The end of my island is going to have a 10" wide tall drawer that i will keep the lids in vertically. it was a dead space that just happened to be prefect for it. and it's across from the range, where i'd reach for them. I also dont always use lids at the same time.

We store our stockpot lids with the pots themselves (with the handles either right side up, or flipped over depending on the particular pot stack). Saucepan and skillet lids are stacked on a pull-out next to the saucepans.

Vertical storage really would have been great, but might have eaten up too much height, and therefore storage space for the pots or pans.

stockpot drawer:

I don't have a pic of the other storage cab.

If you have the room to store each pot without stacking, then I believe the perfect spot for the lid is on the pot. I understand that you will not always need the lid, but the lid makes a perfect "place saver" in the cupboard for the pot or pan it come from. If you live with anyone - husband, children, roommate, or if anyone else ever does your dishes, you will be saved the trouble of trying to find your pans. They will be right back where they belong, wearing their matching lids.

DH and I pretty much agree where things belong in our new kitchen, but when my unemployed friend decides to earn some cash by helping me out, she "hides" things on us all the time! At least everybody in your household will be able to put the pots and pans where they belong.

I'm another who stores lids with pans. I know this isn't what you asked for, but I finally had a photo to post so my cab with rollouts might be beneficial to someone else.

I like the Lynk aftermarket pull-outs because I can see down through the upper one to the lower one and I can see into both shelves when cab door is open. If we have a busy moment, many of these are in use simultaneously. Some of my lids are multipurpose--they fit more than one pan. I usually remove pan and lid and if lid proves unnecessary, I put it back during cleanup.

We nailed a wooden cleat on cab wall at back of upper shelf to prevent shelf from kicking upward when the rollout was extended. We can change the heights of these units by removing the cleat and repositioning the upper shelf. Can't do that with a drawer. So far, these heights are proving to be good.

I can slip a narrow but awkward item into the dead space behind hinges--omelette pan? etc?

Addressing Nancy's issue, there is little likelihood of misplacing a pan. It's gotta be in here somewhere.

celineike - your 10" drawer does sound perfect; too bad I don't think I'll have a "dead" end on my island. But I'll keep this in mind as I work on the layout.

nancy, thanks for the point about the lid marking the pot's home. But it's just DH and me, and once I say where something goes, it (usually) stays there. If I don't come up with something more creative and useful, I guess that's what I'll do. I just thought now is the time to explore possibilities.

cat_mom - wow, you have lots of stock pots! Do you really use them all? I have 2 and occasionally have been contemplated getting a 3rd. I do love good cookware and shopping for it, but good quality stuff lasts forever and makes it hard for me to justify buying new!

Florantha - thanks for showing your storage. I can see how the see-through nature of your system is helpful. I am glad I am going to have more cookware storage than you, one of my pet peeves is nesting pots. I will probably have at least one cabinet besides the 2 drawers under my cooktop. And I'm even thinking a pot rack over the island. At least, DH REALLY wants one.

Anybody else have their lids stored someplace other than on their pots?

We don't have room for most pans to stand by themselves, especially since I'm not a cookware minimalist. My soup and smaller stock pots and fry pans are in a deep large drawer, lids on the pots, fry pans in 2 stacks (so no lids there). My sauce pans nest 2-deep along the front of another large drawer, and their lids and a couple of extra glass ones for some of the fry pans stand behind them, leaning against a divider. My 2 very largest lids stand in the vertical storage cabinet across from the fry pan drawer to keep the other places from being too crowded.

Not the perfect answer you're probably looking for, but I do really like having the lids right behind but not on the saucepans since I don't need them all the time.

I have a little rack in the deep drawer, to the right of my pots, where I "file" the lids vertically--they run front to back. This is in the bottom pot and pan drawer. The large lids remain on the pots. I do stack some of them, but generally no more than three deep, if necessary. If I can find a battery for my camera, I will try to snap a pic if you want.

I love these deep drawers!

We have a pot lid rack pull-out thing planned in the pull-outs on the side of our cooktop.

I'm sorry I don't have a better picture. It's the upper right corner:

I have far fewer lids than pots/pans, since many of the diameters are common. I've also thrown out all lids that are not flat, e.g. are deeply dished. The resulting collection of lids numbers less than 8, and sit in a vertical file holder sort of thingy, taking up only about 1 square foot of space. The only exceptions are the pressure cooker lids which live with their cookers.

Here are more ideas:

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

I got this idea from someone here on GW, but unfortunately I don't remember who. Most of my pots and pans are nested in a drawer. I store a few of the larger lids with them, but the lids and that less frequently used are stored on my supersusan with in a rack that I bought at WalMart. It seems to be working so far.

katkatf--yes, we do! I had the Farberware 6 qt pot when I married DH (17 yrs ago today!)--I had gotten it as part of a set when I married ex-H. DH came with his 8 qt Revere Ware pot. We usually use one or the other to boil water for pasta. The larger stockpots are used when making batches of chicken soup (I make gallons at once, freeze it, and then don't have to make it again for ages), or for making gallons of roasted garden tomato sauce (to freeze). The 8 qt A-C pot was part of a set and I use that whenever!

I like having multiple large pots so we can make multiple large batches of ________ at once.

