The phrase ‘enough storage space in the kitchen’ might sound ridiculous, not only to small kitchens owners. Imagine all the food, granola boxes, pans and lids, spices and pasta, knives and cups… fit in your kitchen. Is it even possible? With our storage ideas, it is.
- Optimize your shopping list
A fantastic idea to start with is to take a deep dive into your fridge and food storage. Are there any products past the due date? Get rid of them. Too many ketchup bottles? Give one to your neighbour. This will help you keep a low stock of the products you use most often.
- Use containers to optimize storage space
There are plenty of rectangular containers you can use to lower the amount of space you need to store products. They fit in your fridge much better than pots filled with food. Besides, you can…
- Stack, stack, stack
Boxes, jars and other food containers can easily be stacked. Use it to fill your shelves not just horizontally, but also vertically – under the kitchen island countertop as well. Just put the heaviest and largest objects at the bottom so that they are stable.
- Compress
To give you an example, spice collections with little drawers might look impressive, but they take plenty of space. Instead, buy spices in smaller sachets and keep all open ones folded in a single box.
- Use your shelves
Golden rule: avoid empty space in your cabinets. Perfect kitchen organization means we use cabinets and drawers to the fullest, without too much air inside.
- Hang
A few storage ideas are related to hanging. Pegs, racks and hooks can let you organize pot lids on your cabinet doors. The same applies to serving tongs, dippers and any other cookware you think is too irregular in shape to keep in the drawer.
- Hang even more
Attach hooks and suspended shelves to the bottom of cabinets for extra storage space. Let cooking knick-knacks have their place in your kitchen as well!
- Hang your chairs too!
If you dream about having breakfast in the kitchen, but your kitchen is too small to keep a few chairs, consider hanging folding chairs on the wall. A table can also be folded and attached to the wall.
- Clear food storage
Transparent, cubic containers make kitchen organization much easier. They stack nicely, and you can easily see what is inside and when you need to do more shopping.
- Use all the space possible
A small kitchen requires a little more effort to accommodate all the cleaning utensils as well. Put sponges and scrubbers in a holder in the sink. Alternatively, put them just behind a decorative panel typically attached under the countertop in front of the sink.
- Move dishes and cutlery away from the kitchen
In case it is hard for you to accommodate all the plates, saucers, cups and bowls, pick the ones you’d be willing to put on display and move them to a cabinet in the dining or the living room. It’s a great way to declutter kitchen storage and add a new style of décor to your living space.
- Use walls
Walls are an excellent place to store spices and other small items, as well as flat ones, such as pans and chopping boards. Think of your kitchen walls, cabinet sides and kitchen island sides and play with shelves, racks, hooks, pegboards and magnets.
- Maximize cabinets
Do your wall cabinets reach the ceiling? If no, we strongly recommend it. If not for less used cookware (e.g. a fancy vegetable chopper), use it to store supplies you need only once in a while.
- Store things on top of your fridge
Another storage idea is to use the top of your fridge – an excellent place to store some less used products. Keep in might safety, though.
- Separate kitchen tools
Cooking requires neat organization and fast action. By keeping your tools organized, you can save space in drawers and time spent searching for them – especially in a small kitchen where space is scarce.
- Think outside the kitchen
Not every apartment has a pantry or enough storage space. However, you might move cereal or snacks to a dining room sideboard, a cupboard in the hall or even the garage. Still, following tip #1, we recommend keeping a lower stock of food!
- Use the space below and above
If a wine cooler in the kitchen floor seems too fancy, how about extra shelves right above the door or the window? Take a closer look at each cabinet – do you use all the space below and above?
- Make the most of your kitchen island
Kitchen islands offer an enormous amount of storage space. There is more than just the shelves and the countertop you can use: sides, additional drawers, the area above and below the countertop.
- Use a hollow kitchen island
Use a hollow kitchen island to store cutlery, cookbooks and drinks for easy reach. Integrate additional, foldable countertop or extra space to keep kitchen stools.
- Don’t forget about the side of cabinets
Again, it’s a great place to hang all kinds of cookware, store spices, rags and towels. Paint it with a blackboard magnet paint to keep your fridge free from notes, recipes and magnets, in particular, if it’s built in.
- Make the most of your corner cabinet
They have more space than you can imagine – use sliding containers to use shelves the most and install more than just two levels of a carousel to store more pots and pans. Just to give you an idea, corners are for long rolling pins, foldable mats and blenders.