The best ways to store cookware and lids

A common New Year’s resolution is to become more organized. I would not be surprised if more containers, organizers, and other storage solutions are sold in the first month of the year than the rest of the months combined. Unfortunately, many of the so-called ‘best’ organizing products end in disappointment. Some are flimsy while others seem better in theory than in practice. I have been down that organization path many times and it has taken years to find the systems that work for me. There are still areas where I am desperately seeking S̶u̶s̶a̶n̶ a solution.

One of the most intractable issues involving kitchen storage is pots, pans, and their corresponding lids. The handles of the pans preclude nesting or stacking, nothing is uniformly sized, and lids are the worst of all because their sizes and shapes make it difficult to find an appropriate way to store them neatly. Food and Wine says this lid organizer is the best one they have found, and I think they are on the right track. The best way I have found to organize lids is with a similar rack for thin lids, and a wire basket for the more dome-shaped ones. The basket keeps them from falling over while still allowing some movement. A good analogy is the box that houses vinyl albums in record stores – you can flip the records back and forth to find the right one but they stay corralled in one spot. Both the rack and basket live side-by-side in a deep, wide drawer. After I installed this organization solution, my husband opened the drawer and said “Wow! That’s nice!” That’s when I knew I had nailed it.

As for the pots and pans, for my too-pretty-to-hide Dutch ovens I use a knockoff version of this Enclume cookware stand. (Note: Jenny has three of these “knockoff versions” and has used them for over a decade.) I have an oversized pot rack that my husband made for me that holds the long-handled cookware. The odd-sized items are still looking for their best resting spot because their current location is with a jumble of awkward items like a tortilla press and food mill that defy every attempt at tidy organization. Drawers seem to work best for the odd-sized stuff but if you are stuck with regular cabinets, roll-out trays are the next best thing. There are many DIY options on the market, with the Rev-a-Shelf brand being the gold standard. The only drawback to these is that the supporting hardware eats up a small but noticeable percentage of the available storage capacity of the cabinet. I find it to be a worthwhile tradeoff. If you have any clever cookware storage solutions, please share them in the comments.