By Boniface Muriuki. Last updated on 1st March, 2025
Are you struggling with a cluttered kitchen? If so, then this article is for you. Storing pans of different sizes and shapes can be tough. It becomes even more frustrating when you cannot spot your favorite cookware when you need it most!
If you’ve found yourself in such situations, then you need to acquire lazy Susan, pot racks, and other organizational assets to help you keep your kitchen tidy.
This guide offers a step-by-step guide on how to organize pots and pans, thus making cooking fun in your home. We will help you to get enough space for all your cookware while improving accessibility, presentability, and safety.
Tips on How to Organize Pots and Pans in Your Kitchen
Having a disorganized kitchen is not only an ugly sight but also a health risk. Bumping onto pans as you maneuver through the kitchen or a pan falling and hitting your toes hard is a possibility in such a scenario.
As such, there is an absolute need to organize your pots and pans. When doing that, you should ensure that you consider accessibility and safety. Well, we opine that pots and pans organization is not easy. If you find this task a hassle, then these five tips will simplify the entire process:
- Sort the pots and pans based on size, shape, and material.
- Group them in a cabinet or on shelves according to shape, size, and material classification.
- Store the lids with the corresponding pan or pot
- Label all your pots, containers, and pans. Labeling makes it easier for you to identify the pot that you need for a specific task with ease.
- Put all unused pots and pans away from the cabinets/drawers to create more space for the regularly used ones.
When organizing your pots, ensure that you avoid storing scratch-prone pans stacked with other metallic cookware. For example, storing non-stick pans together with metallic spatulas may lead to scratches.
Additionally, you should always ensure that the pans that you use regularly are closer than those that you rarely use. This way, you’ll have an easy time reaching out to them when you need them and minimize the chances of accidental falls.
How to Organize Your Pots and Pans In a Lazy Susan Organizer
Lazy susans allow you to organize your items in the fridge, cabinets, and countertops. They come in different shapes and sizes to accommodate both small and large cookware.
To achieve the pots and pans organization using lazy Susan organizers, the first step is deciding on which type of lazy Susan organizer to buy.
For example, if space is an issue at home or work there are smaller versions available that will fit into tight spaces like cabinets or shelves! These are great because they take up less room than traditional organizers do while still holding plenty of items inside them!
There are also larger ones that can be used as serving trays when not being used as storage containers too! So really it just depends on what size fits your needs best and where it will go in your kitchen space.
I wrote an all-inclusive guide on the best lazy Susan organizers for the money. Read it here to make an informed decision on the best lazy Susan for your organizational needs.
If you’re wondering why lazy Susan comes in handy when decluttering your kitchen, then here is the answer. These are the benefits that you’ll get from these useful kitchen additions:
- Save Tons of Time. There is nothing as hectic as trying to reach out to your pots hidden deep into the cabinet. It makes cooking a hassle and reduces the longevity of the pans as they scratch against each other in the removal/storage process.
- Get More Storage Space for Pots and Pans. This is particularly crucial if you’re living in a small condo or you have a relatively small kitchen. The lazy Susan organizer ensures that you utilize your space optimally, thus achieving a highly organized kitchen.
- Organize Your Kitchen to Make Cooking Easier, Faster, and Cleaner. Lazy Susans enable you to keep your kitchen clean. You will have an incredibly easy time reaching to your pots, which will make cooking fun.
You can find these in any kitchen supply store or online retailer. They come in different shapes, sizes, colors, materials- all sorts of things! It’s up to you to decide what kind will work best for your needs.
How to Arrange Pots and Pans in a Rack
There are many ways to arrange pots and pans in a rack. The most common way is to line up the handles facing outwards. However, this can be difficult if you have more than two or three items because it makes them unstable.
Another method is to place all of the handles parallel with each other on top of each other, but that requires too much space for larger sets of cookware.
However, you can purchase a pan and pot rack and your problems will fly away! With these necessary kitchen additions, you can arrange your pots and pans so that they face away from each other at an angle, which will keep them stable while still allowing enough space between them for air circulation.
This also allows you to see what’s inside every pot without moving any others around, making it easier to find what you need when cooking dinner at home or serving food during parties with friends!
