These Colorful Crates Saved My Kitchen From Disarray

You don’t know how much you need drawers until you don’t have them. When I moved into my 100-year-old Chicago apartment, I didn’t quite notice that my new kitchen had only one — one! — drawer.

Knowing I was stuck with this reality for at least a year, I bought an island with three pull-out drawers… only to realize they were faux drawers sneakily hiding a cabinet. I needed a solution — and fast — so I accepted defeat and began to look for attractive ways to hide my utensils and random odds and ends. Enter HAY cubes. 

I can’t sing enough praises for these cubes. They come in a variety of fun colors, plus they’re really affordable, with the smallest cube clocking in at just $6.

If you’re set on a strict color palette, you can choose a monochromatic set — or, you can add a little panache to your space by mixing and matching them in quirky color combinations. Setup is equally customizable — you can stack them as high as you want, or tuck them into open shelving units and display them on counters.

I have two sets in my kitchen. On a side table, there’s one large set that houses most of my baking tools — measuring cups, whisks, parchment paper, and so on. I don’t bake very often, so it’s not particularly inconvenient for me to take these tools out of a crate that sits across the kitchen.

On my kitchen counter, I also have a set of two small HAY crates that have proven to be the work-horse accessories of the room. I store my spices in the top cube, and my smaller kitchen utensils in the bottom one. That way, I have things like my bottle opener and electric milk frother right on the counter where I need them most, but they’re neatly tucked away where I can’t see them.

If you’re looking for more storage space — specifically bins that will help hide your clutter — you can’t find a more attractive option than HAY. You can use them anywhere. Stack them in your bathroom cabinet to capture your toiletries, or place a few on your desk to keep your pens and sticky notes in one place. Since the largest crate has a depth of nearly 24 inches, you can even use them inside closets to hold smaller accessories or inside cabinets to organize your things.