Organizing Pots and Pans

For Christmas, my awesome sister-in-law bought us a six piece All Clad pots and pans set. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. We only had a couple of pots and pans that were in pretty bad shape, and we had been eyeing that specific All Clad set for a pretty long time. She gave them to us while we were visiting family in New York, and we had to pack them up in three different pieces of luggage. Once we got home and unpacked them, we both looked around our kitchen and wondered the same thing: Where are we gonna keep these things?

We don’t have a small kitchen, but it certainly isn’t huge, either. We have an okay amount of cabinet space, but they are all full and moving things around wasn’t really an option.

I thought about hanging them from hooks, as this is what usually looks best when you have a nice set of pots and pans. But as nice as this look is and as much as I enjoy it, we didn’t really have room for that, either. Maybe in a future home, but not in this one. Sadly, I wouldn’t be able to keep the new pots and pans on display, so I had to explore my other options. It was probably better this way, because I can just imagine installing one of those hook contraptions above my sink, not doing it correctly and winding up with a concussion after one of they come crashing down while I’m standing below them.I went online and noticed that aside from hooks, another common way to store pots and pans are with racks that you insert into your cabinet. But this wouldn’t really work for me since my cabinets were already full. However, if you don’t have much space in your kitchen yet you have an empty cabinet that’s large enough, a pots and pan rack may be the best option for you.
The Kohl’s website had great alternatives. One option was a tower storage unit, which is a great to display your pots and pans and keep them out in the open, but really only works well if you have a larger kitchen and a corner to put it in, which I don’t.

Enclume Premier Cookware Stands $251

There was another option I noticed – a tempting one, too. It was a different spin on the typical way to hang pots and pans. Maybe this is more common than I think it is, but I haven’t seen something like this before. Instead of something large that just hangs from the ceiling, it’s a small little shelf that you mount on the wall. I don’t have a wall in the kitchen that’s wide enough, but it’s a great concept.

RACK IT UP! Wall-Mount Bar Pot Rack $59.99

I decided that maybe I should explore the option of keeping the pots and pans in a different room besides the kitchen. Now, I don’t mean something strange like my closet, but the layout of our apartment puts our dining rooms directly next to the kitchen. We have an empty space adjacent to our dining room table, and I thought perhaps something that could fill up the space would be a good option for our pots and pans storage dilemma.

I really liked this option, but was hoping to find something wider than this bakers rack so I can fill the entire space in that empty little nook in our apartment.

Iron/Wicker Bakers Rack $199.99

With a specific goal in mind and a pretty good idea now of what we wanted, we decided to head to IKEA. After looking at tons of options, we finally decided on this credenza for $299. It was a perfect fit for our wall and now we have some extra space to spare for other miscellaneous items. What I love about this is that it would look great anywhere in the home and it can be used to store anything, so if we move and decide to store our pots and pans differently, this can also be used for something else.

Luckily, the pots and pans each came with individual pouches that I can store them in so that they won’t collect any dust particles or become dinged or scratched by being stored close together or stacked on top of each other.

Another thing I love about this credenza is that you can decorate the top of it as well, which I was definitely eager to do.

Do you have a creative way that you store your pots and pans? How?