I went to Container Store when we moved and got some deep drawer organizers that are modular & stack. It’s still not ideal because I will need to occasionally lift something out to get to the stuff below it, but it’s better than what I had before. I just put the most-used items in the top compartments.

The canister idea sounds great! Be nice if I could find some rectangular jars which would fit close together, giving the efficiency model a new use in keeping with its original decluttering purpose.

Before, one was used to hold odds and ends of kitchen utensils and towels. The bottom one became a catch all for package mixes (gravy, soup mix, jello, pudding etc…) and none of it was ever used.

Your shallow organizer adds an extra step for access and hides everything on the bottom level. It would drive me insane.

For my cooking utensils, no matter how small my kitchen has been, they live in a crock next to the stove. It’s the most accessible and convenient place for them. For the drawers, I had a kitchen with deeper drawers once, and I kept my plastic storage containers in them. I’d also recommend smaller appliances like a hand mixer, coffee grinder or mini chopper if you have things like that, because those sorts of items are a real pain in the behind to retrieve from the depths of a base cabinet, which is where I currently keep them.

…except that a kitchen should be arranged into stations so that the ’stuff’ for each task is in the area where the task is done (assuming you have the space to do so). For example, the pots and pans are near the stove along with the spatulas, spoons, tongs, and ladles. The rolling pin is near the cookie cutters, measuring cups, rubber/silicone spatulas, and mixing bowls.

It may be that the kitchen drawers are not arranged in the most useful way for the ’station’ concept, or that the drawer in question is the only one available for the things it now contains. So I was kinda assuming that there wasn’t another choice like taking the long skinnies and sticking them in another shallow drawer.

But yah, deep stuff or stacks of like stuff in deep drawers is a nice rule if you can get away with it. The towel thing is a good idea too. But if you can’t avoid having a deep drawer full of small stuff, you then need to arrange it in such a way that opening and closing the drawer isn’t going to stir things up and make a mess.

As I was considering the drawer, I was even thinking that angled slots would be cool for the longer things like the rolling pin if they won’t fit in the drawer standing up. Think knife block. I was also thinking about cup hooks installed on the *inside* of the drawer for stuff like measuring cups and utensils with loops. I was also thinking about a coffee can inside the drawer to stand up the utensils that will fit vertically. It all depends how much stuff you really have and whether it stands, sits, hangs, etc.

I’m not a big fan of keeping utensils on the countertops, just because I don’t have enough counter space as it is. But that *is* one way to handle the long skinny stuff. OTOH, I like my knives on a magnet bar on the wall, which would be a cool solution for any metal gadgets you access frequently.

Anyway, what you have, what shape it is, how many, what they’re good for, where you use them–it all factors in to how you arrange them. But dividers of some sort are going to be a must with the existing items. Whether it’s the Lipper gadget or something else is the decision you make after you know what you’ve got.

shris

It works great for shallower drawer dividers too. I also have one egg carton bottom (the part with divided sections for the eggs) from a 1/2 dozen carton that I use to store small things like rubber bands,twist ties, corks, and little plastic cupcake toppers. I like having them out of sight but easy to locate when I need them.

I have two ceramic canisters on the counter next to the stove – one contains my big spoons, ladles, and turners, and the other one holds my whisks, rubber spatulas and other assorted utensils. Bulky things like funnels and my parmesan cheese grater go in a plastic basket and get stored on a cupboard shelf. I have a small dresser that I got at the thrift sore that I use to store kitchen towels, trivets, and other assorted and sundry kitchen and household items.

I would love to have a lot of blank wall space to hang pegboard on, so that I could hang my pots and pans and utensils up where they’re easy to see and grab (like Julia Child’s kitchen…)

We have two drawers in our galley kitchen that are deep AND wide, and we use them for storing pots and pans since we don’t have any hanging space. Maybe your skinny deep drawer is a good place for a stock pot, stacked casserole dishes, etc.?