

Sad… the boots are not kitchen baskets and are not going to help me organize my kitchen. (But they are really going to dress up a couple of outfits I have.)  I need to go see what they have to organize my fruits & veggies.  But alas, I got stuck at the sock display and remembered that I needed some new socks with the beginning of winter coming on. So, more delays. SEE!!!  I told you I was going to save you money along the way… lol.  If I had never gone to Target. I would never have spent money on boots. Who knows how much I saved you.

I did finally get to the Kitchen area and the Home Goods area but it didn’t take long for me to see that Target didn’t have the kitchen baskets I was looking for either.

Finally, purchasing the Kitchen Baskets

The next day, back at home, I did sit back down and scrolled through everything I could find that Amazon.com has to offer in the way of kitchen baskets.  And I purchased something.  The picture below is what I finally ended up with. I ordered this Stackable 2 Tiered Sliding Basket Organizer.

I was looking for two sliding baskets and a flat top. What I purchased was not exactly what I was looking for but now that I have it… It works great.  The only thing I would change would be for the kitchen baskets to slide the other direction.  I wanted the baskets to slide out from the long side rather than from the end.  Other than that, it was perfect.  It was not expensive either. That is always a plus.

When my kitchen basket purchase arrived, it was super simple to put together.  No tools required. A plus for me. And almost instantly everything was exactly the way I pictured. I larger bottom basket for fruits and veggies.  I smaller basket above for our coffee pods.  And the top is flat so I can store my bread and tortillas there.  I LOVE IT!!!

So now that I have saved you all the leg work. And don’t forget the money I saved you too. You really need to get to work and organize your counters with some kitchen baskets.

Other Kitchen Baskets that I considered

Below are some of the other kitchen baskets I found.  Everyone has different needs so you might find that one of these kitchen baskets might fit your needs better.

 

I liked this Gourmet Basics by Mikasa 2-Tier Metal Mini Countertop Fruit Storage Basket, Antique Black

 

Or this Spectrum Diversified Ashley Stackable Basket Tray, Satin Nickel

 

This one was a little tall but I really liked the looks of this BirdRock Home 3-Tier Wire Market Basket Stand with Chalk Label

 

 

One last one that I had considered. The MyGift Deluxe Stackable Metal Wire Mesh Fruit & Produce Basket

Hope this helps you instantly organize your counters with some great Kitchen Baskets.  And if you LOVE baskets like I do you might be interested in another post I wrote here about our family heritage with baskets.