Kitchen Storage Cabinet for Limited Space

I will be the first to admit that I would much rather go out to eat or throw something in the microwave, than cook. I enjoy coming up with new recipes and cooking for a family gathering or something but to cook every single night is exhausting. Mostly because I simply do not enjoy cooking. It takes too long and requires too much clean-up afterwards.

As a family of 3 most nights, 5 when we have my boyfriends’ other 2 boys, we either pop a pizza in the oven, grab something from a drive thru or go to a restaurant. When we get really lazy, we just fend for ourselves (other than preparing something easy for our 2-year-old) which usually consists of a bowl of cereal or something equally as easy.

Like several households, I have a bowl (like the one below) that holds all my cooking utensils like spatulas, big spoons, whisks, etc. and I have a knife block.

I also have dogs and cats in my house. So, with the little amount of cooking that I do, those utensils would just sit in the bowl and gather dust, hair and anything else that was floating around in the air. Whenever I would go to use a utensil, I would have to wash it beforehand. (which I do regardless of how dusty things get) You never know what germs could have collected on them.  

If you remember from my pantry post from before, you’ll remember that I have a very small kitchen with very limited cabinet space. Below is what I had my utensils sitting on before. If you zoom in, you can see just how much dust (and other junk) collected on not only the utensils but also my canisters and shelves.

I really wanted to put my utensils in a drawer or find another solution that would keep them clean. That’s when I started searching for utensil cabinets. Most of what I found was cabinets that are as deep as normal cabinets and look like normal cabinets with drawer that pulls out with the utensils in it. What a great idea….

After searching and searching for a cabinet that would fit into my existing kitchen, I decided I was going to have to just build one myself. Naturally, I wanted my utensils next to the stove for easy access. All the cabinets I was finding online or in stores were 23 inches wide and 15 inches deep. To fit where I wanted it, I needed something no more than 19 inches wide by 12 inches deep.

I had a plan of building one of my own but finding the time was a little challenging. One day I was browsing Facebook marketplace when I saw a friend of mine had a cabinet for sale at her garage sale. It was a trash can cabinet that tilted out. To my surprise, it was just over 19 inches wide and 13 inches deep.

I bought it for $20 and started tearing it apart. I started by sanding the whole thing down. I then added a shelf inside the tilted door and mounted my knife block. I decided I liked the color it was, so I put a fresh coat of paint on it and poof….the perfect cabinet for my cooking utensils.

Let me know what you think below and be sure to follow me for my next project!