I will tell you my cookie tray divider has been a waste to me. I have put all kinds of things in the slots!

I LOVE my drawer pull outs, my pot and pan drawer, my lazy susan and my cutlery insert and spice rack that is in my upper cabinet.

My lazy susan is so convenient. I have lots of Tupperware and it all fits in perfectly and I can see everything easily.

I also love the cutlery insert. I know that some may see this as a waste, but it is so much nicer than anyone I would have just dropped in.

Not sure if you have already picked cabinets but the soft touch drawers are the best. I wish I had done the same kind of idea on my cabinets.

As for the upper cabinets - I feel your pain. I am 5 ft 1 in so when we decided to go ahead with the 42 inch cabinets, I had no choice but to invest in a step stool. I would love to hear what ideas people have to make the uppers more useful!

Good luck with your remodel!

Well, there are a lot of different pull down shelving systems you can put in. Check Hafale, Rev-a-Shelf, even Rubbermaid.

I love my horizontal tray cabinet. That has skin shelves a couple inches apart for anything flat.

Also, my rectangular baskets for (vertical) container lids.

The wicker baskets are my absolute favorite.

There are actually 3 baskets here in the space. Before my fruits were always all over the place--on counter, on table, or even on the floor. Now they have a place to go (except if I bought a huge watermelon...)

I also have sink tip-outs, 9-inch pull-out right next to the range, and a spice rack on a wall cab door. I like the look of all these things but functionally I can live without them. Well, maybe the spice rack does help. I don't know because I just put it in.

3 houses ago, I had and loved the trash pull out. It's excellent to not see the can. In my current house, the only place for a can was in a 36" aisle between the peninsula and pantry, which narrowed the aisle down to 26".

We also had a spice drawer (insert) which I loved too.

I had sink tilt outs in the last 3 houses. I didn't use these as much as I thought I would. I think I might forego these this time around. I can always add these later if I feel the need. As a side note, in my 3rd house we even had these in the bathroom. I found an old retainer in there that was probably there for 10 years (yuck!).

Another shorty here (5'2") so I'd love to hear some suggestions for those uppers. I have plans to have my sheets, muffin tins, etc in a lower cab, so I'd be curious to see what other people have done. I HAVE seen some interesting modifications for wine glass pull outs on ikeafans, so check over there too.

And I too already have a step stool. Other than a ladder, there's no avoiding it if you're vertically challenged.

I think these two are my favorites....

First, my tray storage (muffin tins, roasting pan, broiling pan, cookie sheets, cooling racks, pizza pans, etc.)

This cabinet is above my double ovens. Two things about this I like:

(1) The slots allow me to store everything in such a way that I can quickly and easily get exactly what I want w/o having to paw through a stack of trays, etc.

(2) Platter storage...Because this cabinet is 24" deep, I can store all my longer platters and griddle lengthwise here.

Also, notice the location of the shelf...removing a tray (or cookie sheet, muffin tin, cooling rack, etc.) only requires pulling out by a bottom corner, access to the top of the trays, etc. is not needed. So, to increase "reachable" storage, the trays are actually on the shelf and the platters & griddle are on the floor of the cabinet. This way, the platters & griddle are easily reached as well as the trays, etc.

Second, my trash/recycle pullout with Junk Drawer above. The dogs can no longer get into the trash and I no longer have to find floor space for a stand-alone trash can. This also gives me room for two bins...the front bin holds trash, the back recyclables. So no more piling up of recyclables on the counter for a recycle run to the garage.

OK...there are three things that are my favorite...my knife storage. I was never particularly happy storing my knives in a knife block on the counter. It took up too much space. I like this much, much better!

I also like how I now have most of my prep & cooking utensils & tools organized so no more pawing through a drawer looking for just the right tool.

Here's my husband's favorite...our "Pet Zone". In our old kitchen, we stored the dog food in the pantry and the other "doggy items" scattered around the house. Now, everything is in one place and right next to where we feed them.

One thing though...this was supposed to be a pullout w/the bottom "shelf" attached to the door and a roll out tray shelf (ROTS) inside. It was something I missed in the final cabinet order. B/c it's against a wall, we had to put in filler to allow the left door to open 90 degrees...and that's about all it opens. The other problems w/the configuration we ended up with, is that we have to pen two doors completely b/f we can pull out any of the ROTSs. If they're not open all the way, they ding the doors. Ditto for making sure the ROTSs are completely inside the cabinet b/f closing the doors. Oh well!

@Buel, you saved me taking a picture - actually two pictures! I have done the same tray/baking sheet storage above my wall ovens and it's wonderful. So much more accessible than in my last kitchen where they were stacked in a lower cabinet and I just almost always used the one on top.

We also invested in some adjustable utensil trays in the under cooktop drawer and it is heavenly to put my hand right on the item I need.

The trash and recycling pull out is great too.

The one thing I think was a waste was the $75 under sink drawer. I thought it would be useful, but it's not really worth the investment.

For the pantry, I bought about eight wall spice racks that store almost all of my spices. That has been very helpful. I also bought some "expand-a-shelf" organizers that allow me to see everything even at the back of my pantry shelves.

By the way, The Container Store was my favorite place to shop for the first couple of months post kitchen reno!

Here is a link that might be useful: wall spice racks

I would have to say the pull out trash cans are one of my absolute favorite. I love not having to see my trash can and it is by my sink which is very convenient.

I also love my lazy susans. They hold lots and make it very easy to get to smaller items like blenders and such.

Another of my favorites are my drawers. I have 2 sets of deep drawers. They hold my plates/bowls, all my paper goods like bags and foil, lids, dish towels and, of course, pots/pans.

