Finally, A Hack For Organizing Utensils That Doesn't Take Up Precious Space

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The silverware drawer is so etched in the American consciousness that it would be as surprising to find a home kitchen without the dedicated flatware space as it would be to find a total absence of forks, knives, and spoons themselves. There's even a whole darn industry of drawer dividers and organizers designed around the apparently very complicated principle of storing your cutlery. It's all very television voiceover "has this ever happened to you?" and thus primed for disruption. So why not arrange your silverware upright, instead?

Vertical storage solutions have promised greater efficiency than their horizontal alternatives for time immemorial. Imagine something like an over-the-door shoe rack, for example: It gets all those pretty pairs off the floor, into the air, and out of the way. The same principle applies in the kitchen. And you can flip the paradigm to whatever degree of permanence you wish, in some cases with items you likely already have around the house.

A dedicated tilt-down drawer installed under the sink where little else would otherwise fit would be a one-two kitchen efficiency punch for storing silverware. Most homes aren't automatically equipped with such an elegant little area, but getting one installed is one of the lightest construction jobs you can commission. It will still come at a cost, however, and it's a fairly permanent adjustment, so you might take vertical utensil storage for a test drive first.

You can repurpose Mason or canning jars for cute little fork, knife, and spoon bouquets. Give each group its own container for an intentional cluster effect, and remember, of course, never to store sharper implements with the blade side up. The one possible downside is that the instruments could collect dust or worse, food splatter, if they aren't in frequent rotation or kept away from cooking areas. Factoring them into your kitchen cabinet organization or even fixing them into lidded containers shores up that issue almost immediately. Something like Mind Reader's upright utensil holder tucks away easily when needed and only takes up about as much space as a cereal box.