Space-saving tips for your kitchen

Do you often find yourself lacking precious counter space in the kitchen? Are you having a hard time finding ingredients in the blackhole that is your pantry? Bumping onto corners because there’s just too little moving space in your kitchen? If you answered yes to the previous questions, then your kitchen is definitely up for a makeover.

Building the perfect kitchen isn’t just about getting the best-laminated wood for the cabinets or the finest stonework for your benchtop. For a lot of people, excellent space-saving kitchen storage and design solutions are the building blocks of a top-notch kitchen. Here are some space-saving tips to keep in mind for your next kitchen renovation.

Rack ’em up

Racks and shelves are some of the most versatile ways to store kitchen stuff. Racks installed behind the doors of your kitchen cabinets are great for storing spice jars and food canisters. Get rid of the chunky knife block and declutter your utensil drawers by storing your knives and most-used utensils on wall racks or magnetic wall strips. Don’t know where to put the lids of your pots and pans? Have a magazine rack installed on the sides of your cookware cabinet to hold the lids.

Some people opt to DIY these space-saving tricks, but if you’re not handy with tools and you don’t want to make a mess of your kitchen, you can hire a trusty handyman to do this for you for only around $40 per hour.

You probably think that you can’t possibly add more storage to your small kitchen, but have you tried looking under the sink, under the cabinets, or in forgotten corners? A lot of storage space is lost in the corners of your kitchen cabinets. The area beneath your sink is the perfect spot for storing your gloves, sponges, and other kitchen cleaning materials.

If you need better lighting for your kitchen, under-cabinet lighting can do the trick without taking up too much space. Doing this lighting trick on your overhead cabinets can make every inch of your counter accessible. It’s best to hire a licensed electrician to take care of this job. They might charge you around $60 per hour, but at least you will feel more secure afterwards. Lastly, corner drawers are perfect for accessing those forgotten corner spaces and they make for great silverware storage or a roll-out pantry.

Update your cabinets

Roll-outs, swing-outs, and lazy Susans—with the number of better kitchen cabinet options available, there is no reason to stick to your old base cabinets. Upgrading your cabinets with roll-outs and swing-outs can help you utilize the hard-to-reach back area of your cabinets and make everything so much more accessible.

While a kitchen reno can definitely take a big chunk out of your savings, the results will definitely make it all worth it.