The Hanging Pot Rack In Your Kitchen Is Officially Out: The Tidy Storage Trend Taking Over

As the place where you prepare meals for your family and guests or grab a bite yourself, your kitchen needs to house a lot of accessories to make your cooking adventures possible. In addition to all your plates, cups, glasses, and cutlery, your pots and pans also need a place to live. Because they're among the bulkiest kitchen items, finding the right storage solution can be challenging. Among the best ways to store and organize pots and pans, hanging pot racks are known as one of the oldest tricks in the book for solving cookware storage issues, dating back as far as the 1700s. Still, in today's kitchens, suspending pots and pans above an island is increasingly viewed as outdated.

Of course, hanging pot racks have their strong suits. First off, they make smart use of vertical space to provide more storage in your kitchen for bulky cookware. If you have particularly beautiful pieces, a hanging pot rack can even double as an aesthetic display for your high-end cookware, adding some visual interest to your kitchen. It also makes cookware easy to access during cooking by keeping everything within arm's reach. But as interior design expert Malak Bellajdel explained to House Beautiful, the functionality that hanging pot racks were once famous for is now getting outweighed by the visual clutter they create.

Hanging pot racks might bring a nostalgic, homey feel to kitchens with traditional and farmhouse styles, but they can't seem to find their place in more contemporary settings. As modern kitchens lean towards more minimalistic setups, many homeowners are following suit by choosing cleaner, more unassuming storage solutions. The clutter of pot racks above the kitchen island clashes with the sleekness of these modern spaces, and it's also why hanging storage could make your small kitchen feel more cramped.

To avoid marring your modern kitchen design, Malak Bellajdel suggests opting for hidden storage for your pots and pans. Storing cookware in kitchen cabinets and drawers can instantly eliminate the cluttered look from your kitchen, as keeping these bulky items out of sight opens up the space and makes it seem tidier. Plus, as Bellajdel explains, tucking away your pots and pans comes with a practical benefit as well — when they're not sitting out in the open, your pots and pans won't be collecting as much dust, making your kitchen adventures cleaner and more enjoyable.