If I could have a dream piece of storage, this would
be it. A secret door with all sorts of goodies behind it.
~boxerpups

And here are a few other clever ideas that hopefully
someone can make work in their space.

{{gwi:1751040}}

Ebenstein kitchens

{{gwi:1751042}}

IKEA

Rollie - where did you get that insert? We need details!

I'm short also - 5'. I want to have glass at the top of my cabinet doors so that the top shelf can be used for display. I'll probably use the 2nd shelf for things seldom used and have a step stool close by. I can usually only reach the 1st shelf so that is where I'll keep everyday things.

here's 2 I really like and hope to use a version of 1 in my new kitchen. either could be reconfigured to hold items you need stored.
both are by gw posters I think - the 1st is 'colibri5' ? and the 2nd I don't know.

I am disabled from a back injury, so one of the goals of my renovation was to eliminate all of the bottom cupboards and replace them with drawers and pull-outs, as well as a corner Super Susan.

Island with giant pot drawers and trash pull-out:

Liquor "cabinet" consisting of 2 pull-outs:

Sink organization (also has tilt-outs):

Top drawer holds cutting boards, bottom holds cookie sheets:

Roll-outs for canned goods and slot next to oven for cooling racks:

I don't have this, but I think it's great for baking pan storage. I built 14'' uppers, so I put my infrequently used pans in the cupboard over the refrigerator.

Thanks everyone.

Marcolo, who makes that pull down? I've seen it before, but have not been able to find it recently -- Rev-a-shelf and Hafele sites can make my head spin sometimes.

Buehl, did you have a separate shelf made for the tray rack? It seems that most I see are just installed directly on the bottom of the cabinet.

Rollie, that is a cool cabinet. I'd like to see more about how that works and what is stored under the cooking utensils.

Warmfridge, in the two-drawer adult beverage cabinet is the uppper drawer full depth(i.e. as deep as the cabinet)? I considered just having a lower roll-out shelf with a stationary half-shelf above, so that I could put taller items out front but a half drawer like that would certainly ease access.

Copied from my post to kathe regarding the utensil storage tray.

That was an initial install picture when I was leaving the job. I just took some utensils out and put them in the holders for a picture. I have done several different versions of this type of insert, and havent really come up with the perfect design yet. But, its improving every time.

The benefits of this type of storage is that almost everything can fit in the top drawer, and is visible, rather than being stacked up on top of themselves in two or 3 drawers. The negative to this, is the depth required to store the untensils vertically. Yes, there is useable space below, but how to best access it and what to put in it, is the problem. My next option to try is a 2 drawer unit, with the larger drawer on the top for the utensils. There are also lots of variables as to the sizes of the holes needed.

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I love the high-sided super susans Boxerpups showed. I had pantry susans in my old kitchen and hated them. I love my new corner drawers, but the high sided susans would have made those less hateful. Corner susans are better for larger things like pots than for pantry items. For that you'd want low sides. But I still love the thinking on the tall ones.

Not a drawer insert, per se, but a nifty way to make a storage niche.

My tall oven cabinet came with a shelf, so I just put it high enough to fit my griddle and extra long platters and then placed the dividers on top of the shelf. The dividers can be screwed down, but I didn't bother as they don't move much without the screws and it also meant I didn't have to drill holes in my shelf!

Even if the cabinet had not come w/the shelf, I was going to ask for one since I already had planned for this storage based on what I had seen here in the thread linked below. I think I got the idea from Gizmonike and Sail-Away.

BTW...I was originally going to get the Rev-A-Shelf dividers but put these from Walmart in temporarily. The Walmart ones worked so well that I didn't bother to replace them...besides, I would have needed 6 packs of 2-dividers each and at $14.95 per 2-pack, this was much cheaper! I used 3 dividers from Walmart at $5.95 each, so $18 vs $90...easy decision!

I also bought two more of those dividers and put them under my corner prep sink...one in each deep corner One holds cutting boards, the other holds my pizza stones & cast iron frying pan.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: tray cabinets - top 1/2 wasted space

Missstella,

Both bottle drawers are full-depth. The top one is also adjustable in height so there's plenty of room for tall bottles below. Much better than fixed shelves, IMHO. My cabinets are 40 1/2'' tall though, so you might have to give up the small drawer above the liquor cabinet to get enough height for 2 drawers of bottles.

The kitchen we're about to have remodeled will have an island with a door on the end for us to store our two dining room table leaves (leafs?). So cool.

You beat me to it unsub! I was just going to post about my table leaf storage.

I was so proud of myself when I came up with this idea back in the mid 80's. You can see my little door here. We kept the cabinets (even the original finish) when we remodeled. Just did the backsplash and granite. The leaf storage cabinet goes along the back of the island and is big enough for all four of my leaves for the big round oak table. Plus there is still room for cookie sheets, trays and a big roasting cutting board.

Warmfridge, I love, love, love your cutting board and tray storage to the right of your range. And isn't it funny how the little things matter?.... that curved shelf under your sink is sooooo unique and useful! Bravo!

Thank you, gbsim. There's a bin at the rear of the cutting board drawer where I keep my food processor blades, which are too sharp just to leave lying around in a regular drawer. I keep my DW tablets on that curved shelf, and it eliminates some problematic bending given my back injury.

Your table leaf storage is a great idea too. After 10 years of keeping mine under the bed in the spare bedroom, I just discovered they ''self-store'' under the tabletop. :-)

I love my new spice rack! This is one of those that worked as well as I thought. It has little labels to show what's on every shelf, and it holds so much in a fairly compact space.

Here's a pic from amazon:

Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon Spice Stack