Your kitchen can be many different things to you: a space to exercise your creativity, a room to spend time in and cook with your family, somewhere to eat and catch-up, or an area to relax with friends. One thing it has to be in order to be all those things is functional. Out of all the rooms in your home, you tend to need storage solutions most importantly in the kitchen, as it tends to have the most things to contain. You of course don’t want storage items to get in the way of the ‘flow’ of your kitchen, so use some of these smart solutions in to keep your kitchen running smoothly:
1. Smart Spaces
Some spaces in the home tend to get ignored – for the bathroom it’s above the toilet, in the kitchen, it’s above the stove. You can install a shelf or hooks here in order to make the most of this usually wasted space. Pop your pans up here for easy access and hang utensils on the hooks. Another often underutilized space is above cabinets; use this space to store less commonly used items – you can keep them tidily by placing them in baskets.
2. Island Paradise
Islands are very popular for many good reasons: they are a prep space, somewhere to eat and somewhere to socialize. They don’t have to be huge; choose one with good storage space inside as a hollow island can store all kinds of clutter including plates, pans, cans and recipe books.
3. Work Your Walls (and Ceiling)
Just as with the space above the stove and cabinets, walls and ceilings can often to be ignored. Install racks on walls to display plates, pan lids, and cutting boards. You can also install hooks in your ceiling to hang pans, colanders, utensils etc.
4. Look Inside
Inside cabinets, you can often install extra baskets on the doors to use space that might otherwise go to waste. You can similarly fit commonly used smaller utensils in the door by way of hooks – saving space and being useful at the same time. You can also make the ‘fake’ drawers under your sink into tilted shelves to store sponges etc.
