Kitchen cupboard storage ideas to make the most of your space

To help you organise your kitchen for optimal space and efficiency we've trawled the internet, looking at all the available products on the market and thought about how they could work to save you time and space. We also asked our Top Testers Club what they use and recommend to help you organise your kitchen cupboards like a pro. To help you organise your rubbish, take a look at our pick of the best kitchen bins. For more storage solutions, take a look at the best wardrobe storage ideas, best cutlery trays or best vacuum storage bags.

Jump straight to the kitchen cupboard you need help organising:

• Crockery cupboard
• Pots and pans cupboard
• Spices cupboard
• Under the sink/cleaning cupboard
• Food cupboard
• Glasses & mugs cupboard
• Utensils & cutlery

Crockery

Having an unorganised crockery cupboard can be a real pain as these are frequently used products – you're likely getting a plate or bowl out the cupboard a couple times a day. Many people stack their side plates on top of their dinner plates, and maybe even put their bowls or pasta bowls on top. But then when you want something from the bottom you either have to dig it out – and risk smashing a lot of your crockery – or go through the hassle of removing loads of items. But there are some ideas to help you out.

Plate rack

A plate rack is a brilliant way to separate your dinner plates, side plates and bowls, whilst still being able to store them vertically without taking up too much room in a cupboard. The chrome one from Lakeland (£19.99) (pictured below) is a great option. John Lewis have a very similar option too, also for £12. Parent tester Hannah uses a plate rack and said, "It makes it so much easier to access different sized plates."

Alternatively you can get plate holders which store your dishes upright rather than stacked vertically, such as the Gidenfly plate holder organiser (£15.29). If you lack cupboard space, this storage method would look nice on your worktop and give you easy access to all your crockery.

Pots and Pans

Saucepans, frying pans and pots take up a lot of cupboard space and really aren't an easy thing to store, especially when you factor in their lids too, which somehow always go missing. However, there are a few nifty products that can upgrade your pots and pan storage.

Pan organiser

As the name suggests an organiser such as the Joseph Joseph expanding cookware organiser (£28) (pictured below) is great for storing pans and lids neatly in a cupboard or drawer. Amazon also have an expandable pan organiser (£24.90) which fits up to 10 pans or lids. If you would rather stack your pans but want an organiser like the plate rack then we've found a Pot Rack Organiser that has 8 adjustable layers and is just £19.99.

Out of cupboard storage

If you're really struggling for cupboard space then one thing you could do is store your pots and pans out of the cupboard. Argos has a compact 5 Tier Circular Chrome Pan Stand for £22 that allows you to stack all your pans neatly in your kitchen.

Another option is to hang your saucepans on the wall with the 2 Tier Black Wall Mounted Pan Rack from B&Q (pictured below). It looks chic and stylish, is only £35 and will give you your whole cupboard back.

Lid storage

To store those pesky pan lids, Joseph Joseph has a clever set of 4 pan lid holders (£12) (pictured below) which can be secured onto the inside of a cupboard door to neatly store your lids. This ensures easy access to all your lids and stops them getting lost or taking up unnecessary room in the cupboard.

Spice storage

Spices are actually one of the easiest things to organise as they're usually quite small, but the more spices you collect the more overwhelming the task becomes. There are lots of ways to store your herbs and spices, whether you want them on display, on the worktop, or stored neatly away in a cupboard or on a cupboard door.

Storage ideas for in the cupboard

One of the best storage saving ideas is a space rack on your cupboard door. Parent tester Nikki has this and said, "It's really handy and saves space." This is also a really useful trick to make use of boiler cupboard doors as you can't store anything in there. Try a 4 Tier Spice rack (£10.80) that fits nicely onto most cupboard doors, all you have to do is screw it into place.

If you don't want to screw into your cupboard door then Joseph Joseph have a nifty little device. The under-shelf spice rack (£16) fits to the bottom of your cupboard shelf and fits in a number of spices, as seen in the picture below. However, this does not store as many as the cupboard door spice rack does so you may only be able to fit your most-used spices in here.

Alternatively, if you have lots of spices and lots of cupboard space then you could buy a shelf organiser like the one from Lakeland (£19.99) which has 3 levels and allows you to place all your spices so you can see them easily.

Storage ideas for outside the kitchen cupboard

Herbs and spices look nice displayed outside the kitchen cupboards too and if you have enough worktop space it can be a good way to save cupboard space, but do try to keep them out of direct light and away from heat sources like the oven to prolong the spices' life. There are so many lovely spice racks to choose from which you can place on your worktop. The bamboo one from Dunelm would look delightful in a rustic kitchen and is only £17 (pictured below). Or, for a more modern look you can get a metal one like the Cole and Mason 16 Jar Herb and Spice Carousel (£79.99).

If you don't have cupboard or worktop space, try storing your spices on the wall instead. Parent tester Leah displays all her herbs and spices in these spice jars with labels (£13.79) on a decorative floating shelf (see picture below). Try the rustic wooden ones from Amazon (£21.99) for a similar look.

Under the sink/cleaning products

Under the sink cupboards can be difficult to organise, especially if you have a big pipe from the sink taking up a lot of the cupboard space. Dunelm makes a handy storage device (£18) that goes around the pipe to make the most of the space. You can move the sections around to fit your sink and place cleaning products such as your bathroom cleaner and washing machine cleaner or any of your under sink bits and bobs on the little platforms.

If you don't have a big pipe to contend with then a set of drawer shelves (£24.99) tuck nicely to the side of your cupboard leaving room for lots of other bits (pictured below). These little drawers work well in bigger cleaning cupboards too where you may be storing your bigger appliances such as vacuums and mops.

