Storage Strategies

With all that it’s required to hold and do, a kitchen is a complicated room, to say the least. Space is at an absolute premium, and fitting in all the necessary tools and supplies in an organized manner can be like packing the trunk of a car for a long road trip.

To help you solve this spatial jigsaw puzzle, manufacturers and home centers offer an endless array of products designed for maximizing storage and minimizing clutter. These can do for an overloaded cabinet what a filing system does for a stack of paperwork. And where store-bought products don’t quite fit your space or offer the look you’re after, creating something of your own design (with a little help, of course) is always a good option.

As you dive into the details of organizing your kitchen, it’s important to keep in mind the true purpose of this busiest of rooms. The kitchen is a work area, first and foremost. The more you can arrange and maintain the space for storing, cooking, and serving food, the better it will serve your household. Using the counters as a catchall for mail and newspapers, or the cabinets for storing light bulbs and holiday dishware, only means those spaces aren’t available for work on a daily basis. Respect the kitchen as a workplace, and you’ll find it much easier to control clutter and keep the stage set for fixing the next meal.