I Just Discovered This “Super Weird” Way to Organize Your Kitchen
Instagram and TikTok have influenced how I store everything from spices to bulky blankets in my one-bedroom city apartment. I’ve stumbled upon some pretty weird yet ingenious hacks while scrolling (shoes in your kitchen cabinets, anyone?), but I did a double take when I saw a video making a case for why you should swap out where you store all your pantry items with your appliances, cooking pots, and pans.
Storing nonperishable foods like bone broth, pasta, sauce, canned veggies, and granola in my pantry has always seemed like a no-brainer, while cabinets are reserved for pots, pans, and bulky cookware. But creators @jonathanandjennahome might be onto something. They decided to try this trick they learned on the internet that “apparently saves more space” in the kitchen. They were skeptical for sure, noting that it is “super weird” but they plan to report back later on if this method worked for them.
In the video, they showed how they emptied out everything in their pantry on the counter before repurposing it in their kitchen cabinets, and vice versa. The result? A less cluttered-looking pantry with pots, cups, and dishes prominently displayed all in one place, while all the non-perishable pantry food items had their own place in the kitchen cupboards.
But while the results looked aesthetically pleasing to me, @jonathanandjennahome did note that they weren’t able to fit bigger cooking items in the pantry and still had to use a bottom cupboard to store them, meaning that this hack might work best for people who don’t have a lot of appliances, but also aren’t finding their current, more traditional storage solution adequate.
When asked if they felt like they’d saved space with the new technique in the comments, they responded, “Right now, it feels almost the exact same. We have to use a few cupboards for appliances and bakeware so it probably doesn’t save us that much space at all.” They also revealed that they were split “50/50” on whether they were planning to keep the new arrangement, as they were still getting “turned around” by the system.
On the flip side, several people in the comments said this type of kitchen arrangement is common in Ireland and England, where built-in pantries are less common, and it works well having certain items grouped all in one place so you always know where to find them.
While the jury’s out on if you’ll end up saving space with this technique (you might want to check if your air fryer, baking sheets, and other bulky cooking equipment all fit in your pantry before taking everything out), it’s a reminder that you can get creative with storage solutions based on the space that you have.
You don’t need to always follow the rules like food goes in the pantry and dishes go in the cupboard. Mixing it up — and taking advantage of the space you actually have, with the stuff you actually have — is a totally free way to see how you could change your organization in any space. You might just stumble upon a game-changing organization hack or even turn a conventional solution on its head.
Further Reading
I Just Discovered the Smartest Way to Store Paper Towels in Your Kitchen (It’s a Game-Changer!)
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Article’s DTC Furniture
