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Small Kitchen Storage That Actually Frees Up Counter Space
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items Counter space is the thing a small kitchen runs out of first, and most “organization” products just move the clutter somewhere you can still see it. Every pick here had to pass one test: it either gets something off the counter for good, or it makes ...
Sections
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Get it off the counter
Make the cabinets deeper
Fix the drawers
A pantry that stays organized
Use the walls and the under-sink
Get it off the counter
The fastest wins. Four things that take over a job your counter is currently doing.
America's Test Kitchen's winning paper towel holder, and the reason matters: the tension arm lets you tear one-handed, so the roll stops sliding down the counter every time you use it. Weighted base, brushed stainless, doesn't tip.
simplehuman Tension Arm Standing Paper Towel Holder
Food Network's best over-the-sink pick. It rolls out across the sink basin to become a drying rack, then rolls up and hangs - so the drying zone stops occupying a permanent counter footprint. Heat-resistant to 400F, which means it doubles as a trivet...
Surpahs Over The Sink Multipurpose Roll-Up Dish Drying ...
Food Network's pick for small households. The legs fold and the plate rack lies flat, so it stows in the cabinet after dishes instead of living on the counter forever - the whole problem with a standard rack in a small kitchen.
OXO Good Grips Foldaway Dish Rack
4.7 stars from over 1,100 reviews on IKEA's own site, and the most flexible thing on this list: it gives the stand mixer, the air fryer and the bulk pantry overflow a rolling home in a 13-inch-wide gap. Roll it out when you cook, roll it back when yo...
RÅSKOG utility cart, white, 11x15x24"
Make the cabinets deeper
Deep cabinets waste most of their own volume. These four make the back row reachable again.
An Apartment Therapy pick, and the widest useful size - 16 inches means the whole back row of a deep cabinet comes to you instead of you excavating for it. The non-slip surface is what separates it from the cheap plastic ones that fling everything wh...
OXO Good Grips Lazy Susan Turntable, 16-Inch
The Kitchn's best sliding system, with more than 12,500 five-star ratings behind it. It converts one tall dead cabinet - the one where things go to be forgotten - into three pull-out drawers, no tools and no drilling into a rental cabinet.
Simple Houseware Stackable 3 Tier Sliding Basket
Picked by both Apartment Therapy and The Kitchn, which is rare. The movable pegs let you build dividers around your actual pans, so lids and cutting boards stand upright instead of lying in a slippery stack you have to dismantle to reach anything.
Peggy Cookware Organizer
Adjustable dividers so it fits your pans rather than the other way around. Standing cookware vertically is the single biggest space win available in a base cabinet - you stop unstacking three pans to reach the one you want.
StoreMore® Pan & Lid Rack
Fix the drawers
Drawers are the cheapest storage you already own. They just need dividing properly.
This is how you retire the countertop knife block. The tiers hold up to nine knives edge-protected and visible in a drawer, so you free the block's footprint and stop dulling blades against each other in a utensil bin.
Joseph Joseph DrawerStore Knife Organizer, 9 Slots
Tested by The Kitchn, who called them the dividers shoppers can't stop buying. Spring-loaded bamboo that expands 17-22 inches and grips the drawer walls, plus inserts for the odd sizes - so the utensils stop merging into one heap the second you open ...
SpaceAid Bamboo Drawer Dividers with Inserts
An Apartment Therapy pick. It expands to fill odd drawer widths - which is most rental drawers - and the trays lift out for cleaning. Get the long tools lying flat in here and the crock on the counter becomes optional.
OXO Good Grips Large Expandable Drawer Organizer
4.7 stars at The Container Store and a Kitchn drawer pick. It lays spice jars flat and label-up on tiers, which is the only storage method where you can read every label at once - and it removes the spice rack that was eating the counter beside the s...
Expand-a-Drawer Spice Organizer
A pantry that stays organized
Containers are the easy part. These three are what keeps a pantry organized in month three.
The reference airtight set that every head-to-head comparison measures against. Square, stackable and genuinely airtight via the push-button lid - which also works as a handle. Bags sag and waste the depth of a shelf; these don't.
OXO Good Grips 10 Piece POP Container Set
The unglamorous item that decides whether the whole system survives past week two. Once flour, sugar and three near-identical white powders are decanted, unlabelled containers get abandoned fast. Waterproof vinyl, so they survive a wipe-down.
Talented Kitchen: Pantry Labels
An Apartment Therapy pick. Adjustable shelves and a cradle design that stops bottles rolling, built specifically for the oils, vinegars and sauces that otherwise claim permanent counter real estate because they won't stand up in a cabinet.
UpSpace® Bottle Organizer, 9 Bottle
Use the walls and the under-sink
The two spaces every small kitchen forgets it has: the wall, and the cabinet built around a drain pipe.
The splurge, and the one that changes the most. An Apartment Therapy pick with a hands-on review at The Kitchn: it adjusts 16.7 to 27 inches wide and offers four upper-shelf heights, so it builds two real pull-out drawers around the drain pipe instea...
Two-Tier Pull-Out Shelf - Steel
The Kitchn's editor favorite, and the budget answer to the same problem: a U-shaped shelf that straddles the P-trap rather than pretending it isn't there. Expandable, so it fits whatever awkward width your cabinet happens to be.
Spicy Shelf Expandable Under Sink Organizer and Storage ...
Stainless steel and built for kitchen humidity, 4.3 stars on IKEA's site. It turns a blank strip of backsplash into hanging storage for the tools you reach for constantly - the cheapest square footage in any kitchen is the wall nobody is using.
KUNGSFORS - rail, stainless steel, 56 cm