1. Go high. Step back and look at your kitchen as a whole. Notice anything? You may see there’s prime real estate up high, such as on top of the refrigerator and above cabinets and doors. Take advantage of these spaces to store cookbooks, canisters or even wine bottles.

2. Get low. Make existing features in your kitchen functional with toe-kick drawers. Most cabinets sit off the floor with toe kicks, and now there are kits available to create drawers that open with a tap of your toes. A toe-kick drawer is a great place to house pet feeding dishes.

3. Hangin’ on. Sure, you can hang pots and pans from the ceiling or add a rack to a wall, but you might try hanging baskets to store dish cloths and towels. Use hooks to hang pot holders or utensils. Peg boards aren’t just for tools in the garage. Use them to create a cool place to hang pots and pans, mugs or utensils.

4. Slide and glide. Install sliding drawers on the side of your range to add functionality. The drawers don’t take up much room but are deep enough to provide plenty of storage. A sliding storage tower (on wheels!) is another option to make use of narrow spaces, such as between your oven and fridge.

5. Rack it up. Door racks on the inside of cabinet or pantry doors provide instant space-saving storage. While you’re in the mood, add racks to the wall near the stove to store spices, olive oil or other often-used items for easy accessibility, or create a wine rack with everything you need — bottles, glasses and a corkscrew.

6. Island living. The options for using your island are endless. Add cabinets underneath for additional storage, shelves on one side to store kitchen gadgets, or install a built-in trash can to preserve floor space.

7. Cubby it up. Take it back to elementary school by creating cubby holes for cookie sheets, cake pans or other bakeware. Think high again, and build cubbies in the space between the cabinet and ceiling to store wine bottles.

©2015 Angie’s List
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