If you are like me, you NEVER seem to have enough storage space in your kitchen!!! I could fill up 3 rooms of the house with kitchen stuff (if my husband would let me!) But in my house, we don’t have that kind of space! That’s why I had to come up with these creative storage solutions to help me make the most of the little space that we do have.
Tip #1: Convert an old TV armoire.
One of my biggest pet peeves in the kitchen was trying to find a convenient place to store my small appliances, i.e.- blender, waffle iron, food processor, etc. I had them tucked into cabinets all over the kitchen wherever I could find a few spare inches. Most of the time, this meant that they were either way in the back of the unreachable corner base cabinets which required me to move 20 other things out of the way and literally crawl on my hands and knees INTO the cabinet to reach them, or they were in an upper cabinet that would cause an avalanche of random kitchen accessories to fall down on my head when I would try to pull the appliances down. Either way, NOT COOL!!!
In the age of giant wall-mounted flat screen TVs, sweet little TV armoires like this one are pretty easy to acquire. They are often very inexpensive or even FREE if you know where to look. I got this beauty for a steal at a local thrift store, and tucked it into an empty corner of the dining room. It has worked out perfectly for my needs!!!
I store my canner, waffle irons, food processor, blender, large cooking pots, apple peeler/corer, and more in the cabinet on the top. Now they are all easily accessible, and I don’t have to crawl on the floor or injure myself in order to get to them.
In the first drawer, I keep my casserole dishes and lids. It’s also a great place for large serving platters or other hard to store items.
In the bottom drawer, I keep my apron, casserole carrying cases, silicone molds, food scale, food thermometers and all of those little odds and ends that don’t have a home elsewhere. It works perfectly for storing linens like tablecloths, kitchen towels or placemats as well!
Tip #2: Make the most of your backsplash.
Your kitchen backsplash is an often overlooked place to find some much-needed extra storage. Not only does this save you space in your drawers and cabinets, but it also keeps many of the tools that you will need while cooking right at your fingertips in a very organized manner.
In our kitchen, we have a wall-mounted spice rack that holds the spices that we use the most often. We store the rest in the cabinet above it, but this spice rack has been able to save us an ENTIRE SHELF‘s worth of space in that cabinet!
When I got sick of not being able to close the kitchen drawer where we were keeping our measuring cups and spoons and not being able to find the size that I needed without taking out half of the contents of the drawer, I came up with this method of storage. I just used little hooks that you can screw into the wall (or back of the cabinet) by hand and lined up the measuring spoons and cups from smallest to largest. Now my drawer actually closes, and it’s fantastic!!!
Tip #3: Get rid of all of your mis-matched storage containers, and buy containers that are mostly the same size and shape.
The most practical way to maximize space in your cabinets is to have containers that nest into each other easily. We chose to go with Pyrex containers because my husband prefers glass to plastic.
If you are on a tight budget, you can totally use those plastic lunch meat containers from the grocery store, take out containers or whatever you have on hand. The key is to pick just a few sizes or shapes, and stick with that. Don’t have 47 different shaped containers that you can’t stack together.
I like to keep the lids just to the sides of the containers. I have found that when you keep them underneath or on top, they are less stable and you have to move things out of your way to get to what you need. Accessibility is my number one priority when organizing my kitchen!
Well, I hope these tips help you out as much as they helped me! Be sure to check out “Creative Storage Solutions For Your Kitchen (Part Two)” for even MORE organizational hacks to save you mounds of frustration in every room of your house!
Have questions or comments? Email me at anne@blessingsinsurprise.com. I would LOVE to hear from you! Have a great day!!!