Use plastic bins or baskets to keep kitchen items. They're also good as cleanup ?cubbyholes? for some hasty kitchen tidying. Kids can also have their own cubby hole for school notices, so you won't have a paper-covered refrigerator. You can also use bins and baskets as a pullout dish towel rack. You can store the bins in shallow drawers or into the toe-kick space between lower cabinets. Keep them beside a small folding step stool, a dustpan, and some newspaper for recycling.



Claim shallow storage spaces and avoid stacking items or nesting them together. Not only is it dangerous (imagine pulling an item only to be showered by more), it's bad organization. You won't be able to see items as they are hidden behind one another. One easy solution is by the use of hooks. Attach them to the bottom of an upper shelf, or a rack. They make things visible and neat! Sturdier hooks for pots and pans on the racks are also a good investment.

Store your dish ware by making use of the following:

Hang wire baskets from shelves so you can have a bit of air space. Aside from dishware, you can also put in food items, linens, and even favorite recipes.

Platters and other shallow items such as cutting boards can be stored upright in narrow spaces next to the kitchen range or the kitchen sink. For easy organization, install dividers to separate items.

Tray dividers, slide-out bins, plate stackers can be retrofitted in cabinets. These are great for organizing items and making things tidy!

Perhaps, instead of installing more cabinets, you can have drawers installed instead to save you time opening doors. Drawers must be of the full-extension pull-out variety. Drawers and trays should extend fully to be able to use the back corners without having to strain your arm muscles by reaching to get a book of matches. Been there, done that and I've learned my lesson. Choose full-extension pullouts. Drawers and trays that extend fully allow the use of back corners without having to reach deep into cabinets to retrieve a pot or small appliance. Just make sure that there is enough space between the drawers and the island or other objects.

You can also have adjustable dividers for your drawer spaces so you can efficiently organize flatware and other utensils. This way, you won't have to scrounge the whole drawer for one small item. Saves time and effort.

Walk-in pantries are fine, if you have the space in your kitchen for them. However, there is another solution for the more modest kitchens and that is by bringing the pantry closer to you. One option is to have a pullout system, more like a cabinet instead of a small room. This particular pantry system can have wire shelf sides that prevent having items fall on your unsuspecting head. This also allows for viewing access - no need to guess if that box is indeed powdered sugar. One catch to this is that, you need to have a professional see to its production and installation as the fit must be exact in order to operate smoothly.