When you’re thinking of pantry storage hacks that leave you with maximum space, obvious moves are to avoid buying oversized appliances and focus on professional kitchen tools every home chef should try. However, tiny gadgets and accessories can add up. If you’ve amassed so many pieces of equipment that your drawers and shelves look like a hoarder’s nest, try one of the most genius tips to organize cooking utensils: Use bins and baskets to sort them by use.
A unique challenge of organizing small kitchen tools is that they’re so easy to misplace and mix up (does that blender blade go into your juicer or food processor?). To avoid the hassle, grab small containers for as many appliances or categories as you need — one for your stand mixer attachments, another for your grilling tools, and so on. Each basket, tray, or bin should be easy for you to grab when you need it, so aim for lightweight materials like plastic. Even better, look for containers with handles that make them easier to pull out.
To save even more money and space, buy super cheap, identical bins at a dollar store, so you’ll be able to stack them if needed. Label each container using masking tape and a permanent marker so you can see what’s inside at a glance, then line them up neatly in your pantry. Voila, you have a pristine inventory of gadgets.
This simple storage trick also works for organizing your fridge
Once you try this hack for storing kitchen tools, use it to organize your fridge like a professional chef. Grab some containers and label them with various ingredient categories, and you can keep loose pieces of produce, small jars of seasonings, preserves, and condiments, and even sticks of butter and random chunks of cheese in their own bins.
Try seeking out bins and trays with dividers or separate compartments inside, so you can further sort items into subcategories — fruits in one half of a container and veggies in the other, for instance. Storing groceries in separate vessels can also aid with food safety, ensuring that raw meat or seafood doesn’t touch other ingredients. Say goodbye to taking out almost everything in the fridge just to find one or two items.
On a similar note, you can use this system to sort small pantry ingredients that always seem to get lost or scattered. It’s an effective way to organize your Nespresso pod stash, keep your herb and spice collection neat, and store tiny sauce packets from takeout altogether. Combine this with Ina Garten’s best tips for organizing your kitchen, and you’ll never have to rummage through hopelessly crowded storage spaces ever again.
