When running a WordPress site, there comes a moment when you suddenly realize something.
"Wait... is my side menu way too long?"
Wait...
In its initial state, the WordPress admin menu neatly arranges essential items in a compact list: Posts, Media, Pages, Appearance, Plugins, Settings, and so on. But as you run the site longer—adding features, integrating external services, and beefing up SEO and security—it swells to a daunting length that makes you weary just looking at it.
This site had fallen into that exact state.
Isn't this way too long?
Between writing sessions, whenever I'd think, "Let me tweak this one setting," or "Where was that plugin's settings menu again?", I had to scan down the endless side menu. If I couldn't spot it, I'd expand "Tools" or "Settings" to search, and still come up empty. Only upon looking very carefully would I find it sitting all alone near the bottom of the sidebar—.
As these repeated micro-stresses accumulated, my patience was wearing thin. What's more, the number of plugins is only likely to grow further from here.
Can We Just Delete Unnecessary Plugins?
"By the way, just how many plugins are installed on this site right now?"
Thinking this, I counted the list of plugins in the admin screen, and here are the ones that were active at the time:
Click to view the plugin list
33 plugins. You might think that is quite a lot. In reality, though, running a full-fledged site often leaves you with no choice but to install around this many.
At first, I wondered, "Couldn't I delete a few plugins to simplify the side menu?" In the end, I gave up on that idea.
Most of them handle caching, image conversion, security, backups, email delivery, and other indispensable daily functions that simply cannot be removed. Furthermore, switching one or two plugins to a "keep them uninstalled and only install when needed" workflow is a hassle in itself. And removing just one or two wouldn't make the side menu noticeably shorter anyway.
Which means:
If we cannot reduce the plugins, our only option is to rethink how the menu is presented.
Hopes for Existing Menu Management Plugins. But...
Naturally, there are already several plugins available on WP.org (the official WordPress directory) and elsewhere designed to organize side menus. Of course, I researched them and tested them in a staging environment. Unfortunately, none of them made the cut.
I won't name names since this might sound a bit critical, but roughly speaking, they suffered from the following issues (those who have tried them might recognize which ones I'm talking about):
Overly complex UI that isn't intuitive
Aiming for high functionality is commendable, but the settings screen becomes correspondingly bloated. When all you want to do is move a single menu item, you're left wondering what to click.Relies on a three-tier side menu that is labeled "experimental" and lacks reliability
To properly categorize menus into folders, you have to enable a three-tier menu option labeled as an "experimental feature." However, the standard WordPress side menu architecture was only ever designed for two tiers. As a result, layouts break, hover behavior gets glitchy, and it leaves too much uncertainty for production use (which is probably why it's labeled "experimental" in the first place!).Resorting to the extreme measure of replacing the entire side menu with a custom UI
The most aggressive plugins threw out WordPress's standard menu rendering mechanism entirely, replacing the whole side menu with custom markup. While this looks modern, it carries significant risks: conflicts with badges and scripts added by other plugins, unpredictable fallout when WordPress core updates, and so on. In the end, I concluded that I wouldn't feel comfortable using it myself, let alone in client work.
Why Such a Heavy-Handed Approach?
The more I examined the source code and behavior of existing plugins, the more a question grew in my mind.
"Why does every single one of them resort to such heavy-handed measures?"
If all you want is to declutter the WordPress admin side menu, there should be a much more natural and safer way. In fact, I had a very clear concept in mind of how to do it.
That said, it was a straightforward design that any engineer familiar with WordPress internals could easily come up with. That was precisely why I assumed a plugin doing "exactly that" had to exist in the official directory—and that's what I went looking for.
Strange as it was, it didn't exist. Once again, no matter how much I searched, I couldn't find "that exact thing."
"If it doesn't exist, I'll build it myself."
And that is how I came to develop my new Karasunouta Admin Menu Folder plugin.
We Don't Need a 3-Tier Menu
The principle is extremely simple. To begin with, there is no need to force a three-tier side menu structure that disregards WordPress's native design.
By default, WordPress's plugin menu structure is designed so that when you access a root (parent) menu, its submenu (child) items automatically expand beneath it. Within the scope of two tiers, WordPress officially provides standard hooks to organize menu items. In that case, the solution is simple. You just do this:
Before Configuration
After Configuration
- Remove root menus of infrequently used plugins from the side menu, and
- Display them instead as submenus within a newly added Menu Folder in the side menu.
That's really all it does.
Behavior of Stowed Plugins: The Case of LightStart
Take the LightStart plugin, for instance, which provides maintenance mode protection for your site. It is an extremely useful, indispensable plugin for me, but it's only needed during major maintenance work—just a few times a year.
