The kitchen is one of the most used areas in a home, and can easily become one of the most cluttered. All of the gadgets and tools we use each day in food preparation and projects can take up a lot of space, making it hard to get things done quickly. Whether your kitchen is spacious or small, use these tips to maximize the space and get the most out of the room.What do you do when your cabinets and drawers are full? Use the walls! Invest in a couple of hanging rods and install some hooks for things like pots and pans. Because these are used frequently, they’ll be easier to reach and free up a lot of space for dishes or food items. You can also clear off counters when you store things on the walls—the appliances can be stored in a cabinet once full of pans, giving you more usable counter space.
Similarly, try to make the corner areas in your kitchen accessible and useful. Installing a lazy susan in a corner cabinet makes it easier to store items. If you don’t like this idea, try specialized pull-out shelves or drawers that are built specifically to fit in corner areas. Another corner space you can use is where the sink sits. If you’re building your own kitchen, think about putting the sink at an angle in a corner area. You’ll have more flat counter space for cooking, and that corner area under the sink makes a great home for the plumbing.
Check out the backs of cabinet and pantry doors, too. If you can fit a rack over the edge of the door and it will still shut, it might help free up more space. Some people get large metal shoe racks for pantry doors and use them to store plastic cereal containers. Smaller racks can be used on the inside of cabinet doors for storing spices.
If you need more counter space, you can install a pull-out counter or cutting board into the side of an existing cabinet. As these slide in and out, you can use them when needed and then put them away after you’re done. Any time you can include a small drawer or pull-out countertop, it’s a good idea!
Basically, you want to keep the counters clear of clutter and fill the cabinets with things that are breakable, perishable, or not used as frequently as other tools. Look for opportunity spaces in your kitchen to get better organized, and you’ll soon find that you have a lot more room to work with than you did before.
