Texas Living

9 Convenient Kitchen Storage Hacks

By Sarah Rosen 9.3.21

There’s spring cleaning, and then there’s fall organization. As summer winds down and school starts up again, your kitchen may need some reorganizing and refreshing. Here are a few of our favorite kitchen storage hacks to help optimize space and make your kitchen easier to navigate on busy mornings.

1. Fruit Baskets

Produce that isn’t fridge-bound can crowd an unnecessary amount of counter space. One option is suspending a hanging produce basket from your cabinets or wall, which also helps keep pests from reaching your fruits and veggies and looks adorable while doing so.

2. Magnetic Knife Strip

Keeping your knives on a magnetic strip on a wall near your chopping station (and out of kids’ reach) is an easy way to make more space in drawers and counters. The strip can attach to a wall, the side of a cabinet, or the side of your fridge.

3. Mounted Dish Rack

If you’re short on space near the sink, you can hang a dish-drying rack. This DIY project isn’t difficult and doubles as an extra storage spot for hand towels.

4. Sink Caddies

Making sure your sponges and dish soap have a ventilated place to sit by your sink is a good way to keep your sponges free of mold and your sink area organized. Organizers can be small and hang off your sink or larger and hang from an adjacent wall. (Here are some examples.)

kitchen storage hacks

5. Overhead Rack for Pots and Pans

Finding an accessible space that’s big enough for your many pots can be difficult even in larger kitchens. Hanging your pots is a good kitchen storage hack, and the exposed cookware doubles as quaint scullery décor.

6. Freezer Shelves

Organization is especially challenging in the freezer, but this creative kitchen storage hack uses plastic magazine organizers as shelves. These shelves are the perfect place to keep bags of frozen fruits and vegetables, ice cube trays, and more. 

7. Spice Organization

Spices are notorious for getting lost — and that’s how you end up with three different containers of cinnamon. Organize your spice drawer or cabinet alphabetically, by color, by sweet and savory, or by how frequently you use them. You can also keep spices in a container attached to a wall or inside a cabinet door (this is also a great kitchen storage hack for oils and vinegars). Lastly, when it comes to spices, labeling is your friend.

8. Think Outside the Kitchen

Low on kitchen storage space? Make use of storage space in nearby rooms by picking some less-used and pretty items and storing them elsewhere. For instance, your fancier glassware can go on a shelf or mantle in the living room. The same goes for vases, Mason jars, cookbooks, and anything else you don’t use in the kitchen on a daily basis.

kitchen storage hacks

9. Simplify Your Priorities

Identify a few kitchen activities that you do frequently that are worth simplifying. Here are a few common ones:

Coffee: Always spilling coffee grounds? Prioritize putting your coffee machine near the garbage can. Or do what baristas do and place a container near your machine where you discard only coffee grounds so that you don’t have to empty it right away (or even daily).

Sandwiches: If you’re always cutting the crusts off sandwiches, put your sandwich-making materials in a cabinet right above a knife and cutting board, so that you have a station that’s ready to go.

Baking: Create a mini bakery in your kitchen by hanging measuring cups by jars of flour and sugar and keeping mixing bowls and baking sheets nearby.

Keep the kitchen convenience tips going with these handy lunchtime gadgets.

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