How Martha Stewart Uses A Lazy Susan To Declutter Kitchen Cabinets

Messy cabinets that need an occasional spruce are part and parcel of managing a well-loved kitchen. You can use tools like drawer dividers and cabinet risers to make a home for every item, or employ organizational hacks like grouping similar items together to make sense of all the chaos. The only problem? That corner cabinet that you can never seem to organize no matter what you do. Martha Stewart's solution to decluttering that spot is to use a lazy Susan. In a video on her YouTube channel, the cookbook author says a "lazy Susan makes the most of any corner cabinet and it's just an incredible way to maximize your space."

While some corner cabinets are fitted with pull out shelving or include a swiveling carousel, a basic run-of-the-mill cupboard that has fixed shelving is often a hiding place for items that are not used regularly because it is so difficult to reach into. Overloaded with dishes used only for special occasions or appliances that have been long forgotten about, this area of the kitchen can soon become a dumping ground. Stewart troubleshoots this issue by placing large lazy Susans that have a swivel-bearing system on the bottom on top of every shelf. This move allows her to rotate each shelf with ease and access items that would otherwise be concealed at the back. Known as pie cut or kidney-shaped Lazy Susans, these swiveling rounds have a chunk missing, which allows them to be fitted neatly into corner cabinets.

Aside from it being super-tricky to access items at the back of a corner cupboard, it is just as challenging to reach inside to clean spills and messes off the shelving. Incorporating a lazy Susan carousel unit in your kitchen design from the very start means you can simply rotate each shelf and access every area that needs a wipe down without straining your back. However, if you have moved into a home that does not have a cupboard with a carousel or pull out system, it makes sense to install your own lazy Susan on top of the existing set up to make use of any dead space. Improving the accessibility of the space means you can stack daily-use items on there, like crockery and skillets, instead of hiding junk inside.

Maximizing hard to reach spaces with a lazy Susan is just one of the ways to organize your kitchen with a large turntable. For instance, a lazy Susan works wonders in the fridge, making it easy to find condiments and sauces, but it can also be placed on your kitchen counter as a rotating mise en place for all your most-used ingredients, too. A couple of other useful Martha Stewart's got-to kitchen organization tricks are to hang your pots and pans above the stove and use the area above your refrigerator for storing infrequently used items. Both of these ideas make use of redundant spots in the kitchen, providing extra storage and a focal point.