How An Upside-Down Dollar Tree Dish Rack Can Add Extra Storage To Your Kitchen

Make your kitchen a zero-waste space, or should we say, "zero wasted" space. Hanging storage is smart in any room. For a high-traffic place like your home's kitchen, it's silly not to turn dead space into storage. When you can do it for just a few bucks, it's even better. Chronically underused real estate like the bottoms of cabinets can serve a purpose — use adhesive hooks to hang up an upside-down wire dish rack from Dollar Tree from these ignored surfaces to keep products and tools within easy reach, but off counters. This trick is ideal for items you use daily that you don't want cluttering up work areas, like food wrap, rolled-up dish towels, or long-handled utensils.

A quick glance around your kitchen is a great way to identify other empty areas so you can utilize every inch of cabinet storage and more. Borrow this same trick for hanging water bottles or travel coffee cups in dead air above dishes. Make more pantry space by using a dish rack to hold long items like rolls of paper towels, boxes of spaghetti, or even bottles of olive oil or vinegar. Use S-hooks to hang storage from a dish rack in your fridge. Keep fragile eggs out of the way in this spot, or use it to house tall items like wine bottles that sometimes don't fit on shelves.

There's no need to grab tools when strong adhesive hooks can hold the rack in place without drilling any holes. Dollar Tree sells their own stick-on hooks that can help you keep this storage solution under $5, but reviewers often complain of the adhesive not being reliable. Opt for highly-rated heavy duty hooks instead, like these DKHDBD large adhesive hooks that can hold up to 44 pounds. With sticking power like that, you can loop some S-hooks through the lowest rungs of the rack for double hanging duty. Dangle other necessities like coffee mugs, measuring cups, or mixing spoons beneath whatever you're storing.

Kitchen cabinet surfaces are notorious for greasy buildup, and this can prevent the hooks' adhesive from creating a strong bond. Before adhering your hooks to your cabinet's underside, try this orange peel hack to clean grease off your cabinets for a fresh solution. 

Another take on this dish rack hack is hanging it by only one side from a wall. This way, it acts as an open basket that you can easily reach into. You can get some extra mileage from repurposed key hooks for this idea; attach a row of hooks to a wall in a formerly unused area, and set the rack lengthwise over the hooks.