Here is one view of mine,

and other from straignt down.

The lids for for my stockpots and big skillets are placed on top of the pan. For my smaller pans, I have an inexpensive ($5.00) Ikea expandable divider that the lids tuck nicely into. That's what is holding the lids up on the right hand side of the drawer. Works well for keeping them sorted out and out of the way.

Sorry about my picture. I forgot to resize.

Wow, thanks everybody! Some of these pictures/ideas are very helpful.

sumnerfan and rjr220, thanks for the pics. I actually have one of those little racks now; I haven't liked it on a stationary shelf, but maybe it will work well in a drawer. It's a great reminder to think about using what I already have in a different way. shelayne - I'm guessing your "filed" lids are in a similar rack?

beagles - thanks for finding/posting multiple different pics, very helpful. I like your lid pullout and I kind of like the idea of the divider in the drawer in the first one of your second post. That looks like a DIY, adjustable divider; I might try that if the little rack doesn't cut it for me. Rosie, this sounds like your general approach to.

Thanks, everybody. This has been really helpful - I am getting that keeping lids with or at least really near the pans will be the way to go. And I now have at least 3 different approaches for lid storage that I can try without shelling out extra money to the cabinet guy.

cat_mom - I look forward to having more time, energy, and produce to cook and freeze/can gallons of ________ whenever. Perhaps I'll be able to justify at least 1 more stockpot. :)

Personally I don't like the lids on the pot / pans either, and Rev-a-Shelf makes a nice pull-out where they stack separately. I think it fits a 15" wide cab. Lowes has them for about $80 - HALF what I have seen them for anywhere else.

BUT, I ordered a cooktop / storage unit from Fagor that will hopefully store all but my largest Lobster / stock pots. Still waiting for that to arrive from Europe (over a month - getting nervous).
With my current layout I won't be able to fit the Rev-a-Shelf, so I really need that unit to arrive so I can make sure all my pots fit before I finalize other cabinets.

If I had drawers large enough to fit my pots without stacking, I'd just leave the lids on top and if I don't need to use the lid I'd just leave it in the drawer as a space-filler. The benefit of this is that if someone else washes the pot and goes to put it back it's pretty obvious where it belongs!

I REALLY like Beagle's pics of the shallow drawers holding lids above the deeper pot drawers. That makes the most sense of all!

If you can get a rack with the partitions set on an angle you can vertically stack the lids in a shallower drawer.

Does anyone have special pots with deeper domed lids? How do you store those? I have a vintage cast iron pot with a lid shaped almost like a bundt pan, and I don't know where to store it. I plan to keep shallower cast iron skillets (no lids) in the storage compartment of my Chambers Range, but that one pot won't fit. I really want to get a couple nice copper sauciers, and I plan to hang a pot / utensil rail below the hood behind the Chambers and keep those out - won't be in the way like a normal pot rack, and just a couple frequently used pots left out will look like accessories against the backsplash.

rjr220,

I noticed that you have 3 outlets very close to each other - do you actually need / use those often?

Everyone accused me of "outlet overkill" in the family room because I put outlets every 6 feet so a laptop can be plugged in anywhere a person sits. I am SO glad I did that!

I know code requires outlets every 4 ft. above counters, but yours are much closer together. Is it worth it?

I don't often have the time/energy--that's why I like to make enough soup/sauce to last awhile! :-)

nat;
code here is every 2 feet, which I could have done in that area. Part of that set-up is reaction to not having enough outlets in the old kitchen. And, that particular outlet set-up was the focus of several discussions between DH and I. He only wanted 2, and up until the BS was being put in, he wanted to brick up the middle one. Do I use all 3? Yes. So I use all 6 outlets at once? No. The one closest to the wall has small speakers and my mp3 player plugged into it most of the time. The middle one is for the mixer, food processor, the one closest to the range gets the immersion blender. I guess it isn't needing all 3 at once, it's having outlets positioned where I wanted/needed them for convenience of that area. Most of the time the middle one is hidden behind a piece of decorative glass.

I have a section in the back of my pot drawer just for lids. I originally planned to use a divider like Beagle's first picture, but I couldn't find one long enough to fit across the back of my 26'' drawers, so my cabinetmaker added a partition instead, using beadboard like that on the other side of the island. I store my really big lids with their stockpots, etc. in a base cabinet Super Susan.

Thanks warmfridge - another great idea. That way the lids are not in the way if not needed, but handy when they are.

Thanks everyone, I love this forum!

warmfridge: about how wide and high is that pot drawer? I, too, love your solution.

warmfridge, you have come up with many innovative, functional and ergonomic kitchen storage solutions. I remember you also had designed a fantastic storage drawer for your cutting boards, one which undoubtedly made many a jealous GWer. Perhaps you might consider starting a new thread and posting a pictorial show-and-tell of your kitchen cabinets. Surely that would be a prized thread, especially to those of us planning universal-design kitchens.

Thank you all for your kind words. You may remember that I did my kitchen reno because I became disabled from a back injury, so my focus was on function and ergonomics rather than style. I posted one thread last year after it was finished, but I'll be happy to do another with some better pictures. Just not today, because my downstairs is now being renovated and demo is today. (Nashing teeth here.)