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Kitchen counters are a clutter-prone zone where a lot of us kind of just dump our stuff when walking into the house. This temporary relief creates more problems later, when it comes time to cook, and suddenly there’s no more counter space left. Shrinkflation hasn’t only hit grocery store shelves — apartments are getting smaller too. With rising prices of groceries, rent, and mortgages, many folks don’t have the square footage or budget to spare. A clean kitchen is one less thing to stress over, and you don’t have to break the bank to find efficient storage solutions.
For under $10, you can DIY a practical three-tier shelf to store stray kitchen supplies. All you need are four wooden dowels, three wooden boxes or trays of your choice, and a strong adhesive like Gorilla Glue. This tutorial by @cozydiyhome on Instagram shows a helpful step-by-step guide on how to put the mini shelf together.
The shape and size of your wooden shelf baskets don’t matter, as long as you have four evenly spaced dowels at the ends. Boxes, rectangular trays, and circular plates (which will require some circumference math) are all customizable options. For shelves tilted outward toward you, simply replace the four dowels with two thin planks of wood, installing them on either side of the diagonal baskets. The result is a cute and affordable shelf that can handle miscellaneous seasonings, salt packets, napkins, and whatever else is lying around on the counter.
Use vertical space to declutter kitchen countertops
If the kitchen ever feels cramped or cluttered, even when it’s clean, then it might be taking up too much horizontal space. You’ll conserve more space by organizing in vertical, long, and tall arrangements rather than spreading out items short and wide. Shelving allows you to utilize this vertical space that would be otherwise empty, and it’s how Martha Stewart gives tiny kitchen countertops more room.
For instance, magnetic knife strips are elegant decorations that take up much less space than a knife-holding block. There are also magnetic paper towel holders that attach to the refrigerator, giving you a consistent and accessible place to reach them. Shelving solutions like Kitsure’s over the sink dish drying rack on Amazon suspend pots and pans over the sink instead of letting them sit beside it. Using the DIY Dollar Tree shelf hack, you can conquer the air by relegating tiny items to the side, and it’s yours to customize so you can match it with the rest of the kitchen. All of these vertical solutions are valuable, renter-friendly ways of freeing countertop space in your home.
