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Organizing and Storing Piles of Pots
and Pans
By Karen
Porter,
Editor
EasyHomeOrganizing.com
You can buy official pot and pan racks or you can get creative and
improvise pot and pan racks. It depends on your budget, your creativity and your
home decor likes and dislikes. You'll find
plenty of real pot racks and pan racks on these pages and below in the
additional resource pages listed.
One creative option is to put pots and pans on a vertical
freestanding shelving unit (Kmart sells
some easy assembly ones for $25). An audio stand meant to hold DVD/VCR players
on its individual shelves
has the right shelf height for holding frying pans. The shelf spaces are
slim. Put one frying pan on each shelf.
But if you buy a catch-all shelving unit with shelves spaced
further apart, then those shelves are perfect for holding pots, such as stock pots in particular.
Sometimes pots, especially deep stock pots, look
better and are more organized on freestanding pot racks or shelves
whereas pans look better and are more organized on
hanging pot racks
or pot hooks.
This six-shelf Free-Standing Pot Rack
below is
from Stacks and Stacks. It would work great in a kitchen or dining room corner
for pots. Sometimes free-standing pot racks may also be referred to as "standing
pot racks" or "cookware stands".
Or you could put pots on decorative ladders, sold as
home decor accent
furniture for plants or
knick-knacks; these are decorative shelves shaped like ladders, not real ladders
that you stand on--look in home decor and shelving sections of stores.
A pyramid display stand would work elegantly for storing pots
in plain sight. It may not be labeled "pot rack" but it sure will work as one
and it looks good too. Can't you see putting your biggest stock pot on the
bottom shelf and then putting matching pots on the other shelves in order of
size so that your smallest pot is on top. This one is sold at Montgomery Ward:
 
For a contemporary look, you also could use
stackable square cubes,
sometimes called stepping cube storage
(when their stacked like a stair case) or other titles. Store one pot per cube.
If you buy individual storage cubes, make the cubes stack vertically and then
expand them horizontally as needed. Also store small appliances in the
individual cubes. The top of the cubes gives you more counter space that you can
use in food preparation or for storage or display items. If you plan to use the
top of the cubes as a counter, you should buy solid cubes versus the cubes
comprised of wire. Otherwise, the wire cubes look equally stylish for a kitchen.
You also can hang pots from the ceiling or underneath
cabinets. Try the "Kitchen Collection Pot & Pan Rack" sold at Kitchen
Collection Inc. It's constructed with a sturdy, round steel frame that has eight hooks for
holding your pots and pans and it hangs from your ceiling with the included
hardware (approx. $14.99).
Or here's a hammered steel with chrome bookshelf wall
mountable pot rack sold at Target:
 
You'll find lots more pot racks on the related pages listed below under "related products".
Sometimes while pots fit and look nice on a shelf or freestanding pot rack, pans
don't. And you may not want to hang your pans from the ceiling, wall or cabinet
sides. In that case, consider this
Deluxe Chrome Pan Rack
 from Organize Everything.
You could keep it in a kitchen closet or you could set it on the kitchen
counter. Each pan is separated by the dividers making it convenient to access
individual frying pans. (And this rack also can be turned sideways
to store cookie sheets and baking sheets.) Also, because your frying pans will
be separated and not nested in each other, you'll help prevent interior
non-stick coatings from scraping off.
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