When you’re looking for a pots and pans rack, there are so many options to choose from. The most common types include:
- Hanging pots and pans rack
- Wall-mount pots and pans rack
- Ceiling pots and pans rack
As such, you should be keen to consider the style, size, color, and material of your pots and pans rack. There’s also the question of how much space you have in your kitchen. Will it fit under your cabinets?
Are you getting rid of some other pieces that don’t match with this new one? Will these racks work well in combination with each other? How long will they last before rusting or breaking down? And then there’s the price factor.
If that sounds complicated, then worry no more. We’ve written a comprehensive guide on how to select the best pots and pans rack. We considered many factors ranging from versatility, quality, and durability.
Read the comprehensive pots and pans rack guide here.
When selecting one, ensure that you choose one made out of high-quality materials that won’t bend or break easily, even after heavy use! Such racks will look great in any kitchen while being easy on the wallet.
How to Organize Pots and Pans Using Cabinet Organizers
If you want to utilize your cabinets maximally, then you’ll have to buy in cabinet lazy susans, a collapsible/ flexible rack, or hanging hooks. These are great for maximizing the space in your cabinets and making sure that everything is easy to find when you need it.
With these tools, you won’t have any more clutter on your countertops or wasted cabinet space! Get rid of all those pots and pans cluttering up your cupboards with one of these products today!
Here are the 3 proven ways that you can use to organize your cabinet, thus allowing more room for pots and pans:
- Hanging Hooks. These are perfect for hanging things like oven mitts, dish towels, and pot holders from the back of a door or wall near an outlet where they can be easily reached without taking up valuable storage space in a cupboard.
- Collapsible/Flexible Racks. These are good for storing items that might not fit well into drawers but still need to be stored somewhere out of sight (like cookbooks). The rack collapses down flat against the wall when not in use so there’s no bulky item taking up floor space either!
- Lazy Susans. These allow you to store large items like cutting boards and cookie sheets right at eye level within reachable distance from anywhere in the room while keeping them hidden away behind closed doors until needed again later on down the line.
- Lid Organizers. Lids can wreak havoc in your kitchen. They are difficult to arrange and can easily fall, leading to breakages, noise, and possible accidents. As such, you will need a lid organizer to hold the pieces intact, thus enabling ease of access and reducing the chances of breakages.
Whichever option you pick, always ensure that you consider the items you need to store. For example, hanging hooks would be ideal for pots and pans with a handle while collapsible racks are only ideal for items that are not voluminous, such as cookbooks.
Other Creative Ways to Organize Pots and Pans
Organizing your kitchen has no one-fits-all formulae. It requires a little creativity to get the most suitable method. The method you select will depend on several factors, including:
- The size of your kitchen. If your kitchen is small, then you must think of utilizing the ceiling. In such a case, you will need ceiling pot racks. On the other hand, if your kitchen has many free walls, you may just need a rod with hooks to hang your pans on the wall.
- Your Needs. Which problem are you trying to solve? Is it congestion? Is it that you want the presentability of your cookware? If you want guests to spot your best cookware sets with ease for prestige, then an in cabinet organizer is not an excellent idea. Instead, you may want hanging pot racks or wall-mount racks for such a presentation.
- Your Budget. If you have time and you’re working on a budget, you can undertake simple DIY organization techniques, such as dividing a cabinet into sections using plywood. On the other hand, you may just decide to buy the best pot and pan racks to simplify the process.
Other ingenious pots and pans organization techniques include:
- Installing sliding shelves (push and pull) for easy access to your cookware
- Using tension rod/bar with S hooks to hang your pans inside the cabinet
- Stacking your pans. In this case, you may need padded pot protectors to protect them from scratches.
- Hang your cookware over your kitchen island
- Buy a magnetic knife strip for your cutlery
Read more about magnetic knife strips here
How to Organize Pots and Pans – The Bottom Line
When you have an organized kitchen, cooking becomes easy and fun. However, achieving an orderly kitchen can be hectic, especially if you have lots of pots and pans.
This cookware takes up a lot of space yet they are frequently used. As such, you have to find a way of arranging them for presentability and ease of access.
This article has offered a comprehensive guide on how to organize pots and pans in your kitchen. We have tested most of them and we can certainly recommend that you buy a pots and pans rack. Check some of the best options here.
If you’re working on a budget, you can use different DIY techniques to create more room for your cookware. This guide offers those tips in an easy and applicable form.
