apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have a pot rack, and my stove has a drawer underneath the oven for baking stuff. Once I got rid of all the cooking gear I was never going to use (not unless aliens landed and did a mind-meld between me and Martha Stewart), there was enough room for everything.

My stuff is definitely a big, huge mess. I don't have very much room at all and so I don't have much options. For example, I wanted to store cookie sheets, cutting board, and the like, sideways so I wouldn't have to move stuff off of them every time I want to use them..but of course they are too tall for my cupboards!

I use pull-out wire shelving next to the cook-top and oven for pots and pans:

http://www.ovisonline.com/store/detail.asp?product_id=5WB2-2122-CR

I store cutting boards, baking sheets and muffin tins on their sides, in slots as shown in the picture, only mine also pull out. The difficult items like woks, popcorn poppers and angel-food cake pans go in "long-term" storage which for me is in the basement.

I thought that Lazy Susans were something I would find in my grandmother's kitchen but I was pleasantly surprised to find one in the kitchen of my new townhouse. I put all my pots, pans, and pyrex (yes, it all fits) in the lazy susan. My pot tops I put in the cabinet under my cooktop so I can grab them when I need them. As for cutting boards, I made sure I about 'pretty' bamboo ones so i can lean it on the side of my wall on the counter.

In my old apt, I had NO room. Every cook thing I owned had to fit stacked in my own or it was a no go. This might be a good solution for people with not alot of storage.

There is also the idea of shelving. A friend put a magazine rack above her stove and put her baking sheets and cutting boards there.

Cookie sheets and baking dishes are stacked in the drawer under the oven. Cutting boards and cooling racks are on the counter, leaned against the wall and propped up by flour canister. Pots are stacked inside a cupboard.

When I didn't have individual vertical compartments as in the picture (which I do now), I used a wire rack in a tall cupboard to store things (cookie sheets, etc.) vertically.

My storage is precarious at best. I do have something kinda like this--but not as neat. It's a wooden tray organizer...I got it at the container store, but I can't seem to find it on the site. That's in a lower cabinet, but it's really a struggle to fit it in there (my cabinets are shallow with narrow openings). Pots go both in that same cabinet (the 2 large ones) and in the cabinet above my stove.

I saw an idea in (I think) Martha Stewart Magazine many moons ago that suggested using small spring-tension curtain rods to create dividers (one in back, one in front) for storing pot lids, cookie sheets, etc. Somewhat less cool looking than the above picture, but perhaps quite a bit cheaper for hard to fit cabinets?

I'm looking for a rack with slots in it that holds the lids of pots and pans and hangs vertically on the inside of a kitchen cabinet. I saw it in a magazine citing IKEA, but I've searched the IKEA catalog and elsewhere to no avail. Any one have any ideas?

It's not terribly pretty but this sounds like what you're looking for http://www.organizeit.com/polidrackwh.php

I ended up coming up with this solution in the spring cure to both use a mail sorter that I no longer used and keep my cutting boards from cluttering up my counters.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/graphxgrrl/425837161/

Organize? What's that? But, I do like that I have a drawer under my oven which holds all of the cookie sheets & cake pans. All of the other pots & pans are in the cupboard, with the lids on the handy lid holder which hangs on the side of the cupboard. I found it at Ikea a few years ago. Actually they still carry it: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/94577183

Saw an idea on Martha Stewart for organizing pot lids by using those vertical dish racks. I also like the idea someone posted of using magazine racks for flat things like cookie sheets.

Ugh, my new condo has a horribly designed kitchen as far as cabinetry. I stash my bakeware in the pot drawer under the oven. Pots and pans and other kitchen gadgets are in a couple of random shelving units from IKEA and Target. And the ill-designed cabinets hold whatever will fit through the doors. I daydream solutions up all the time. Hopefully, I can make use of the wall that's technically part of my one-wall hallway and have a sort of makeshift two-wall kitchen!

Thank you Jenochka. That's the one!

BB, I saw it at Ikea a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes you have to go to the store, it's not all in the catalogue.

Ooh! Ooh! kittyj! I saw that Martha Stewart thing, too, and did it for quite a while. I felt very thrifty.

who sells that vertical storing solution pictured?

I wished I had the pictured storage cabinet. I don't so I use this organizer rack for my baking sheets, cooling racks, and other skinny kitchen items. It works nicely and only $7.99.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=11197345&RN=205&KSKU=104069

great ideas! i've been looking for kitchen storage ideas since i'll be moving into my first home next month. yeah! compared to the small kitchen of the apartment i'm currently living, the new kitchen is big, with a lot more storage space and bigger counter space. at this moment i'm storing my bakeware in the oven, pots and pans are on the stove ( i only have 3)

I have that Ikea lid rack and there's a huge downside: It only fits on the inside of a cabinet that does not have shelves! It also does not hold very large lids. I have one on the inside of my sink cabinet door and it holds a few lids but it barely makes a dent on them, honestly. I'd rather have something vertical to deal with the lids, but I haven't found the ideal solution.

Here's another problem: the under cabinets where i store my pots are deep and wide. The stuff in the back is hard to get to, so I keep all of the pots in a big mess towards the front. Is there a huge lazy-susan type thing that could help with that?

Ohhh that picture makes me drool. I would LOOOVVVE to have something so neat and organized for my pots and pans! The picture also makes me want to go out and buy some more stuff...

I have a wide lower cabinet on each side of the stove, and each cabinet is fitted with two full-depth pullout drawers. I use stack pots and pans in the upper drawer on the left, with the pans haphazardly tossed amongst them. The lower drawer holds things like the crockpot, blender, etc.

The right-side cabinets hold all my tupperware-type things on top, containers stacked on one side, lids on the other. The lower drawer holds bigger things like baking dishes, salad bowl and spinner, mixing bowls.

I can't take credit for planning this (was here when we moved in), but I highly, highly recommend this arrangement. It's great to be able to pull out a drawer and reach things in the back, or things underneath other things. Much better than any kitchens in past apartments.

We have a big cabinet above the fridge where, among many other things, I've placed a wire rack which I think was intended to hold file folders. That's where I keep platters, cookie sheets, and cutting boards.

Use a suspended pot-rack with lots of hooks.
I will never go back to keeping pots in the cupboards.
The rack makes them easy access when cooking.
It looks good. Becomes a functional, artsy 'chandelier'.
Frees up cupboard space.
Hang frequently used utensils too.
The IKEA lid rack can be hung on a bit of free wall space.

The Pull Out Lid Organizer at Organize It is a good choice to store lids in a small amount of space and while keeping them very easy to grab.