The best ways to store cookware and lids

January 8, 2025 by
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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.

stainless steel pan lids of varying sizes overlapping each other

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.

Category: Antipasto

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7 Comments

  • breakthroughc  on  January 8, 2025

    I store my lids in my large roasting pan which I only use a few times a year for turkey or prime rib. Essentially the roasting pan functions as a box for most of the year.

  • GloriaRS  on  January 8, 2025

    I use this organizer to store lids and it works well.

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019HQH32/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

  • JaniceKj  on  January 9, 2025

    I have the lazy susan corner unit for my pot/pans, with my range within arms reach. After using the lid organizer for a while, I opted to place each lid flipped on top of its corresponding pot/pan. It’s the best grab and cook for all. I use the lid organizer for baking molds and all such, in a convenient spot in the laundry room that is an open double shelf, no need for the laundry items, since my machines have bottom drawers. The lid organizer is a blessing for this, it helps me see and reach for the pan needed without digging in a deep cabinet and unstacking them. I also have incorporated the Rev a Shelf for my bottom cabinets, true, it does affect the storage capacity as you have mentioned, but it makes it easier to find things and not loose my back on the bending/diving for that back item. Happy organizing, my friends.

  • demomcook  on  January 9, 2025

    My daughter has an apartment kitchen so tiny we couldn’t find a place for lids. Instead, a set of graduated silicon “lids” that sit flat solved the problem. They work with all the pots!

  • Zephyrness  on  January 10, 2025

    I am not going to win friends for this, but the first step is making sure you really need everything you have. I have a small kitchen and when my husband and I finally were able to update it, we had to remove everything from all the cabinets and then put it somewhere. Anything I didn’t use regularly got put in a “think about it” pile. Most of that I got rid of. I loved having all the stuff, but I didn’t use it. So now my work a day pots and lids all live on the bottom pull out shelf of one cabinet. The stockpots w/lids are stored in a different large cabinet, next to the roasting pans. I have, over the years, added a couple of things but I never replaced the items I rehomed. So I recommend starting by evaluating if you really need all you have. For storage ideas, check out tiny home websites and videos. People have some really ingenious ways to store things and the ideas work just as well in a larger space.

  • JimCampbell  on  January 10, 2025

    We had hopes for a solution to our pull-out shelf full of lids, of which some invariably fall out onto the floor when we pull it out.

    We ordered the rack recommended by Food and Wine (https://amzn.to/4gL18ma). The rack does not work well with All Clad lids. The handle doubles the size needed for each slot. The rack also does not allow for lids larger in diameter than the 4-5 quart range stand straight up in a standard two shelf, cabinet. We returned it.

  • KarenGlad  on  January 14, 2025

    The budget was getting tight as we finished our kitchen so I didn’t get pullout drawers in the lower cabinets. Thought we’d add them later but that hasn’t happened. I have a cheaper version of a lid rack that doesn’t work particularly well. What I am going to do is bring my roasting pans up from the basement shelf and use them for storage in the lower cabinets – thank you breakthroughc and why didn’t I think of that! I have all my heavy pottery mixing bowls nested together sitting on a kitchen towel on a bottom shelf. They’re heavy enough that I can pull on the towel to bring them forward or push them back…. Works just fine.

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