Keep Kitchen Utensils Organized With The Help Of A Popular Dollar Tree Find

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Making the most of a small kitchen can seem like an impossible task. Even if you try out a seemingly clever storage hack, you're more than likely sacrificing valuable space in your cabinets, on your countertops, or in your drawers. This is especially true when it comes to kitchen utensils — they're notoriously difficult to store thanks to their irregular shapes, and things are made even more challenging when you consider the fact that they should be easy to grab at a moment's notice. Thankfully, there's a simple hack that can help you keep your most-used utensils out of your drawers, accessible, and off of your countertops. As an added bonus, it's super affordable — most of what you need can be found at the Dollar Tree.

The star of this DIY is the Cooking Concepts Metal Cooling Rack. If you're familiar with Dollar Tree DIYs, this should come as no surprise — this rack features in a ton of creative projects, from closet storage solutions to sticker organizers. For this project, the cooling rack will be mounted on the wall as a place to hang your most commonly used cooking utensils. To accomplish this, you'll also need to pick up some hardware for mounting — anything from Command hooks to regular nails will work — as well as some hooks, like these Navona S Hooks from Amazon. Your grand total should be under $10, making this an incredibly affordable way to upgrade your organization and make better use of your vertical space in a small kitchen.

Even if you're not at all experienced with DIYs, this hack is easy to pull off. Simply place a couple of adhesive hooks on the wall — the Tool Bench Removable Hooks from Dollar Tree would work for this — or hammer in a couple of nails. Make sure to use a level to ensure things are straight. Hang the cooling rack on the wall and attach the S-hooks to your cooking utensils to finish things off.

While this is a simple project, there are a few ways you can make it your own. First, consider hanging the cooling rack horizontally rather than vertically. While the vertical alignment might work better for a narrow space on the wall, hanging it horizontally will give you more points you can use to hang your utensils. If you need more space, you can also purchase multiple racks and hang them side by side. At just $1.50 per rack, expanding this DIY won't do much to add to your total cost.

Additionally, you have the option to paint the hanging rack to better fit your kitchen's design. A high-quality spray paint, like Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch, will work for this task. Paint the rack a color similar to the wall so it blends in, choose a metallic spray paint that matches your hardware if you're not a fan of the cool-toned metal finish, or use this as an opportunity to bring in a pop of color. While you're at it, also spray paint the S-hooks to make sure everything matches.