We’ve hung it up and shelved it, but there’s still more chaos to be controlled in the kitchen – small things. That’s where divide and conquer comes into play, by taking large spaces, which frequently end up as a jumbled mess, and turning them into practical, usable spaces where you can actually find what you’re looking for.
It’s quite simple really. When kitchens are built, they contain lots of cupboards and drawers. But a lot of the things in the kitchen are small. We’ve all spent time searching frantically in the utensils drawer for a particular spatula.
So let’s take a look at some simple ways to gain more storage space by making better use of the spaces you have.
Vertical Storage
Baking trays – be them square, rectangular or pizza shaped, tend to end up in a teetering stack in a cupboard. Which results in a resounding crash when trying to remove the one you want. Larger platters suffer a similar fate. And chopping boards often struggle to find a home.
A clever solution is vertical storage dividers. Each slot holds a separate tray, platter or cutting board, making it easy to find and extra the one you want. They can also be used for those pesky saucepan lids.
Vertical storage can either be located above a tall, deep cabinet, such as an oven tower, or placed inside a convenient cupboard.
If you want a really cheap and easy solution that’s not built in, try using a dish rack, the sort used for drying dishes. It may not be elegant, but it still turns that teetering pile into a row of easy to access items.
Drawer Dividers
Most of use are used to having a drawer insert for our main cutlery drawer, but have you thought about using dividers for your other drawers as well?
For the utensil drawer, having diagonal dividers is a clever solution, given that utensils come in different shapes and sizes. Diagonal dividers allow you to store items based on length, making more effective use of the available drawer space.
Dividing a drawer up into smaller square or rectangular compartments can turn “that” drawer – you know the one I mean, the drawer where all the “might be useful one day” stuff goes to die – into an organised place where you can actually find those bits and pieces you when you actually do need them.
Another trend that’s gaining popularity is to have a wide, flat drawer as part of the kitchen cabinets, and then use slanted dividers or slimline racks within it for spices. That option might be one to leave until you’re planning to redesign your kitchen though!
So there you have it – divide storage spaces up into smaller ones, and conquer more of the chaos in your kitchen.