The Tiny Storage Upgrade Quietly Solving Kitchen Clutter Problems

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The lifelong battle to keep your kitchen tidy can sometimes seem unwinnable. The moment you get your surfaces clear, a big shopping trip can send them careening right back into chaos, or at least a little minor disorder. You didn't pay a premium on all that quality countertop stone just to cover it up with cartoony cereal boxes and flimsy plastic produce bags. Sure, a lovely bowl of fruit and everyday Alliums à la Ina Garten can actually create a nice tableau, but sometimes you need to conceal more items than your larder or pantry can handle. A countertop cabinet can ably pick up that slack.

A countertop cabinet can be as permanent or portable as you want it to be. It can be a built-in installed from the moment of your kitchen's inception, or slotted in as a standalone item at any time for a renter-friendly storage solution. In the latter case, it can also be almost anything you want it to be: A bread box, a repurposed spice cubby, or something closer to the standard structure that anyone would look at and say, "Yep, that's a cabinet." As long as it obscures whatever you set out for it to obscure, you've got yourself a functional countertop cabinet.

Counter space comes at a premium in many homes, so, unless you're living the double island life, you might want to take advantage of vertical space in your kitchen. That means sourcing a cabinet that's tall, rather than wide. Something like this two-level Alpeir bread box, available in a few neutral colors, can slide neatly into an unused corner space and hide whatever it is you want out of sight. Even bread. It's also great to dedicate as that oft-cited, cool, dark place that so many foodstuffs seem to require.

Anyone flirting with the appliance garage and its merits might also use a more compact countertop cabinet as an introductory detour to that storage solution's bigger commitment. Both ultimately take up some of your valuable counter space, although the former gobbles up a lot more. If after trying it out, the countertop cabinet alone seems to edge too much into your prep space, that more drastic and impactful reno might not be for you after all.