You don’t need unlimited funds to put a stopper on overflowing kitchen cabinets. These 11 DIYs can transform even the most cluttered cupboard into an organizational oasis—all with near zero cost, time, or effort.
By Hook or by Cook
Steal a few hooks from the entryway, add a dash of inspiration, and you have all the makings of a baker-friendly cabinet. Start by mounting a key rail or self-stick plastic hooks to the back of a cabinet. Then, hang measuring cups and spoons, whisks, and mixer attachments to create an organizational oasis fit for a pastry chef.
Functional Décor for Small Kitchens
If you happen to have inherited your grandma’s rolling pins, knotty wooden utensils, and/or well-worn cutting boards, you have a design opportunity waiting. Consider storing these beloved kitchen wares out in the open as authentic décor elements by hanging them on available wall space. Just make sure you mount them in such a way that you can easily take them down for use.
Top-Shelf Idea
Cure cabinet chaos on the cheap with a storage solution borrowed from your workspace. Stash an off-duty office organizer inside a deep cabinet to provide a perch for pots and pans, lids, and other tools of the culinary trade. As an added bonus, this organizer can be transferred to the countertop to store your favorite recipe books.
Rule with a Rod
Rescue your under-sink cabinet from clutter by enlisting help from a bathroom basic. Secure a tension rod to the sidewalls of the cabinet to create hanging space for any cleanser that comes in a spray bottle. With the floor of the cabinet clear, you’ll have plenty of room to stash baskets filled with brushes and sponges and other cleaning staples.
Room for Boards
It seems there’s no good way to store cutting boards. They’re sometimes too tall to be stored vertically on a shelf, and when laid flat, they take up valuable real estate that could be used for cookware. This bespoke behind-the-door organizer offers an elegant solution to the problem. Here, scrap wood is secured to the inside of cabinet doors with screws and L-brackets—just the right size for caching a collection of cutting boards.
Organize Your Fridge with a Six-Pack
Do all of your small bottles in the refrigerator door like to tip over after opening or closing the door? Fortunately, the answer to tidying those wayward bottles is just a recycling bin away. To keep your kitchen storage and organization under control, use an empty six-pack holder to hold the condiments in your refrigerator door.
Never Bin Better
Left on shelves or in drawers, heavy kitchen essentials like cast-iron pans and ceramics can topple over or even crush more fragile items in the vicinity. Stash them instead in bargain baskets and bins on the floor of a cabinet to keep them safe and secure—and out of sight.
Soup’s On
Why splurge on a commercial can stacker to stem the avalanche of soup cans in the cabinet? You can make your own bargain version at home from an empty soda-can box. Cut a hole in the top of the box large enough to fit a soup can, then glue decorative paper to all four sides of the box to conceal its humble origins.
It’s a Wrap
If bulky boxes of plastic wrap and aluminum foil are adding to the chaos of your kitchen cabinets or jam-packed drawers, transplant them to the back of a cabinet door. Secure two self-adhesive hooks to the wall for every holder, then slide the ends of each box around the hooks to keep them in close reach for wrapping up leftovers.
Think Outside the Box
Those boxes of pasta, rice, and dried goods in the cabinet may hold the makings of home-cooked comfort food, but they can also make already crowded shelves too cramped for comfort. Transfer their contents into space-smart glass jars to bring visual order to a pantry cabinet.
Stick to It
Even a cleverly conceived pantry organizer isn’t complete without labels. With stylish stickers made from adhesive vinyl letters, you’ll never have to guess what’s in stock. Adhere the labels to the front of each storage canister to identify foods in a jiffy and avoid “oops” moments during your next baking session.
Spiced-Up Storage
Variety is the spice of life—so why not change up your storage with a new behind-the-door spice rack? Assemble scrap wood, a wooden dowel, and a few screws into a lightweight shelf. Secure the rack to an interior cabinet door lined with decorative contact paper to store your aromatics in style.
Group Mentality
How you arrange items in your cabinets is as important as what you choose to store in them. Take stock of your pantry and categorize items by type—for example, baking supplies, dry goods, spices, and canned goods. Once everything’s been sorted, stash like items into designated bins to make searching and scavenging for ingredients a thing of the past.
Tension Rod Storage Hack
It can be difficult to keep spray bottles and other cleaning supplies from falling over and making a mess under your kitchen sink. Thankfully, we have plenty of cabinet organization tips and tricks. To keep your cleaning supplies upright, hang them from a short tension rod inside your cabinet. Another clever idea is to slide a paper towel roll through the tension rod for easy access. This tension rod organization hack is also a great place to hang dish-drying towels and rubber cleaning gloves.
Use Kitchen Storage and Organization as Decor
A simple addition of molding along the upper cabinets adds a decorative touch as well as more kitchen storage space for displaying favorite dishes. It’s painted to match other features in the kitchen. You could also replace your cabinets with trendy open shelves.
Install a Kitchen Cabinet Rollout
A shortage of storage space in kitchen cabinets would sour anyone in need of maximum stowaway room. Kitchen cabinet rollouts give additional capacity to cabinets and make it easier to find items so you can smile while you snack. Learn how to build your own rollouts for your kitchen with the help of the Family Handyman’s DIY University.
Kitchen Window Plant Perch
Do you like having fresh herbs at your fingertips? Keeping them on your counter takes up valuable space and doesn’t expose them to enough light. Try this easy storage idea: Install a wire shelf between the upper cabinets flanking your kitchen window. You can set your plants where they’ll get plenty of light without blocking the view. This also makes watering easy and keeps them readily available for snipping. Make sure to install the shelf high enough so you don’t bump into it when you’re working at the sink.
Wine Storage and Organization for Small Kitchens
What, no wine rack? No wine cellar either? No problem! You can just as easily store your wine collection in a deep kitchen drawer, if there’s one that’s vacant. Just be sure to alternate the direction of the bottle so that they nest well together. If you’re feeling ambitious, you could try making your own roll-out drawers to house your wine supply within a more spacious cupboard instead.
Kitchen Storage: Better in a Basket
You come home from the grocery store with an armful of fresh fruit, but lo and behold—there’s no spare fridge or counter space available. A stylish solution for this storage problem is to hang a single or tiered wire basket from the ceiling. You can store your apples, bananas, and oranges as well as potatoes, onions, and garlic here. Plus, a hanging basket adds visual interest to your kitchen.
