Updated: Aug 16, 2024 by Kris Jarrett

Kitchen Cabinet Storage Ideas

Looking for kitchen cabinet storage ideas? I’m giving you the tour of our kitchen and sharing all of the storage and organization ideas packed into mine!

I LOVE smart storage and organization systems. Other than having a much larger pantry, the kitchen we remodeled in our previous home had about the same amount of storage space as my previous one did but I can fit SO much more inside my cabinets because of all of the storage and organizational features.

Today I’m opening up my cabinet doors and drawers so you can see all of the kitchen cabinet storage ideas packed inside. Let’s kick things off with the cabinet feature that I’ve gotten the most questions about… (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here})

Kitchen Pull-Out Trash Can Cabinet + Built In Paper Towel Holder

The combination pull-out trash can + built in paper towel holder cabinet is one of my favorite kitchen cabinet storage solutions of all! First off, I love that it fits two trash bins so that I can use one for regular trash and one for recycling. In my old kitchen, every time that I wanted to recycle something I had to walk out to the garage to throw it in the recycling bin there so this is definitely a much-loved change:

Pull-out kitchen trash can cabinet with two trash bins AND a built-in paper towel holder - I need this in my new kitchen!

And the built-in paper towel holder above the trash can compartment is amazing if you’re someone like me who hates having your paper towel roll cluttering up your countertops! I’ve had several questions about whether the paper towel compartment is separate from the trash compartment so thought I’d share this view of it open.

As you can tell, there is a divider between the two so the bottom of the paper towel roll is never going to touch the top of my trash:

Kitchen garbage pull-out with built-in paper towel holder - a must-have for my kitchen renovation!

The compartment holding the paper towel holder goes all the way back so there’s space to store a few extra rolls of paper towels too! MasterBrand Cabinets also makes a similar garbage pull out + paper towel holder with a full height door that completely covers the paper towel compartment in case you don’t want your paper towel roll showing at all. I feel like it would be a pain to have your paper towel roll holder behind a closed door but I can absolutely see using the full door cabinet to have a convenient yet hidden spot to store extra paper towel rolls and trash bags.

And if you’re looking to add this double pull-out trash can to a preexisting lower cabinet, check {this option} out. I added one to my sister’s kitchen and it was really straight-forward to do (and she loves it!).

I’ve also gotten a lot of questions about where my trash cans are from – they actually came with my Masterbrand cabinet but if you’re looking to purchase them separately, I found them {here}.

Two Tiered Divided Cutlery Drawer

In my old kitchen, we had our silverware in a drawer with one of those inexpensive plastic silverware trays – it worked fine but left a good bit of drawer space unused. Our silverware is now housed in solid wood tiered cutlery dividers – it’s such a smart silverware storage solution:

The top tray is on a track so it slides back to reveal a second level of storage space beneath it. I keep all of our everyday silverware in the top tray and then less frequently used cutlery like steak knives on the bottom. I love that I get about double the storage space that I used to with the same sized drawer! If you’re looking for a two-tiered cutlery tray like mine to add to a pre-existing drawer, you can find my tiered organizer in multiple widths {here}.

Pantry Cabinet with Pull Out Shelves and Organizers

One of the biggest luxuries of my new kitchen is having a much larger pantry! Deep pantries with fixed shelves can sometimes be a pain because you can’t easily see all of the way into the back but the pull out shelves allow you to fully see everything inside:

Dream pantry! Wide pantry with roll out shelves for tons of storage plus you can see everything (even stuff in the back!)

Since the shelves have so much space, I’ve found it helpful to use pantry bins to keep everything organized and in place. I have four of {these large 6″ x 16″ x 5″ deep drawer bins} on the top shelf, three of {these 8″ x 11.25″ x 6″ pantry bins} on the second shelf, and two of {these medium 4″ x 16″ x 5″ deep drawer bins} + two of {these revolving turntables/lazy Susans} for spices and cooking oils on the third shelf.

See my post on pantry organization ideas for more details and organizing tips!

In-Cabinet Lighting with Motion Activated Strip Light

You know how the inside of some cabinets can be a bit of a dark hole? My sink base has a battery powered strip light similar to {this one} that’s mounted right inside the doors so any time I open them, it senses motion and the light illuminates everything inside:

Love this idea for lighting up the inside of a cabinet! Install motion strip lighting so when the doors of the cabinet are opened, the battery-operated light illuminates what's inside! Perfect for under the sink!

As you can see, the space under my sink has a lot of not-so-pretty things going on between the plumbing, apron sink supports, and hole cut in the bottom of it to access the toe kick heater but I was able to squeeze in a few organizers to use the space as efficiently as I can.

I have all of my dishwashing tablets in {this penny candy jar} and to the right of it I’m using {this lidded soda can organizer} to hold my dish scrubbers below and sponges and towels on top:

How I organize some of the space under our kitchen sink! A penny candy jar for detergent tabs and an acrylic organizer for scrub brushes, sponges, and towels!

Sources: Glass penny candy jar (for dishwasher tabs) | Plastic storage bin (for dishwashing brushes) | Water bottle cleaning set | Stainless steel odor absorber bar | Walnut scrubber sponges

Corner Drawers (Instead of a Lazy Susan!)

