Lately we've been eying our kitchen and thinking about reorganization. (Cure Takers, we know you're with us on this one!) We've always been a bit bothered by where to keep our silverware - there just doesn't seem to be a good place for it. Where do you store yours?
Currently, we have our silverware in one of the drawers in our kitchen. When we moved in, we picked that drawer for no other reason than it was the closest one to us when we were unpacking the box. Now that we've had time to settle, we wonder if some re-arranging might be necessary.
We've been considering building some open shelving against one of our kitchen walls, and wonder if it might work to set the silverware out in the open on one of the shelves. If we bought a nice organizer tray that matched the shelves, we think it would look natural.
We like the idea of being able to grab what we need by just reaching over to the shelf. It would also give everyone access to the shelf without getting in each other's way (we're thinking of busy mealtimes when one of us is setting the table while the other is finishing dinner).
What do you think? Do you like where your silverware is stored, or would you like to change?
Related: Kitchen Organization: What's On Top Of Your Fridge?
(Image: Flickr member froggygrl727 licensed under Creative Commons)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
I dont' have enough counter space to allow it to be out in the open so mine is in a drawer.
I don't have drawers in my kitchen, so I got these containers from IKEA and nailed them to the wall vertically (since I don't have enough wall space for the suspension rail either)
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70105659
Ours can't fit in a drawer (our widest one is about 7"!), and we don't have any counter space, so ours is in a plastic silverware holder on top of our microwave...
... just completed a big reno last year... updated the old battered 50's kitchen and replaced a wall between kitchen and dining area with a peninsula. Try to picture this... at the wall end of our new peninsula we have 3 shallow drawers ( ~ 4 inches) that span the area between the upper cabinet and the countertop. These are only as deep as the upper cabinet... 15 inches. The lowest drawer holds our basic flatware in dividers I got from Target... the middle drawer holds the serving ware and other things like cheese spreaders and wine openers... the top drawer holds my ipod connector and my food scale. I absolutely love it. I can access the drawers from either side. BTW... The top drawer in the peninsula holds my cooking utensils and an in-drawer knife block like the photo in one of today's earlier posts.
I can't really imagine silverware sitting out. Wouldn't it get dirty, especially with cooking grease? Trying to think, but I don't believe I've ever been in a home where the silverware didn't live in a drawer.
I don't like the idea of silverware being on a shelf... unless it's a relatively low one. High shelves are great when the items you store on them are big and easy to see. They are bad ewhen the items are small and have poking potential.
I think you'll be better off with little containers like the ones alison suggests, and hangin them beneath your cabinets so forks and knives are easy to see and grab.
But then... I am definitely a 'seeker' when it comes to organization... so things just get messy if I can't see them easily.
We've always kept ours in a drawer...I never thought about there being another way!
I used to live in an apartment with very little drawer space so I used two stainless steel canisters I received as a wedding gift. They originally came with lids and were meant to store cotton balls, q-tips, etc. The taller one holds the knives, dinner forks and spoons, while the smaller one holds teaspoons and dessert forks. They look great with our stainless steel flatware (also a wedding gift) so even though we now have a larger kitchen, they still live on the counter next to the knife block.
I have a very very narrow utensil drawer and I found a very narrow but expandy untesnil organizer at Target that is wonderful.
I tried to find it online to link, but could not :(
I'm with fib. Wouldn't the shelf have to be quite low in order for you to see what you're getting?
We moved into our apartment only to discover that there is exactly one drawer in the kitchen. Not somthing we were too concerned about but it was really a surprise! Upshot - our cutlery lives in one of those silverware caddies on the lowest shelf of the cabinet which holds all our dishes. It's just below eye level so things are pretty easy to find.
Mine are in a tray on an open shelving unit because a heroin addict used to live here and I'm way too skeeved out by the drawers and cabinets to ever use them.
The bulk of my silverware is in a silverware drawer. But I keep a stash of smaller dessert forks and spoons in a caddy on my kitchen counter, right next to my coffee machine. I can grab these quickly for coffee, snacks, etc., just handier, since the silverware drawer is on the other end of the kitchen.
Currently my silverware is in a drawer because we have no counter space, but in a previous apartment where I had no drawers, I kept silverware in a nice wooden tray on the countertop. In response to eprewitt, I kept it clean and dust/grease-free by covering the tray with a striped cloth placemat or tea towel.
Silverware in a drawer. We have cats, and I just can't put them out in the open where cat paws and hair can touch. Though they know not to get on the counters, I just know they are doing it when we aren't home.
I keep mine in glasses behind the dish rack - one glass per (forks, knives, tablespoons, teaspoons). I have limited drawer space, limited counter space and limited shelf space, so this is a good solution for me.
It also encourages me to put things away because it is so easy to do so.
I have lived, happily, with flatware in a designated plastic holder on top of a (short) refrigerator. I did cover it with a pretty dishcloth against dust and grease. No drawers in this kitchen at all.
I have lived, happily, in a kitchen with many drawers and lots of space. Then the flatware was in its designated plastic holder in a drawer.
I have lived, perhaps most happily of all, with the flatware assorted by type (soup spoons, teaspoons, esspresso spoons, forks, salad forks, knives) in the prettiest cans I could find, emptied of course and cleaned up. If an even prettier labeled can showed up in my life, I'd switch out the old for the new can. These cans of flatware lived on a shallow shelf just above counter height - easy. This was in a country house, so when not there, I stored the flatware in deep bean pots nearby and turned the cans over.
We've always had enough drawer space, so that's where the silverware goes - in the drawer closest to our plates. Convenient, no?
I don't have anything against silverware nicely organized on a shelf, but if I had the choice, I'd take the drawer.
No drawers in the kitchen? Clean marinara sauce jars and use them as holders on the counter.
My kitchen is super small and does not have any drawers, so I keep the silverware in a small metal box on the windowsill above my sink.
I find that it really doesn't get dirty/dusty since I use them every day.
I only have a few very small, narrow drawers in my kitchen, so I keep my silverware in a tupperware type bin on a shelf in one of the cabinets. It's all kind of jumbled together, but since there are only two of us, it's easy enough to find what we need at table setting time.
My kitchen has no drawers, so we keep the flatware in mason jars on the counter: 1 each for steak knives, butter knives, large spoons, small spoons, large forks and small forks.
We have hanging cutlery that sits on the holder on the bench that divides the kitchen area from the dining area. Cutlery that doesn't have a hole at the end to hang sits in a plastic divider in the top drawer of the kitchen.
Sadly, we lost a teaspoon from the "good set" that we were given for our wedding when we had it in a drawer in our last abode - just could not find it anywhere when we came to put everything back in the box. That set of cutlery currently lives in a glory-box but may come out again when we find somewhere "permanent" to live (moving in a fortnight).