Free Up Countertop Space With This Simple Fruit Storage Upgrade

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For many home decorators, nothing denotes freshness in kitchen design quite like a big bowl of fruit sitting on the counter. Such a display is reminiscent of an old still life. The problem is, you can lose a lot of counter space when you put a fruit-laden bowl out on the counter like that. There's a better option that still allows you to use fresh fruits and veggies in your cozy kitchen design AND that returns your countertops to you at the same time. To add more storage in your kitchen (and your countertops, in particular), just hang a towel bar on the wall and mount a basket on it using S-hooks. 

You have a couple of options for its construction. The RETOONGKING wall-mounted coffee mug holder automatically comes with two of the three items you'll need to complete this project – the S-hooks and the bar. The advantage of using something like this is that the basic construction materials are intact from the get-go. The drawback is that the mug holder may not match your kitchen's design. If that's the case, you'll want to go with the second option: Buy a short towel bar that features the design you like and then buy the S-hooks separately.

As for the basket, you'll want to keep the freshness of your produce in mind as you're choosing this. Wire or wood wicker baskets are often ideal because they allow the air to flow freely through the basket and the fruit. If you're going for a woven reed-type basket, it's better to choose one that has a loose weave rather than a tight one for this reason.

Although the setup for this decor piece is simple, deciding where to put it on your kitchen wall may not be so straightforward. Aside from the aesthetics of it, you want to make sure that it's not positioned near a strong heat source. Tomatoes, specifically, shouldn't be where direct sunlight can reach them, unless they're a bit green and you want to ripen them up. Keeping ripe ones at room temperature makes them last longer, but excessive heat pretty much cooks them, so stay away from that. From a convenience perspective, you may also find that positioning your stylish storage baskets near where you keep your cutting boards and knife blocks makes sense. Prepping and cutting the fruit up is easier that way because those items will be within easy reach of your hands and the baskets.

You may also want to hang up more than one bar and basket. If you go this route, you'll want one of the baskets to keep your slow-ripening fruits and veggies in. Save another one for produce that ripens faster. And keep in mind, you may need more than just two baskets if you store lots of fruits and veggies out in the open. For example, earmark separate baskets for apples, stone fruits, and other items. You may also want to put aside a few Evob S-shaped hooks for your bananas. Those can be hung directly on the hooks by their stems instead of being stashed in one of the baskets. Finally, remember that vegetables like potatoes and onions should be stored in the dark for longevity, so pop these out of sight in your pantry.