Guide to Hosting the Holidays: Kitchen Storage

For some of us, the next few months will feel like we’ve moved into our kitchen. Between Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, and every December delight, we are constantly cooking our signature dishes that everyone anxiously awaits. My go to is my pistachio cookies drizzled with dark chocolate, which requires everything from mixing bowls to my grandmother’s holiday tray. Digging all your tools out is difficult, but figuring out how to put it all back is an even more exhausting challenge. When you look around, it seems you simply don’t have the right tools to be organized (or to keep your Tupperware from falling out of the cabinet!).

Do you want to know the truth? You are absolutely right! 

Grab your favorite pen and your wish lists, because we’re sharing our favorite kitchen organizational must-haves. Next year, when it’s your turn to host, you’ll not only have the coolest kitchen and be able to cook twice as fast, but you’ll be able to navigate the perils of organization much better.  

Open It Up, and See What’s Inside

Potentially the most useful organizational tricks are the ones that belong inside your kitchen cabinets, often referred to as pull-out accessories. They range from spice racks to pots and pans organizers. Often these pull-outs help dictate exactly what needs to go where. Find the perfect pullout for you, based on the kitchen item you need help organizing:

Spices

 While you can spend all day trying to arrange your spices in the most ergonomically dynamic way, there is no
way to arrange them in your cabinet without wasting space, or being inconveniently located. Enter the spice rack pullout. Among our clients, this tends to be one of the most popular accessories. Due to its slim vertical shape, this pullout takes up little space and immensely improves functionality. Often our designer will place it next to the stove for easy access. For some, this option is difficult as it could require frequent stooping depending on how frequently they cook. If that is the case, they tend to favor the spice drawer. It comes with notches so that spice bottles will remain in an orderly fashion while also being easily accessible. 

Trash

While this may not be a problem of disorganization, it can certainly serve as an eye sore. More and more, our clients request a trash pullout to help keep their space looking and smelling clean. You can even get a trash pullout with two receptacles to easily separate garbage from recyclables.

Pots and Pans

It is such a hassle to reach in and rearrange that mountain of pots and pans, you end up defaulting to the same pan as often as possible, even though you know you have one more suited for your current culinary project. Building drawer storage, either within your cabinets or literal drawers beneath your range, can greatly alleviate this issue. Another fun accessory you can add are peg organizers which help keep pots, pans, or even dishes in better order.

Utensils

Anyone who has ever had a variety of utensils knows the struggle of a utensil drawer. Either you put away the utensils and the drawer won’t close properly, or a rotated utensil is preventing you from opening the drawer. Enter the utensil pullout. It is a vertical drawer that has a space for knives and two cylindrical cups to hold your utensils. While it definitely becomes easier to store your tools, this option does tend to take up a lot of space. 

For those who can’t sacrifice their storage space, there is a second option… a horizontal drawer. Before you protest saying that this solution is counterintuitive after I just reminded you of how horrific utensil drawers can be, allow me to point out that this is a layered drawer. The top layer is perfect for shallower, smaller utensils, such as measuring spoons, while the bottom layer is for larger utensils. The new depth of the drawer helps prevent it from getting jammed.

Serving Trays

They are the afterthought of kitchenware, only there when needed (which is infrequently for most of

us). You would probably forget you had some except for the fact that they seem to be inconveniently in your way when rifling through you stuff to find the right pot, pan, or mixing bowl. There is a solution: the toe kick drawer. It blends in with the baseboards of your cabinet and appears to simply be a panel. But alas, when you gently nudge it with your toe, out pops a narrow drawer. The perfect home for all your holiday trays. Side note, if you’re on the shorter side, many clients find this space useful for storing a collapsible footstool to help reach taller shelves.

Wine

It may feel like you drink your wine faster than you can store it, but on the chance that you like to collect wines, it’s always great to have an organized place for them. While wine racks are a wonderful solution, for those going for a clean, streamlined look, wine racks can make a space feel cluttered. Enter the pull-out wine rack (yes, there probably is a pull out for everything). While it’s simply a wine rack on wheels stashed behind a cabinet door, it will help bring your space to a new level.

Beyond the options above, there are also accessories that help make general cabinets more accessible. For example, blind corner pull outs. This is a helpful take on a Lazy Suzan. In the past, our Lazy Susans would only rotate, making it challenging to reach all the objects in the back, or cause you to stoop and frantically search for exactly what you were looking for. With this kidney shaped pullout, no longer are the objects of your corner cabinets hidden. Instead, they get to see the light of day as the whole shelf pulls out. 

To experience how this works, along with many of the other pullouts mentioned above, stop by our showroom where many are on display.

Looking For More 

Sometimes, you simply need more space. While organizing your cabinets is a great way to ensure that everything has a place and things aren’t getting lost in the chaos, they can't always resolve your need for more space for things like food storage. When that’s the case, you should consider adding a pantry. There are many routes this can be accomplished. 

First, if you have the space, you can add a walk in pantry. However, usually, that means you’re sacrificing space somewhere else in your home, unless there is a     pre-existing pantry space. 

The second option is to include a pantry cabinet, complete with pullout drawers. Not only will it match the aesthetic of the kitchen, but it will provide you with deeper storage solutions. This is a great option for food, random supplies, and other kitchen goods you might need to stock up on. 

The third option is something so Pinterest-worthy, you’ll be drooling: a cleaning pantry. These pantries have specialized holders for mops and brooms, along with compartments for different cleaning supplies. Now all your supplies will be stored in one place and the mop and broom won’t be visible.

In the end, don’t let disorganization get you down. You might just need help finding the right tools to improve your storage and functionality. While kitchens aren’t the only space that need some organizational love, I’ve come to find that an organized kitchen relieves a lot of stress in my clients! To find out how a kitchen remodel from OHi can help relieve your kitchen clutter, we’d love to meet with you so you can breathe that sigh of beautiful organization.