Small Space Saver: PANTREE Vertical Organization

Do you have pots, pans, skillets, and spatulas shoved willy-nilly into your cupboards? We do, and it's driving us crazy. We keep rearranging to find a better configuration, but we wonder if this PANTREE would be a good solution.

The PANTREE is a plastic cupboard organizer that is (hello! good idea!) round, just like most of your cookware. It holds up to 14 pieces of cookware plus 4 matching lids and fits into standard base cabinets. It can hold up to 25 pounds of weight, so even cast iron pans can be stored in it.

We'd like to point out that 14 pieces of cookware is plenty for the average kitchen, so this thing promises to hold nearly every piece of cookware you need, outside of baking pans.

The PANTREE takes up only 13" diameter of space and 19" in height, so it fits the standard 24" base kitchen cabinet. We have those cabinets with a recessed 1/2 shelf in the back, but this thing even fits in those. It won't fit in ultra narrow cabinets, but we bet that most kitchens have one cabinet where this will fit.

The manufacturer says that it can save up to 300% in cabinet space. You can even add a utensil attachment and a swivel, so you can store even more in this small footprint.

We wonder about how sturdy this is (it "snaps together" easily, they say) and how it would hold up to daily use. But the idea is great, and much more efficient than stacking pans together in teetering heaps. In fact, it's probably better for the pans, since they aren't getting rubbed together in a stack all the time.

What do you think? Have you tried the PANTREE? We're very curious.

• PANTREE available direct through their website, starting at $24.95

(Images: PANTREE)

oh this is brilliant--i have that exact cabinet (and a set of red pots and pans too) and i'm constantly trying to keep it organized, but always end up with a jumble that leads to plenty of clamor and noise. clearly i need this product.

posted by nyalli718 on October 7th 2008 at 12:28pm
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I think this is slightly deceptive advertising. It's one of those things were they stage a before photo worse than it actually is. You would actually save even more space if you stack all the pots on one shelf and pans on the other. then you would have room to scatter the lids neatly or get a door lid organizer from container store. Look closely at the after picture there are 2 mixing bowls on the shelf behind this. How do you effectively remove them without removing this entire system.

posted by funstraw on October 8th 2008 at 4:13am
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Also highly deceptive is that these are two different cabinets. one the door hangs on the left and the other the right. The after picture is a wider cabinet. So now this is taking up more room than before

posted by funstraw on October 8th 2008 at 4:15am
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this is definitely intriguing. even though the "after" cabinet looks wider, i'm thinking that this contraption would have fit in the first cabinet, too? def curious about how sturdy it is. i'm with nyalli in that it looks like it could prevent me from making a racket as i sort through my tower o' pots and pans.

posted by gretchenalexis on October 8th 2008 at 7:54am
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i can't figure out how you would get out the stockpot on the bottom tier. the support legs look too narrow to allow a pot to get in or out without turning it sideways & bumping the other pots and pans... which sort of defeats the purpose.

posted by makyo on October 8th 2008 at 9:31am
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Excellent - thanks I was looking for something like this!!

posted by SAG on October 9th 2008 at 9:06am
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not the same cabinet-you can "eyeball" that one is bigger than the other; plus, I can see myself after a 16-hour day trying pull one of the pots out without the patience to wriggle it out of the side, or catching the lid, or the handle, or something; an experience in frustration just waiting to happen

posted by Rndrc on October 11th 2008 at 11:51am
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