Brilliant Ways To Use A Dollar Tree Dish Rack For Better Kitchen Storage

A kitchen is one of the busiest rooms in a house and, it has a lot of stuff to hold. Yet, a 2016 study from the National Kitchen & Bath Association found that the average kitchen size in the U.S. is around 103 square feet for smaller homes. Without the right storage solutions, cabinets and counters can quickly start to overflow. Investing in purpose-made organizing products can help, but if you want to save some cash, you can use an ultra-affordable Dollar Tree staple, the Essentials' Wire Dish Drying Rack, to make the most of the space you have. This popular dish drying rack isn't just suited for containing plates, it can also be hacked to hold all kinds of kitchen items.

You can use it to organize your pots and pans with lids so it's easy to retrieve and replace them. Similarly, it'll help you store your pantry items out of sight without commanding precious square footage. It can even streamline frozen packets in your freezer. Ready to optimize the limited space in your kitchen? Here are eight brilliant ways to use a Dollar Tree dish rack for better kitchen storage.

Following the 'a place for everything and everything in its place' maxim is one of the best ways to organize your pantry, according to an expert. However, if you don't have enough room in your kitchen to adequately house everything, turn a dish rack on its head (literally!). You'll need a few adhesive hooks, like Command's Medium Designer 6-hook Set, to adhere the rack upside down. Attach it to a shelf or cabinet to store your pantry essentials, such as aluminum foil, parchment paper, baking soda packs, boxes of straws, and more. Keep the hooks' weight restriction in mind, or the rack will fall down.

There are various items you can use to organize your pantry, including a back-of-the-door organizer. And if you don't want to pay a premium for a simple over-the-door organizer, you can DIY one using a dish rack and towel holder, such as the Mosuch Stainless Steel Towel Racks. Loop the two together and hang them on the back of a cabinet door. Now, simply slide in items you want to store out of sight, like the battered pack of plastic wrap, rolls of trash bags, etc. If you find items want to slip out of the wire rungs, you can try bending them slightly upward. 

While following the trash can hack will prevent junk mail from piling up in your home, what about the envelopes you stuff inside your catch-all kitchen drawers? Use a dish rack to declutter the drawers and store mail neatly in view. Just push the dividers back (be gentle) and hang the rack on the wall using adhesive hooks. Now, slide any mail, light cookbooks, and bills inside your makeshift file organizer. Besides being cost-effective, this storage technique will force you to audit your documents regularly, helping you manage your paper clutter.

Storing lids separately is one of the clever ways to organize your Tupperware collection. However, you need to store the lids in a safe, accessible location, or you risk losing them. And what's a Tupperware container without its lid? Fortunately, you don't have to splurge or get anything fancy. A Dollar Tree dish rack is perfect for organizing medium and large lids. Group the lids by size and slide a couple between each rung. Just ensure the lids aren't too small or they'll get lost in the melee. If the rack keeps moving, secure it with a few adhesive hooks.

Finding it difficult to pull out your pans from their tall stacks? This genius Dollar Tree hack will make pots and pans clutter a thing of the past and allow you to easily and quickly grab a saucepan or skillet whenever you want. The racks are best suited to pans, lids, and shallower pots. For saucepans, you can remove a rung or two to house them comfortably. You can even zip-tie two or more racks together to extend your cookware organizer's length. If you have some space left, you can use the extra slots to store baking trays and chopping boards, too.

While you may want to keep your pots and pans with their lids, space restrictions might compel you to put them in a separate cabinet so you can better stack pots. However, a jumble of loose lids will make it harder for you to locate and retrieve the one you want. So, say goodbye to pots and pans clutter with this genius dish rack hack. Place the rack inside the designated cabinet and slide the lids in one by one. Try placing two or more lids in each slot to fill the space so they don't tilt too much.

Whether you cook at home every night or just on occasion, you probably have more than a few frozen food packets lurking in your freezer. Small packets can slip to the bottom, and once you open those baby peas or frozen blueberries, keeping them upright, organized, and closed can be a challenge — but a Dollar Tree dish rack can help. While you're organizing the packets, take a look at their 'best before' dates and place the ones expiring soon in the front. You could also stand up opened packs to minimize the mess in your fridge.