This Simple Storage Mistake Can Make Your Kitchen Cabinets Useless

We've spilled no end of virtual ink on tips and tricks for keeping your kitchen storage space tidy, from Dollar Tree finds for effective decluttering to a newspaper hack to help you organize your cabinets. But, at the end of the day, sometimes you just have too much stuff for even the most diligent organizational methods to whip into shape. That's why the experts say you should focus on filling your kitchen cabinets only with items that actually belong in your kitchen. If it ought to go in your garage, bathroom, foyer, or laundry room, put it there. Storing too much extraneous clutter in your kitchen is choking out your precious space, and, for most homeowners, space is at an absolute premium.

Items that belong in your kitchen cabinets (and drawers!) include those related to food and cooking, like ingredients, utensils, dinnerware, and storage containers. That leaves ... everything else. You'd be surprised at all the nonessential detritus that's taking up space in your kitchen, like pet food, basic tools, flashlights, and just about every single item in that junk drawer that you haven't deep-cleaned since 2016. Do you even need a junk drawer, for that matter, or do you simply use it in lieu of a trash can? If you find that you put more things in this drawer than you ever take out, consider dumping it altogether and using the newly freed area to give more room to your collection of utensils that's always jamming up in its undersized space.

To best make use of limited space in your kitchen cabinets, you might have to do some deep thinking about how to free up real estate. For instance, using a wall rack to store pots and pans can save kitchen space. Peg boards are actually a versatile and aesthetically pleasing way to hold up a variety of items while taking advantage of otherwise underutilized vertical space. If you are the type to store cleaning products under your sink, consider moving them out to the laundry room or garage, where they may be safer from children's prying hands but still centrally located. This will free up a ton of cabinet storage that you might have never considered possible.

Believe it or not, there are actually some items tangentially related to food and cooking that you shouldn't keep in your kitchen cabinets, either. This is also due to the fact that they suck space away from the ingredients and cooking implements that rightfully belong there. Cookbooks, for example, will likely better serve you if they go on a shelf in your living room bookcase. Paper towels might live on a roll holder in your kitchen, but your excess stock should be kept in a garage or other overflow area, as these can be huge space-wasters. Lastly, big bottles of cooking oil don't belong in your kitchen, either. That's not only because they have a big footprint (which they do), but also because the heat from cooking can cause them to go rancid.