5 Expert Tips for Organizing Your Corner Cabinets
Corner cabinets! We confess to feeling a bit confounded by them. They’re so spacious! But, at the same time, they can be hard to navigate, thanks to funky angles and that awkward too-deep depth.
Many corner cabinets are equipped with built-in lazy Susans, which can help a little. What helps even more? These smart tips from organizing experts on how to best utilize your corner cabinets.
1. Stash less-used items in the back.
“That chili pot that you only use on Super Bowl Sunday? That’s a perfect item to stash in the back of the cabinet,” says Darla DeMorrow, owner of HeartWork Organizing. Other items to relegate to the back? Cake pedestals, grandma’s punch bowl, and any other special-occasion items.
Top cabinets, which are not only deep but also high, present even more of a challenge than bottom cabinets. You can’t even reach the back without a step stool! DeMorrow’s smart solution is to line the back of those shelves with the fancy glassware that rarely get used and use the very front of those shelves for the glasses you use all the time.
2. Use bottom corner cabinets as appliance garages.
Bottom corner cabinets typically have one major advantage over the rest of your cabinets: They’re big enough to handle the bulkier items. “Use corner cabinets as an appliance garage for items such as a blender, slow cooker, or popcorn maker,” says Stacey Agin Murray, owner of Organized Artistry in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
3. Or consider storing garbage and recycling.
If you think corner cabinet storage is already throwaway space, make it a reality: Use the lower cabinet for your garbage and recycling cans, Murray suggests. Place a rectangular can to each side, and use the center “wedge” to store trash bags and reusable totes in a round bin or basket.
4. Resist the urge to overfill.
Just because there’s a ton of room in there doesn’t mean you need to fill every inch of space. In fact, it’s pretty hard to get things out if they’re packed in too tightly. Also, you’re more likely to forget about whatever is squeezed in there. “There’s nothing worse than finding a half-eaten bag of candy that the mice got to first, years after you put it up there,” says DeMorrow.
5. You don’t need fancy organizers.
There are tons of expensive shelves, drawers, and organizers you can buy, but you can save a ton of money if you get a little creative. Cut cereal boxes on an angle (so they look like magazine organizers) and use them to hold plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and boxes of zip-top bags, suggests DeMorrow.
Another tip: “If you wish to keep small/lightweight items in a corner cabinet, place them in a shoebox and slide it in and out for easy access,” says Murray. And if there’s no lazy Susan, a pizza pan works great at a makeshift one, she says.
If you have money to spend: 8 Ingenious Organizing Ideas for Corner Cabinets
How do you make your corner cabinets work for you? What do you store in them and how easy (or hard?) is it to access what you need?