Stick-on Command hooks (£8.79) can be incredibly helpful to hang microfibre cloths and tea towels on the inside of your cupboard door for easy access. Alternatively, if you want your tea towels to hang outside your cupboard then Lakeland have 2 Over-Door Cupboard storage hooks (£4.99). Lakeland also have a black wire over the door storage organiser with a tea towel holder on the outside of the cupboard for £12.99.

For something a bit more attractive that can be taken out of the cupboard so you can carry all your cleaning essentials around the house, try this vintage Housekeeping Caddy (£18.99) (pictured below). To organise your dishwasher and washing machine pods or tablets little acrylic pots (£13.99) could also be useful.

Food

Food cupboards can very easily become chaotic. One big food shop and you find yourself ramming the spaghetti down the side of the cupboard only to find that when you next open up the cupboard things start falling on you. Add in all the extras you need for a growing family – from milk to weaning foods to snacks and 17 different types of cereal – and you can find space filling up fast. Here are some products to help you organise your food cupboard and create as much space as possible.

Extra shelving

One of the easiest things to do is add as many layers and tiers as possible to your cupboards to avoid having to stack food on top of each other. A 3 Tier Shelf organiser (£10.99) gives you 3 levels of space instead of 1, allowing you to fit in much more food. For smaller cupboard, a single wire storage shelf (£7.99) can double the accessible space. The Joseph Joseph Under-Shelf Drawer (£16) is similar to the spice rack, and makes the most of any unused space.

Baskets and storage containers

If you go on social media nowadays, you will see no shortage of food containers used for purely aesthetic reasons. But some can be great space-savers too, and make finding what you need much easier. Having certain categories of foods in little baskets can be really helpful. Parent tester Lindsey says, "I have all our snacking nuts in glass jars in a plastic box inside the cupboard so the idea is I can pull the box out to get what I need instead of rummaging." Lakeland have handy Stackable Wire Storage Baskets (£23.99) or, for a cheaper alternative Dunelm have Small Black Food Storage Baskets (£7) and large ones for £10. For a more rustic look the La Jolie Woven Wicker Storage Baskets (£23.99) are very cute. The Joseph Joseph Cupboard Store Under-Shelf Storage 1.3L Container Set (£35) (pictured below) allow you to put containers in otherwise empty space between shelves, giving you more space and a cute storage solution. This would be great for keeping your child's favourites in an easy to access place at all times.

Glasses, bottles & mugs

Glasses can take up a lot of space, as you're likely to want to leave some room around each so things don't fall out and smash. Kids cups and bottles, in their many shapes and sizes, can also be tricky to store. Lucky for you, there a few clever ways you can store you glasses, bottles and mugs without taking up too much room in your cupboard.

Glasses

If you don't have much room you can create another shelf or layer to put glasses on top of each other without having to worry about whether they will stack inside each other. A Chrome Extendable Shelf is only £5 from Dunelm and creates extra space, extending to fit your kitchen cupboard. If you want a slightly more heavy duty one then Lakeland have a nifty little cupboard shelf too, however, it is quite a bit more expensive at £16.99. Something that looks good and saves you kitchen cabinet space is an under cupboard wine glass holder, this one from Etsy (£37.17) looks really chic and stylish (see picture below). Alternatively, if you have the room in your cupboard you could get an Under Shelf Wine Glass Holder (£9.99) which attaches to the top shelf of your cupboard. Parent tester Tanya has a glass rack like this and said, "It's great for being able to store bits and bobs underneath."

Bottles

It's amazing how kids' water bottles can mount up and suddenly you find your cupboard is full of them. This Water Bottle Storage Organiser (£19.99) is a great way to keep the bottles neatly organised and make it quick and easy to find the one you need. Alternatively, if you don't have as many bottles then this smaller, slimmer Water Bottle Holder (£26.36) could be useful. For beakers this Baby and Nursery Storage Container (£27.51) is brilliant. You can store your beakers and cups in one section and the lids in the other.

Mugs

Similar to the under shelf wine glass holder, you can do the same with your mugs with this Under Cabinet 2 Pack Mug Holder (£8.98). One of the most common ways to save a bit of cupboard space in your mug cabinet, if you have enough worktop space available, is to display them on a mug tree or rack. John Lewis has a stainless steel one for £18 which would look great in a modern kitchen. Or, for a more rustic look, Dunelm has a faux marble and wood mug tree (£12) (pictured below).

Utensils and cutlery

It's likely you store your cutlery in a drawer, so this doesn't technically class as kitchen cupboard organisation but we thought it was worth mentioning. Firstly, the most obvious way to organise your cutlery is to use a cutlery tray such as this black wire one from Habitat (£6.50) or this bamboo extending one from Amazon (£16.99). For very thin cupboards Joseph Joseph have a compact cutlery tray (£16).

For utensils, one way to store them is in a utensil pot either on the worktop, easy to reach or tucked away in a cupboard. Not On The High Street has lots of lovely utensil pots to go with your kitchen décor such as this Ivory Stoneware one (£17). If you just want one to stay tucked away in the cupboard then you don't have to spend that much. Amazon have some cheaper alternatives like this Henrick Utensil Jar (£8.95).

To save worktop space and cupboard space, you can hang utensils from a rack. The Morphy Richards Utensil Rack is only £27.99 and comes with 5 kitchen tools too. If you just want a plain rack to hang them from then you can get this Stainless Steel Utensil Rack for just £7 and hang it wherever you like. Joseph Joseph have a utensil set and rack which fits to the inside of your cupboard door (£30) (pictured below).