Organizing the house must start somewhere. The kitchen is one of the places that needs organization the most because it is one of the most used rooms in the home. Looking around, you find yourself wondering how in the world did the dishes take over? There are steps you can take to make your kitchen your own again.

“Find a home for all the extras,” says Jeff Keyasko of the J.C. Wyatt House.

The mail and keys always find their way into the kitchen, and if that is where you want them, fine, but find them a home. A basket next to the door would work as would something hanging on the wall.

“The first step to organizing any area in your home is to eliminate any items that you do not use,” says John Brock, owner and consultant of jBROCK/DesignCo.

When people empty butter tubs, they tend to wash and keep them for another use. Well that is where things must stop. Find all those bowls, cups and any other dishes that you collect but never use and get rid of them.

You can donate them, give them away, sell them or even throw them out, but get rid of them. Once you clean your cabinets of the dishes you do not use, you will have lots of space.

Next categorize your shelves or color code them. Color coding will help with making sure there is no cross contamination, Mr. Keyasko says.

You want all your cups, bowls and plates to have their own shelves. If you have to, label them so that everyone knows what goes where.

“If you have enough space and nice cookware, I recommend hanging your pots and pans,” Mr. Brock says. It makes more space in the cabinets and makes getting to the more used pots and pans easier.

“If you are storing your pots and pans in the cabinet, organize them by shelf. Put pots together and stored inside one another if possible,” Mr. Brock says.

You’re looking to keep the amount of space that is needed to a minimum and make everything look as good as it can. The pots and pans that are hidden in the back corner need to be eliminated. Donate or give those away as well.

Lids are the next step. If you have a lid but no bottom, get rid of it.

Mr. Brock says there now are lid organizers to hang on your cabinet doors. This is freeing up space and also making sure you can find the lids easily.

“Make sure you have a utensil container that provides dividers to keep the items separated,” says Mr. Brock. The dividers will allow all the spoons to be with spoons, forks with forks and so on.

There are even the utensils that you buy with a jar to keep them in. Use that to have the cooking utensils that are most frequently used close at hand, but put away the ones you only use once and a while. Also, if you don’t know what the utensil is, then why do you have it?

When cooking for a big family get-together, don’t let the dishes pile up. Cook a few things and clean a few things. This will eliminate the mess and wanting to postpone the cleaning.

Putting stuff back in its right place will eliminate most of the clutter. When putting things away, make sure the kids or whoever is helping also puts the stuff in the right place. Mr. Keyasko suggests a way to keep the clutter down is about once a month go through and make sure you are not collecting unneeded items. Clutter is the main reason why things become unorganized.