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2024’s Most Surprising Kitchen Trend Has Us Scratching Our Heads

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Pop quiz: What do you use that drawer under your oven for? If you answered, “storing your baking pans and cookie sheets,” you are my people. It never crossed my mind to store them anywhere else, until I saw Houzz’s 2024 Kitchen Trends Study, in which a poll of more than 3,400 people revealed that “cookie sheet organizers” were one of the fastest-growing, most desired additions to the heart of people’s homes.

Excuse me?

In a world of fluted cabinetry, in-drawer charging stations and wrap-around islands, what people want, what they really, really want, is a way to better organize their cookie sheets? To some degree, I get it: That pull-out compartment is actually a broiler or warming drawer in certain types of ovens. Those people don’t have the luxury of stacking a bunch of pans in an awkward game of Tetris under their stoves, hearing them clang about as you open and shut the thing.

But still, why did 55 percent of people dream of having better storage options for their cookie sheets? What was I missing out on, other than reclaiming the precious minutes spent inspecting my pans for any grease splatters that could’ve glommed onto said pans due to their home under the range? (Or worse yet, dust bunnies that’d adhered to said grease.)

OK, fine. I see your point, cookie sheet organizing enthusiasts. Perhaps there are benefits to positioning your pans elsewhere. So, how are people organizing their cookie sheets these days, if not using the under-oven stack?

4 Kitchen Trends We’re Ready to Say Goodbye to (And What to Do Instead)


1. The Home Edit Approach: Wire Dividers

Amazon

If you have the cabinet space, storing baking sheets vertically using wire dividers can make them easy to “grab what you need, and only what you need,” The Home Edit founders Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer write. No avalanches of baking sheets, plus you can use ‘em to keep cutting boards in place—and they’re a pretty affordable fix.

2. The Ina Garten Method: Baskets

TJ MAXX

Can’t sacrifice cabinet space to stow your cookie sheets? Our Lady of Chambray can’t either—and she doesn’t. “I have a huge basket for all those things that don’t fit in drawers, like half sheet pans and baking racks, big cutting boards,” Ina Garten shared in a 2009 interview with House Beautiful. She stows them vertically in the basket, so she can easily pull each one out. “I don’t think I have anything stacked on anything else.” (Before stealing her technique, just make sure you choose a basket that’s at least 13 inches wide, so a half-sheet pan can fit in it—and that you have a spot to store that basket. Garten keeps hers on the floor, at the end of a table.)

You could even combine methods one and two, sticking a divider inside the basket, so everything stays upright and easy to stow. Our basket pick is 27 inches wide by 17 inches tall, so baking sheets can be fully hidden inside.

3. The #FoundonAmazon Godsend: Pull-Out Organizers

Kitstorack

Arguably the best option—if you must ignore the oven drawer—is a pull-out organizer, like this one from Amazon. That way you aren’t digging into the abyss of your cabinets to reach the organizer. Plus, it uses an adhesive film to stick to the bottom of your cabinets, so it’s a renter-friendly installation too (no drilling holes!). Just be sure to measure your cabinet space before buying, in order to save yourself the hassle of hitting the 30-day return window.


candace davison bio

VP of editorial content

  • Oversees home, food and commerce articles
  • Author of two cookbooks and has contributed recipes to three others
  • Named one of 2023's Outstanding Young Alumni at the University of South Florida, where she studied mass communications and business