3 Clever Knife Storage Solutions

No matter how you slice it, each method of knife storage — whether you use a magnetic strip, knife block, or drawer system — comes with its own list of pros and cons. I happen to have some decent knives from Wüsthof, but they’re not so new and amazing that I feel the need to treat them like fragile babies (even though I probably should). My lack of real concern for them — and penchant for cute, crafty things — lead me to build this DIY option at my last job at Rachael Ray Every Day. (That reminds me: Hi, I’m the new Lifestyle Editor here!)

I became super proud of myself. (“Have you ever seen a better use of skewers and a tin?” I asked my husband, who was relatively unimpressed.) And then I wanted to see what other things people were using to build their own knife blocks. What did I find? Two surprising materials!

Amanda Carmona over at Hometalk had a ton of random knives without sheaths (and extra books, apparently!), so she came up with this ingenious hack. She simply hot-glued some old hardcover books together and tied them up with twine to keep the pages nice and tight. How cute would this be with a bunch of old cookbooks? Maybe just use duplicates so that you don’t have to take apart your knife block every time you need to reference a recipe.

Working with a strictly kitchen-related theme, Jen Migonas, the blogger behind Migonas Home, got inspired by a project she saw on Pinterest and emptied a bag of uncooked rice into an old vase. In just one minute, she had a perfectly cute and customizable knife block (knife vase?) to set on her countertop. If you’re not much of a rice person, Migonas says dried beans work just as well.