How to Plan Your Kitchen Cabinet Storage for Maximum Efficiency

Kitchen cabinet storage planning is one of the most important considerations when planning a kitchen remodel or addition. It’s important to plan only for the genuine needs of your new kitchen because cabinets are the single largest cost item in your remodeling budget. Be sure to plan for enough cabinets for your needs without installing a lot of extra cabinet space.

There are several ways to estimate your storage needs when designing your new or remodeled kitchen.

• Measure the cabinets you currently have and replace them with new cabinets in identical sizes.
• Get everything out of your cabinets, combine items appropriately into groups that would go in individual cabinets. Then measure items (space used) and assess the size and number of cabinets needed.
• Keep in mind that your new cabinets are primarily kitchen organizers. Look at the items currently in your cabinets. What could you rearrange to use the space more efficiently? What could you move to a less accessible space (because you use it less often)?
• Consider other items you’d like to be able to store in your new kitchen cabinets; then add this to your calculations.
• Check out all of the specialized types of cabinets available in the wood, color and design you want. You might consider refrigerated drawers, pull-out cabinets, slide-out shelves, drawers that hold pots and pans in the deeper bottom section, and lids in a smaller top section. There are many new configurations every year.
• Plan the placement of your appliances, ceramic hob, ovens, etc. and then plan cabinets around it.
• The best approach to cabinet planning might be to work with a kitchen designer, your contractor, or your cabinetmaker to place appliances and cabinets where they’re available where you need them when you’re entertaining, cooking, or cleaning.

The next step in planning your cabinets in a way that will make your kitchen more efficient is to evaluate how you can maximize your cabinet space with various cabinet organizers. You have access to an amazing variety of organization devices for drawers, cabinets and other spaces in your kitchen. For example:

1. Use special sized drawers or extra irregular sized space to store canned goods, bottled beverages, etc.
2. Use a Lazy Susan to make items in the back of higher or lower cabinets accessible.
3. Use drawer dividers to keep a kitchen utensil drawer organized and tidy.
4. Instead of wasting the top half of every shelf in a cabinet, install a two-tier Lazy Susan.

You can also maximize your storage space with special custom cabinets. Instead of losing access to things in the back of a base corner cabinet, install a cabinet with a built-in Lazy Susan. Another idea is to have your cabinetmaker build you a tall, narrow cabinet next to the oven for pizza pans, cookie sheets, and the like. Consider cabinets equipped with smaller shelves, slanted shelves for canned beverages, etc., and install a special cabinet under the sink equipped with a pull-out trash can shelf or trash bag frame and small storage device. additional garbage. trousers.

Once you understand the many options available to you when planning kitchen cabinet storage, it becomes much easier to plan a kitchen in the style and layout you most want, while also ensuring you’ll have the right kind and quantity. of storage space you need. A little imagination and some creative planning will result in the kitchen of your dreams.