Innovative Storage Ideas for Your Lancaster Kitchen

If you look at pictures of gorgeous kitchens in home magazines or on the internet, you’ll see one common theme: they don’t have any clutter. Counters are cleared except for a few curated items, and the rooms feel calm and clean. Even small kitchens have an air of spaciousness about them when nothing is out of place. But without a team of home stagers, can you capture the beauty and order of those kitchens in your own space? 

The kitchen is arguably the hardest-working room in the home. It’s used all day long and in most homes, it’s where people want to gather. Not only that, but it needs to be able to store everything from dishes to cooking tools to food to holiday items. The good news is that with a little thought and care, you can achieve a clutter-free and organized kitchen with storage that will enhance its functionality and aesthetic appeal. 

If you’re planning a remodel of your kitchen, now is the perfect time to rethink how your space functions now and how it could serve you and your family better. Our team of designers is great at this and would love to help you design and remodel your Lancaster kitchen. Check out our gallery page for examples of beautiful kitchens we have designed and built.

But even if a remodel isn’t in the immediate future, you can improve your current kitchen’s layout without moving walls or installing new cabinetry. Try thinking in terms of zones: a meal prep zone, a cooking zone, and a clean-up zone. Organize your space so that each zone has what it needs nearby. You can include additional zones as well that are personalized to your family. If you love to bake, a baking zone (like an upper cabinet and the countertop below it)  where your commonly used ingredients and tools are stored together might make sense.

Think outside the box as you approach your kitchen. Just because you’ve always done something in a particular way doesn’t mean it’s the best way for you. Consider the following:

• If you’re low on storage, you can move seasonal dishes and cookware out of the kitchen and store them somewhere else in the house. Save the “prime real estate” of kitchen storage for things you use often.
• The same goes for larger items like rolls of paper towels or bulk goods. You can make a pantry of an unused closet elsewhere in the house to store these items.
• Consider adding a ceiling shelf around the top of the room where kitchen cabinets aren’t, and using it to store larger items like stock pots or platters.
• Hang pots and pans from a rack over the island or on a wall to free up storage in the cabinets.
• Use your kitchen island to the fullest: kitchen islands can often house a microwave, wine fridge, large storage cabinets, and more.

Maximize Storage

In a well-organized kitchen, every inch of storage space works hard. Consider the following ideas and see if you can incorporate them into your current kitchen or your plans for a kitchen remodel!

Cabinets

Kitchen cabinets are the largest single fixture of most kitchens. Use these kitchen storage solutions to help you make the most of them:

• Try adding a small shelf under the upper cabinets. You can store items like salt and pepper, commonly used spices, olive oil, and maybe even a small plant or pretty bowl. A monochromatic color scheme among the items you store here will help them look cohesive.
• Instead of double upper cabinets, consider replacing one side with open shelving to visually break up the space and provide you with alternative storage options.
• Take cabinets all the way to the ceiling and use the topmost shelves for storing things you don’t use very often.
• Use niche storage–like custom-made tall, skinny cabinets that sit on the countertop and reach the ceiling–to store items like wine glasses. 
• Make the most of the inside of cabinet doors by adding narrow shelves and using them for spices or other small items.
• Lazy Susans are great in cabinets–corner cabinets especially–to help keep everything within reach.
• Use pull-out storage for larger items and appliances so they can be stored in lower cabinets and still be easily accessible.

Drawers

There’s little that can organize a kitchen better than drawers. In fact, many people prefer using deep drawers instead of lower cabinets throughout their kitchens. If you’re planning a Lancaster kitchen remodel, consider this popular option. Drawers are often more accessible than cabinets, making it easier to lift things in and out.  And because you can see everything at once, they’re generally easier to keep organized as well. Consider the following types of drawers you may want to use:

• Dish drawers. These big, sturdy drawers that can handle more weight than regular drawers. They’re meant to hold plates, glasses, bowls, and other dishes. Dish drawers often have adjustable wooden pegs that keep things from sliding around.
• Utensil drawer. These drawers have utensil holders built in that hold your ladles, tongs, spatulas, spoons, etc, upright in canisters.
• Baking sheet drawers. You can store your baking sheets, muffin tins, and other pans upright in these drawers. If you don’t have a baking sheet drawer, consider using a rack in the cabinet to keep them stored on their edges–this saves space and makes them easier to access.
• Corner drawers. An innovative storage solution that allows you to make the most of the awkward corners in your kitchen, these drawers are set at an angle and tend to be deeper than regular drawers, allowing you to store a lot in them.
• Basket slides. You can use sliding baskets in place of drawers in one section of your kitchen to add warmth, texture, and interest to the room without losing storage space.

Minimize Clutter

The best innovative kitchen storage solutions cut clutter, giving you clear and well-organized spaces to work in your kitchen. Appliance garages are a great space-saving idea. These specialized cabinets or compartments can sit on the countertop or be built into the wall. They store things like your blender, coffee maker, bread machine, and other bulky appliances. Appliance garages hide the clutter while keeping your tools easily accessible.

If you have space, a custom pantry is one of the best ways to minimize clutter and add storage to your kitchen. You can tailor it to your family. Use your pantry to store food, cleaning supplies, paper goods, and more. Add pull-out shelving whenever possible to maximize storage. You can even add a coffee station or wet bar to your pantry!

Vertical organizers are excellent creative kitchen storage solutions. Vertical organizers would include two-tier shelves for inside the cabinets, stackable spice racks, a pretty pedestal next to the sink to hold your hand soap and a candle, or a peg board that holds pots and pans. Look for places in your kitchen where you can reclaim vertical space and make it work for you.

Your Kitchen, Organized

The best thing about these clutter-free kitchen ideas is that they can work for any style of kitchen. Whether your Lancaster kitchen is modern or more traditional, you can improve your storage and organization by creatively thinking about your space. Need more help? Our team of designers can help you come up with creative solutions. And if you’re ready to remodel your space, contact us and let us help you design and build the perfect kitchen, one that will be as hard-working as it is beautiful–a space you’ll love.