Why You Should Keep a Shower Caddy in Your Kitchen

I may be in the minority among my parent friends, but I love TikTok and all the practical ways it makes my life better (ahem, ingenious TikTok cleaning tricks). I’ve learned how to clean my greasy oven racks with foil, organized my cookbooks in the cutest way, and even created the smartest under-the-sink storage system. Recently I picked up a brilliant way to use a shower caddy in my kitchen, and it’s the smartest organizing solution I’ve seen in years.

In the now-viral video, DIY experts at @hometalk demonstrate a simple way to make a pot organizer out of two shower caddies. The hack looks ridiculously easy and costs way less than pricy pot organizers (ready-to-go customizable pot organizers cost around $30 to $40). I had to test it out to see if it was too good to be true. This time, I didn’t just save the video to (probably never) try later — I actually bought the supplies and got to work. 

All you need are two basic shower caddies and zip ties. Simplicity is key here — you don’t want any razor hooks getting in the way, so look for flat shelves with no frills. You’ll save more at a discount store such as Dollar Tree, but I prefer shopping from my couch, so I ordered these $8 shower caddies on Amazon. You’ll also need small plastic zip ties if you don’t have any on hand already, and they have lots of other uses (I corral cord clutter with mine). 

The process is straightforward. Weave the caddies together, top edges facing each other (as pictured above); you’ll stop when the top of one caddy meets the bottom of the other. Then, use four zip ties to connect the caddies on the sides and at the ends, and trim the tails of the ties. That’s it! I had my DIY pot organizer in less than five minutes. 

I wondered if I could get by with tying the caddies together with string or maybe a twist tie. You could definitely attempt this, but the zip ties seem the most secure. In theory, I could toss it across the room and it would hold its shape (I didn’t actually crash test my DIY pot organizer).

Now for the moment of truth: Did the pots fit? They absolutely did! Because the spaces between each “shelf” on the shower caddy are different sizes and some spaces are thinner than others, some slots were big enough for my biggest frying pan or 30-quart pot, while others could only fit my smaller saucepans. If anything, it’s nice to have the variety of different-sized slots, as I was able to fit everything I needed in my sturdy new organizer. I also tried out serving dishes, cutting boards, and baking dishes, and this DIY project could handle it all. The only limiting factor was the height of my cabinets, which are too short to fit some of my pans on their sides, but no organizer could fix that. 

Speaking of cabinets, it’s important to note that this system is all about organizing, not about protecting your cabinet interior. The pans will still touch the surface they’re placed on, so if you’re worried about scratching your cabinets, you may want to purchase a heavy-duty shelf liner to place underneath the organizer. I’d say this DIY project alone justifies a little more time spent scrolling on TikTok. 

Buy: 3-Tier Shower Caddy, $7.63