In one I have my coffee mugs and coffee grinder and filters (coffee pot is on counter near range) in the upper shelf I have tea bags. I have another narrow cabinet away from the range with vitamins on one shelf and small, little used glass items like sugar and creamer sets, cruets etc.

This is all hypothetical, for a kitchen that hasn't been built yet... I have currently drawn 18 inch uppers on each side of the range, configured as open shelving (i.e. no doors)

Left side: fruit bowls (getting them off the counter), storage basket with vitamins, a couple of serving bowls.

Right side: salts and pepper, oil, a collander. Maybe another fruit bowl with tomatoes in the summer. Maybe a spice carousel (though I should have room for a spice drawer organizer which seems handier).

I suppose I shouldn't have food and oil next to the range, but there isn't any ideal counter space for the fruit, and it will be handy to the sink there. If stuff goes bad too fast, I'll change it. (Fruit that goes bad really fast like strawberries already goes in the fridge.)

In my small upper cabinet above the stove-rarely used vases, etc. as the hood venting goes up through the middle of this cabinet. On the right side of the stove I have a 2 shelf open cabinet. Top is for cookbooks and the lower is for seldom used appliances like blender, crock pot-sort of an open appliance garage deal.

I'm very interested to read more opinions on this thread. Currently I have two 9" cabinets on either side of microwave and unfortunately, it will be the same layout w/ new kitchen. We aren't moving walls so the 45 degree angled walls will stay. Above the microwave is where the cookbooks are & in one 9" cabinet is the medicine and other side are spices. I HATE both cabinets!!! It's the biggest pain keeping the medicine cabinet organized. I'm very interested to see what others have in their small cabs. If you can avoid small, unusable cabinets.

Mine aren't next to the cooktop, but on the right angled wall - a 12" and a bigger one. I have small lazy susans on each shelf, with herbs, spices and other seasonings - all in easy grabbing distance when cooking. I don't like those spice pull-outs, preferring to have it all at eye level.
I definitely recommend the lazy susans, if you can fit them in.

We don't have a pantry, so we store paper plates, cups, and plastic spoons and forks....Also a couple of pitchers we use infrequently.

Above the range and microwave, I put less used items. On one side of the cabinet, I put a rack that holds cheese trays, party plates, etc. On the other side I haven't figured it out yet. Right now I have a small fire extinguisher - one of many in or throughout the kitchen.

I have two 12'' cabinets, not near the range though. One is for wine glasses, the other for water glasses and mugs.

I don't have cabinets over the rangehood, but my smallest upper is 15" wide (inset). Right now it is full of candles, matches, etc. They will eventually be moved to the pantry and I will probably use the bottom shelf for oils and the upper shelves with extra bowls.

I have vases in my cab over the stove. I'd put my more frequently used salts/peppers/seasonings that I generally keep in bigger shakers and maybe a measuring cup and my stick blender on one shelf and small serving bowls on the other. On the other side I would probably put the largest serving bowls I could fit and some plates (about dinner size) that I use to serve meat when platter isn't necessary.

What size upper cabinets are you talking about? "Smaller" means different things to different people...

As for me...

In our old kitchen, we stored our cookbooks in the cabinet over the (useless) builder-grade range hood.

In our new kitchen, there's no cabinet over our range hood since we have a stand-alone Vent-A-Hood (love it!) so...

My cookbooks are now in the 18" cabinet directly adjacent to the range hood on the left.

I also store my measuring cups, saucers that I use as spoon rests (for gluten-free cooking), etc.

You can see what I store in each cabinet at the link below.

I do have to ask though...is there a reason you have "smaller" cabinets? Generally, it's much more efficient (and less costly) to have larger cabinets and "absorb" the narrower ones into adjacent ones. Yes, there are times when this is not possible (like when they're b/w two appliances or specialty cabinets), but usually it's best to go for the wider cabinets.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buehl's Cabinet Insides

Future kitchen will have 18" stacked uppers on top of 36" cabs. I do not have a lot of space but I can go up. In the new kitchen an already in place small hall closet/pantry next to kitchen will be put to better use. A lot of the items from pantry closet and little used items clogging my space will be moved up to the 18" stacked, such as, Hurricane cooking supplies like portable propane burners & more, also, extra vases, patio serving stuff, party glassware, little used sm electric fryer and many other used but little used items that I need. My above frig cab in new kitchen will be deeper and things that are little used, but more often used than the stuff in the 18" cabs will go there as well as the above range cab. Most often used items will all be housed in conveniently reachable cabs, drawers or susan. Spices will be in two six" pulloutsÂcant wait for that as the only place for them now is in the susan which I at first loved and now hate because it takes forever to find what I want. So, pretty much IÂm working my way down in an order of use except the pull-out spice cabs will go on the 36" wall run do to my back not liking to bend and not enough room for extra drawer base.