Lazy Susans were designed to make things easier to reach, but if you’ve dealt with them in your kitchen cabinets, you’ve probably realized how bad they are at keeping things organized. That’s why it’s time to declutter your messy kitchen cabinets and move on to one of the newer and better options for cabinet storage.
Lazy Susans first became a popular cabinet installation in the 1950s. The rotating, circular shelves were ideal for fitting into that awkward corner cabinet space above or below your counters. But here’s the problem with lazy Susans: The circular shelf makes it harder to keep things orderly, as you line items like dishes, sauces, or spices on it without any separation. And even more annoyingly, it’s easy for everything to get knocked over as it rotates around. Some older kitchens may have lazy Susans made of wire inside their cabinets, and the unstable surface makes it nearly impossible for items to stay upright unless they’re packed in. Additionally, lazy Susans waste usable storage space. The middle bar and placement of shelves takes up area where items could have been placed, and the shape makes it hard to store larger items.
Storage options instead of a lazy Susan
If you’re looking for ways to update your kitchen cabinets, there are numerous alternatives to the lazy Susan that can better optimize the space in that awkward corner and make it into a useful storage area. One option is a pull-out shelf, called a magic corner cabinet. This type of a shelf is designed to be easy to access, and it can create a significant amount of storage. A magic corner pull out makes use of the back of the cabinet door, ultimately holding more items than a lazy Susan. When you open the cabinet, the shelving pops right out.
There’s also the Leman’s corner pull out. It looks similar to a lazy Susan inside the cabinet, but while a lazy Susan just turns, you can pull Leman’s corner shelves out, which is much more useful for seeing everything you have stored. Another option is to install corner drawers that have 90 degree angles in the space. You’ll often see these types of drawers in sets of threes.
The corner space in a kitchen often is awkward to use without items getting lost inside. That’s why some homeowners are foregoing it all together. They’re creating a void corner, which is where there is no corner cabinet. Instead, the space is filled with longer cabinets. This layout can create a spot for low shelves, a great space to place the microwave, or as a spot to store dishes in a small kitchen.
