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60 Ingenious Storage Tips & Ideas to Organize Your Cabinets

You'll know exactly what to put in your cabinets and drawers.

By Sienna Livermore, Hadley Mendelsohn and Angela Belt
preview for Apartment Makeover: How To Organize this Tiny Kitchen

When it comes to cabinets, you think, out of sight, out of mind, right? Wrong—especially if every time you open a cabinet, all the baking pans and lids fall out. This year start spring cleaning with a focus on organizing your kitchen cabinets. Create a tidy storage space and maximize every square inch of your cabinets. And don’t forget cabinet organization can be more than just a bland exercise in getting organized; it can also be a lot of fun. You can use this challenge to wallpaper or paint your cabinet shelving, color coordinate your dishes, and toss anything that doesn’t serve you. We will give your cabinet organization tips and design inspiration to make your kitchen functional and stylish.

1

Store Household Essentials

spring cleaning tips
Sara Tramp for Emily Henderson

Carve out a space in your kitchen cabinets like designer Emily Henderson to hold your daily cleaning supplies. Everything is at arm's reach the next time you need to clean up a mess.

2

Hang Pots and Pans

kitchen interior shavonda gardner
Katie Newburn

If you've run out of cabinet space to store your pots and pans, put them on display like small space design expert Shavonda Gardner when she renovated her kitchen bungalow. What makes this design work so well is that all the pots and pans are the same finish and are arranged by size.

3

Design Vertically

kitchen, room, cabinetry, furniture, kitchen stove, kitchen appliance, oven, major appliance, countertop, interior design,
Sara Tramp Ligorria for Emily Henderson Design

It feels like there are never enough cabinets in the kitchen. So take advantage of vertical space like designer Emily Henderson did with her home in Los Angeles. Pans can be stored below the oven, and above, there's an open cubby for cookbooks and entertainment pieces.

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4

Above Cabinet Storage

trudyseamus kitchen2
Eve Wilson via The Design Files

Take advantage of the unused space between your cabinets and the ceiling to add cookware. You can also display your cookbooks, but just make sure you have a ladder handy to reach them.

5

Add Pop-up Shelves

stackingcabinetshelvesstore
House Beautiful

Pop-up shelves will optimize the unused space in cabinets, especially those that only hold primarily horizontal things, like dishes.

6

Repurpose Crates

shelf, shelving, furniture, room, yellow, pantry, wall, cabinetry, interior design, building,
DeVol Kitchens

All it takes is a wood crate to spice up some exposed shelves and help you hide some unsightly essentials. Give your open storage shelving some style with vintage crates to store reusable totes and nonperishable food.

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7

Double Cabinet Space

kraftmaid pantry cabinets
Kraftmaid

Having super roomy, deep cabinets is always a blessing in storage space, but sometimes little items can get lost. These inserts solve that problem.

8

Organize Cookbooks

food network star molly yeh drew on years of experience to make her farmhouse kitchen function effortlessly
Chantell & Brett Quernemoen

If you love cooking like chef Molly Yeh, follow her vision of a farmhouse-style kitchen with function. She stores her favorite recipes in the built-in bookcase. "I wanted it to almost feel like a kitchen/library hybrid," she says.

9

Use Containers with Handles

kitchen pantry storage ideas
Courtesy of Fantastic Frank

Instead of open shelving, why not opt for a built-in storage unit? All your food is on display and easy to access for meal prep by simply pulling them out.

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10

Stack-Up Pots

sunnypoint heavy duty kitchen countertop cabinet pantry pan, pot lid, and pot organizer rack holder
Amazon

Home cooks, stop breaking your arm trying to lift the pan you need on the bottom of a heavy stack. Instead, opt for a stand that's accessible and a space-saver. Plus, it'll stop your pans from getting scratched up all the time too.

11

Add Clear Containers

fridge organization
The Container Store

Don't forget about organizing your refrigerator shelves too. It's so important to keep it tidy so you don't forget about those leftovers way back on the shelves. Going with clear containers allows you to see everything easily.

12

Use Tiered Organizers

food organizer
Bloomingdale's

Add tiered organizers to your shelves, and you can easily move them around as your needs change. They're ideal for storing canned goods, spices, and more.

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13

Add a Knife Drawer

linen drawer kitchen organization
Williams Sonoma

If you are limited on counter space, consider storing kitchen linens and knives in a drawer. You can easily access them, and it keeps them out of reach from kids.

14

Use Wide Custom Drawers

hidden cabinet storage
Meghan Beierle-O'Brien

Instead of stacking our pots and pans, build extra-wide drawers so you can easily find your cookware at a glance.

15

Add a Built-In Mini Fridge

tile, drawer, room, table, furniture, material property, flooring, floor, shelf, rectangle,
Douglas Friedman

If you have a large family and the main fridge is overflowing with items, consider adding a mini-fridge to store extra beverages or perishable items.

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16

Conceal Trash

storage cabinet, pet friendly kitchen
Wellborn Cabinet

Save your floor space by building a pull-out cabinet designated for your garbage. To make it even more efficient, opt for a design with two openings, one for trash and the other for recycling.

17

Use a Narrow Drawer for Snacks Only

kitchen drawer pullout
Jason Donnelly

The snack cabinet can become a big temptation for everyone in the house. So pair it down to a few containers, and get rid of all those clunky bags that eat up a ton of cabinet space.

18

Custom Pegboard

pegboard shelving in a kitchen
Chantell & Brett Quernemoen

Instead of stacking heavy pots and pans on top of each other (and using up valuable shelf space) just install a pegboard on a free wall. Suddenly your heavy-duty items are on display and easy to grab. Marianne Evannou added some hooks and shelves for various kitchen and pantry essentials here.

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19

Keep To-Do List on a Chalkboard

chalkboard on fridge
Laura Moss Photography

Chalkboards aren't just for the classroom—you can install one on your cabinet door to keep track of everything you have in stock.

20

Organize Wine Collection

white, room, furniture, property, interior design, door, building, floor, house, material property,
Studio DB

If you host parties, you quickly accumulate a lot of wine. An efficient way to store your wine and maximize your space is a temperature-controlled refrigerator. Studio DB designed cabinetry with storage options that can double as a home bar.

Headshot of Sienna Livermore
Sienna Livermore
Senior Editor

Sienna is a senior editor at Hearst. She lives in California with her husband and two littles.

Headshot of Hadley Mendelsohn
Contributor

Hadley Mendelsohn is the co-host and executive producer of the podcast Dark House. When she's not busy writing about interiors, you can find her scouring vintage stores, reading, researching ghost stories, or stumbling about because she probably lost her glasses again. Along with interior design, she writes about everything from travel to entertainment, beauty, social issues, relationships, fashion, food, and on very special occasions, witches, ghosts, and other Halloween haunts. Her work has also been published in MyDomaine, Who What Wear, Man Repeller, Matches Fashion, Byrdie, and more.  

Lettermark

Angela Belt is the contributing Assistant Shopping Editor at House Beautiful. She's also an interior designer and is the host of her own podcast, The Mood Board. When it comes to design, she's an esteemed expert with some of her work also appearing in HGTV, Better Homes & Gardens, The Washington Post, and more.

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