Declutter Your Kitchen Cabinets With A Dollar Tree Bathroom Essential

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Stacking plates in kitchen cabinets sounds like a good idea — until you're trying to balance dinner plates, dessert plates, and bowls all in one big, wobbly pile. Grabbing something from the bottom usually means lifting the whole stack and hoping it doesn't come crashing down. We all know how that ends: broken or chipped plates. If only there was a way to separate them nicely and keep them all easily accessible... well, the solution might be at the Dollar Tree. And no, you won't find it in the kitchen section, but in the bathroom one. With two simple shower caddies and four zip ties, create a DIY vertical storage system for plates. It's an easy, affordable, and clever way to make kitchen cabinets more functional.

The idea is to attach two Home Collection Wire Shower Caddies from Dollar Tree together using zip ties. These simple $1.25 shower caddies are designed to hang below a showerhead, featuring several shelves to place soaps, sponges, and other shower essentials. However, once secured together and laid horizontally, they can go inside a cabinet to act as a vertical organizer.

Of course, you can always purchase cabinet organizers, like the 2-Pack Plate Holders from Hikinlichi. Then again, these tend to cost a lot more than $2.50, and they're not as space-efficient. Rather than separating each individual plate like with these shelf inserts, the shower caddy DIY lets you group plates together by size and shape. That's a great way to utilize every inch of cabinet storage space in the kitchen. 

To begin, grab two shower caddies and lay them flat on a surface with the wire shelves facing up. Have the longer wire sections (the part that attaches to the showerhead) face each other. Then, cross one caddy over the other one until it fits snugly behind the shelves of the second caddy. This creates a bit of a crisscrossed structure with built-in slots for your plates and dishes.

Secure the entire contraption in place using zip ties. Tighten one at the top of each caddy (where the showerhead would normally go) and a couple more where the wires meet on the sides. Make sure the caddies are tightly secured and sturdy before moving on. Once they're assembled, place the shower caddies on a shelf inside your cabinet. Each wire section works perfectly as a divider for storing plates, bowls, kids' trays, or flat items like cutting boards, lids, and baking pans. Now, you won't need to unstack a tower of dishes just to grab the one at the bottom; instead, you can easily access everything from these neatly separated sections. Seeing all the dishes this way can also help declutter your kitchen without going overboard, as you'll notice which ones are rarely used. 

One thing to keep in mind is the size of this DIY. Each shower caddy is about 20 inches long, so be sure your cabinet is at least 26 inches wide before heading to Dollar Tree. If it doesn't fit, you might want to DIY a better plate shelf system from scratch instead.