The kitchen is, without a doubt, the hardest-working room in any home. Even if you’re blessed with a spacious, barely-used cookspace, you still need smart storage, and if you’re dealing with a tiny one-wall kitchenette (like me), you need a lot of it. The trouble is, there’s a fine line between organizers that genuinely earn their keep and useless gimmicks that take up already limited space. If you want to spend wisely, it's best to ask the experts.
Organizing a kitchen starts with good storage, but professional organizers will be the first to admit that the market is wildly oversaturated. With the internet at our fingertips, we can hunt down products to the exact millimetre and have them on our doorstep within days. Whatever your kitchen storage dilemma, there’s a solution out there — but first, you have to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Whether you want a clever fix for cluttered cabinets, a compact solution for cutlery, or a practical system for your pantry, you shouldn't have to dig deep into your pockets. And yet, as the saying goes, buy cheap, and you buy twice. If you're looking for the very best tried and tested kitchen organizers that can streamline your kitchen storage without breaking the bank, here are six expert-approved buys for less than £20.
When it comes to kitchen storage ideas, few products make an impact like the humble shelf riser. They're a simple, effortless, and cheap way to virtually double your storage space, and for just £5, you can afford to put one in every cupboard.
"Shelf risers instantly turn tall, wasted space into useful storage as they give you two levels to work with," says Sue Spencer, founder of A Life More Organised, who loves these particular risers so much she brings them along to every client consultation. "I like to use them for separating stacks of plates and bowls, putting the bowls under the shelf riser and plates on top. This makes it easier to grab the plate you want without having to lift off the smaller items on top."
If you can't get to IKEA, I'd go for this one from Lakeland, that also lets your cupboard stay well-ventilated.
In a similar vein, a tiered system like this one from Amazon is a great way to reinstate order in cluttered pantries or make your kitchen cabinets more functional. More than a simple spice rack, it's a real game-changer if you're always discovering long-expired tins at the back of your cabinets. "The tiered design lets you see everything at a glance, which cuts down on duplicates and makes meal prep quicker," says professional organizer Di Ter Avest, who recommends using one for spices, small jars, and tins.
Sue is also an advocate, and besides making meal prep smoother and helping you stay on top of storage, she notes that you'll likely save on your food shop as well. "When you can see what you have, you’re far more likely to actually use it — which saves both money and space," she adds.
One of the most common things you'll find in super-organized kitchens that also score highly on the aesthetic scale is woven baskets. They're one of the easiest ways to corral dry food items or small appliances you use less frequently, keeping everything neatly tucked away.
Sue loves using baskets and containers for snacks, seasoning packets, crisps, or baking ingredients. "It doesn’t just look neater, it genuinely makes your cupboards work harder," she says. "You’re not wrestling with bulky packaging, nothing goes missing at the back, and you can tell instantly when you need to restock."
Di Ter Avest is a professional home and lifestyle organizer and the owner of Di is Organized, in Baltimore, MD (USA). Her accountability program and book Organize Yourself Healthy help women across the globe to get their lives and homes organized, leading to lower levels of stress and overwhelm. Her expertise has been featured on Forbes, Today, ApartmentTherapy, Real Homes, Livingetc, Home & Gardens, and Kitchn; she has also given workshops at IKEA, West Elm, and Williams-Sonoma.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a professional organizer who doesn't recommend drawer dividers. Without a system, a cutlery or utensil drawer will quickly descend into chaos, but these extendable (and universal) dividers make it easy to organize kitchen drawers in an instant. "They turn messy kitchen drawers into neat, easy-to-maintain sections," says Di.
If you've ever battled with a potato masher in an attempt to open a jammed drawer or found your soft-close mechanism growing a mind of its own, then a drawer divider is the answer to your woes. Sue recommends creating sections for long utensils and knives, and smaller "zones" for tea towels, napkins, and other linens. "It stops the jumble and helps everything stay organized with almost zero effort," she says.
Lazy Susans are more of a contentious topic among professional organizers. While they're often cited as one of the best organizers for a small kitchen, they can be cumbersome inside cabinets or on countertops. In the fridge, however, it's a different story.
This one from the masters of organization, Joseph Joseph, is designed specifically with the fridge in mind, rotating a full 360 degrees and featuring a flat front edge to maximize space. "It stops bottles and jars from getting lost in the back and makes it so easy to see what you already have," says Di.
Sometimes, the best organizers are the ones you never knew you needed. While decorative tea and coffee caddies are the usual go-to — often styled on the countertop for easy access — anyone with a more devoted tea habit will know that a few pretty jars won’t cut it. Different blends and herbal infusions quickly multiply, and without a proper system, they can take over a cabinet.
Although it's never a top priority, Di says her clients laud this storage container when she introduces it to them. "The clear design lets everyone see what’s inside, and having categories built in helps keep the tea tidy and ready to take to the table at tea time," she says.
After transforming her own home with the KonMari Method® in 2017, Sue discovered how decluttering does more than create space, it transforms the way you live. Based in Winchester, Sue helps families, busy professionals, and home movers across Wiltshire and London create calm, organized homes that support their lives. With over 20 years in corporate marketing, she understands the challenge of balancing work, family and home life. She specializes in rightsizing, helping clients adapt their current homes to suit their life stage, whether they're growing a family, empty nesting or downsizing.
There's no room to be making kitchen storage mistakes in 2025, but it's easy to be led astray when shopping for organizers (especially if you're looking online). Before you know it, your shopping cart is nudging three figures yet filled with gimmicky products that will only end up competing for space in your already crowded cupboards.
That’s why it pays to hear from trusted organizing professionals who can speak to the real-world impact these products actually have. Their tried-and-tested recommendations cost £20 or less, and each one genuinely works to streamline your space. They're the small but savvy sort of upgrades that can make your kitchen work harder, feel calmer, and look more beautiful.