There is no reason for such a plugin's root menu to sit permanently in the side menu all year round. It was the very first candidate I stowed into the Karasunouta Admin Menu Folder.
Here it is
The root menu of the LightStart plugin stowed in the Menu Folder appears as shown in the image above. You can open the LightStart settings page from here, so there is never any issue when you want to use its primary maintenance mode feature.
What About Submenus?
However, what about LightStart's submenu item, "About Us"? You might wonder: "What if I really want to open that, but the side menu only has 'Menu Folder > LightStart' and no 'Menu Folder > LightStart > About Us'? I can't access it—what now?!"
Such a concern might cross your mind.
Don't we really need a 3-tier menu after all?
Don't worry. Remember what I wrote earlier:
By default, WordPress's plugin menu structure is designed so that when you access a root (parent) menu, its submenu (child) items automatically expand beneath it.
Let's look at the actual behavior.
The moment you click "Menu Folder > LightStart" and the LightStart settings page opens, the LightStart root menu reappears in the side menu. At this point, because the LightStart settings page is naturally "currently active," the LightStart root menu is automatically expanded by WordPress (= its submenu items become visible).
If you actually navigate to the LightStart plugin settings page, you will see the side menu look like the image below.
The "About Us" submenu is clearly visible too!
As you can see, the moment the LightStart settings page opens, the LightStart root menu appears in the left side menu and expands. As a result, you can seamlessly access the "LightStart > About Us" menu item.
Summary: How to Access Submenus
In other words, even if you want to access a submenu item of a stowed plugin, all it takes is:
- First, open the stowed menu item in the Menu Folder (e.g., "Menu Folder > LightStart")
- Next, open the temporarily expanded submenu in the side menu (e.g., "LightStart > About Us")
—allowing reliable access in just two clicks. After all, the Menu Folder is meant for "rarely used plugin root menus," which means their submenus are accessed even less frequently. If you can reach them in two clicks, I believe it is safe to say accessibility is not an issue.
We Don't Need Risky Hacks, Either
The crucial point here is that throughout this process, not a single fragile or heavy-handed trick was used—such as the approaches seen in some other plugins, like completely replacing the side menu with React or shoehorning in an unsupported three-tier structure. Everything follows WordPress specifications. It simply toggles the display state of the side menu in a completely natural way, using only standard filter hooks provided officially by WordPress.
Because it does not fight against WordPress's native architecture, the operation remains fast and stable, and the risk of conflicts with other plugins is kept to an absolute minimum.
The Impact: Before and After
While the approach is very simple, the results are striking.
Before Installation
After Installation
...Can you see the difference? Just grouping infrequently accessed root menus into a single "Menu Folder" makes the admin interface so much cleaner.
With a clear view of the side menu, you can instantly navigate to frequently used items like "Posts," "Pages," and "Appearance" without hesitation.
A pleasant and somewhat unexpected byproduct was that finding "infrequently used menus" actually became faster too.
My mind naturally adapted to the rule: "Don't use it often = probably in Menu Folder." As a result, I started checking the Menu Folder first. And more often than not, it was right there, easily found. Truly. At least that was my experience, so I encourage you to try it for yourself.
Consequently, whether an item is used constantly or rarely, accessibility to every menu item across the site improved dramatically.
A Modest Setting You Won't Want to Live Without
While the usability of my admin dashboard improved dramatically, there was one additional small feature I wanted as I used it in day-to-day work. That is the "Show link to settings page in toolbar" option.
Checking this box adds a direct link to "Admin Menu Folder" in the toolbar (admin bar) at the top of the admin screen. It is a simple setting, but when you add a new plugin and feel the side menu getting cluttered again, or wonder, "Did I stow that menu in the folder yet?", being able to jump to the settings page in a single click from the admin bar is surprisingly convenient.
Conclusion
Although this plugin was only recently released, I personally believe it should be a must-have plugin for future WordPress site builds. In fact, I now install and use it on all WordPress sites I handle, including client work as well as my own site. Going back to that previously cluttered side menu environment is something I can hardly imagine anymore.
In particular, if you:
- Are suffering from scroll hell due to an overwhelming number of plugins
- Want to deliver a clean, well-organized admin dashboard to your clients
—please give it a try. It should make your day-to-day site management surprisingly comfortable!
Official Plugin Page (WordPress.org)
Karasunouta Admin Menu Folder – WordPress plugin
(If you find it useful, leaving a 5-star review would mean a lot to me!)
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