I LOVE this kitchen cabinet storage solution! I’ve had other corner cabinet solutions in our previous homes including a lazy Susan in our first home and simple drawers on each side of the corner in our second home that left the entire corner space unused. The solution that MasterBrand Cabinets had for our current kitchen is by far my favorite!

I have three corner drawers (one shallow and two deep) that fully extend so that you can access the entire drawer. So smart! In the top drawer I keep longer utensils in two of {these two 6″ x 15″ x 2″ shallow drawer organizers} in the back and shorter utensils in {this 6″ x 12″ x 2″ shallow drawer organizer} near the front:

Kitchen corner drawers - such smart use of the corner space in a kitchen!!

In the deeper bottom drawers I have several of {these 6″ x 6″ x 6″ storage bins} that hold my most often used spices, measuring cups, and a bunch of short utensils:

A super smart solution for using the corner space in a kitchen - kitchen corner drawers!

It’s a night and day difference from how my utensils were stored before, which was basically a single deep, impossible to sort through pile in a drawer that drove me (and my husband) nuts!

My cookie sheets and cutting boards are stored on their ends in the base cabinet to the left of our range – they are held upright by a series of metal dividers secured to the base and back of the cabinet:

Metal tray dividers separate cookie sheets and cutting boards so they stay upright and are easy to access! Super smart kitchen storage!

The dividers come individually so I was able to customize the number of dividers and the spacing between them to fit my needs. And there’s a shallow shelf above them to take advantage of every last bit of cabinet space!

You can do this to one of your cabinets by (1) getting chrome dividers similar to mine that you install with brackets screwed into on the bottom and back of the cabinet – these take a little more time but the plus is that you can choose the distance between the dividers – you find that type of divider {here} (2) for a super quick and easy storage solution, you can grab one of {these free-standing racks} and just throw it into your cabinet! I had this exact one in my old kitchen and it worked great!

Built-In Drawer Outlet + USB Port

We’ve always had a spot to charge phones and an iPad in our kitchen – previously it was {this family charging station} that used to sit on the shallow cabinetry next to our coffee station. In our new kitchen, I wanted to keep my countertops as clutter free as possible so instead we store those electronics in a drawer under our Nespresso machine that has a built-in drawer outlet with USB ports:

An outlet with USB ports is built into this kitchen drawer! Love having a hidden place to store electronics and plug in small kitchen appliances!

I especially love being able to keep the iPad there since I use it for recipes while cooking. And if I want to keep more electronics in the drawer, I can just put a double USB plug into one of the outlets. I have plenty of outlets on my backsplash for small kitchen appliances but this would also be a great place to plug in something like a mixer!

I also use this drawer as my hidden coffee station with three of {these 3″ high organizer bins} holding my Nespresso pods and a more narrow bin holding stir spoons.

Drawers with Hidden Roll Tray

You’d never know until you start peeking in the drawers and looking at the toe kick, but my kitchen island is a total workhorse – I don’t think there’s an inch of wasted space! You can’t tell by looking at it but the upper drawers of my island are actually two drawers in one. When you open them, there’s a shallow roll tray drawer for additional storage.

I like to keep some basic desk supplies in my kitchen because it’s where I end up filling out school papers, paying bills, etc. and the roll tray is perfect for that:

The perfect way to keep desk supplies in your kitchen! This island has a large drawer with a shallow roll out tray! So smart!

I organized the inside of the roll tray with {these Poppin desk supplies} and {these Poppin organizers}. I chose dark gray to go with my island color but they also make them in white and five other fun colors.

See my post on my hidden kitchen command center for more details!

Hidden Toe Kick Drawer

It’s not at all apparent when closed but the toe kick space under the center bank of island drawers has a hidden toe kick drawer! When you take your foot and push it in, the drawer pops out, revealing a generously sized shallow drawer to store things like large trays that are usually hard to find a good home for in your kitchen:

It would be a great place for storing cooking sheets and cutting boards too if you didn’t have room for them in one of your cabinets! It’s a smart cabinet storage solution for space that would otherwise go unused.

Toe Kick Vacuum

Moving a little further down the toe kick space is one of my favorite features in the kitchen – a toe kick vacuum (it’s {this Sweepovac})! It turns on with a simple tap from my foot and sucks in everything I’ve swept up in my kitchen:

How cool is that? I’ve found that using a dry microfiber mop with a swivel head such as {this one} works best for easily sweeping things to the vacuum without hitting the cabinetry above it. My toe kick vacuum doesn’t require a central vacuum line – the dirt and debris simply gets sucked into a vacuum bag that you change out occasionally just like you do with a normal vacuum bag. It’s so nice not having to drag out my vacuum or broom and dustpan to sweep my floors and I find that I clean them much more often now because it’s so quick and easy!

So what do you guys think – do you have a favorite kitchen cabinet storage idea? If you have questions about sources for anything else in my kitchen, be sure to check out my kitchen remodel before and after that has a detailed source list at the end.

Also check out my favorite kitchen remodel ideas and my favorite home organization ideas. And if you love my kitchen remodel and want to get more room makeovers, DIYs, and organization projects delivered to your inbox, I’d love for you to subscribe by email – it’s typically just 1-2 posts per week and you can unsubscribe at any time! CLICK {HERE} TO SUBSCRIBE!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

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