Goodbye Cookware Clutter: This Dollar Tree Kitchen Find Keeps Things Compact

Moseying around Dollar Tree to find cheap and cheerful hidden gems can be a form of therapy. After all, it's a good place to brainstorm solutions to annoying pain points at home and doesn't break the bank. For instance, did you know you can get extra spice storage from Dollar Tree with nothing but a couple of magnets and a desk organizer, or use Dollar Tree napkin holders to neatly house Tupperware lids? The kitchen is the part of the home that can benefit the most from cost-effective DT items because it's a key area where clutter can easily gather and overwhelm. One compact Dollar Tree find that can reduce some of that mess is a collapsible colander.

If you're a pasta person, you likely have a metal colander somewhere in your cabinet to strain spaghetti. Hard and inflexible, these things can be annoying to stow away in smaller kitchens that lack storage because they take up so much space. You can't neatly stack them on top of anything, and neither can you slide them into a small gap between a box grater and a salad spinner. Dollar Tree's colander eliminates this issue because you can simply push it down gently so it collapses into itself and becomes a slimline disc. Then you can lay it down at the bottom of your cupboard and place other items on top, or line it up so it sits like a book on a shelf along with baking trays, muffin pans, and pan lids.

Made of durable plastic, Dollar Tree's collapsible colander is available in red and grey and costs $1.25, which is a real bargain considering the myriad ways in which it can be used in the kitchen. While its main purpose is for straining vegetables, rice, and pasta, or rinsing fruit and canned beans, you can also use it to sift flour for a sheet cake. A sieve is better for this task, but a colander can also work in a pinch. Better yet, because it's dishwasher-friendly, you'll avoid having to rinse it clean by hand.

If you only need to sieve or strain a small quantity of ingredients, feel free to use your colander in its collapsed state. And when you've finished, its small footprint is thankfully slender enough to fit into a drawer, slot up against serving trays, or even be stored in a hamper for use at your next picnic or barbecue. The greatest benefit of having a minimalist kitchen with collapsible items is that it saves time putting things away, creates better organization, and results in a streamlined cooking experience.