Organize Your Work Triangle
Most standard kitchen base cabinets have a half shelf midway between the cabinet floor and the drawer above. Replace these half shelves with roll-out trays and you gain almost 25 percent more storage capacity in that same cabinet. The few inches you lose on each side are more than offset with the extra depth and ease of access you gain with a roll-out. You can purchase these accessories, in wood or metal, at home centers or online. Some are custom-made to fit your cabinet sizes. Roll-outs are also ideal replacements for shallow pantry shelves, as they increase your food storage space and let you see more easily what’s otherwise hidden in back.
Another cabinet organizer that increases your usable space is the tray divider. Cabinets 15 inches or narrower hold very little width-wise, and their tight openings make it difficult to pull out larger objects. They’re top-notch, however, at storing items vertically. You can purchase tray dividers to facilitate upright storage of cutting boards, baking sheets, serving trays and cooking stones, each grouped in their own section for easy access. That 15-inch cabinet can easily be divided into three storage sections, freeing up wider cabinets, and that range drawer below your oven, for larger items.
Other cabinet stretchers to consider fall into the stacking-tool category. These also take advantage of unused “air space.” Let’s consider your Tupperware collection. These lightweight containers are essential for storing leftovers and packing lunches. Yet they can take up a wide swath of cabinet shelving. Stacking units—like bunk beds for your cupboards—let you organize your collection by size or purpose and can double the space in a single cabinet. For example, the larger containers that hold a second night’s meal get moved to the upper stacking shelf, while the lunch containers get grouped underneath. The same stackers can work for juice glasses living over tumblers, or salad plates coexisting on the same shelf as soup bowls. A word of caution is due here on stacking items in wall cabinets: Be certain you’re not adding more weight than your shelves can handle so that they don’t start bowing, and that the cabinets are absolutely, completely secured to the wall before you add any increased weight. |
