Keep Loose Pan Lids Neatly Organized With A Simple Dish Rack Hack

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It's a question that has stumped home cooks for generations: How are you actually supposed to store the lids of pots and pans? Pots and pans themselves are easy and versatile: Stack them or hang them from hooks. But unhelpfully, these pots and pans don't let us in on the secret of what we're supposed to do with their covers, which have nothing to hang them by and can't be stacked because of their top handles. The result is often a messy, sliding pile in a large drawer, cabinet, or pantry shelf, and lids can suffer damage from all that clanging around. Luckily, we have a solution. And luckier still? The solution is cheap: It's a dish rack. 

The design of this rack for holding dishes makes it just as perfect for keeping pan lids neat, organized, in place, and spaced apart. It's tidy, efficient, and avoids banged-up lids. You can find one like this Hombosily dish-drying rack for around $16 on Amazon, or go cheaper with one of our favorite organization hacks you can get at Dollar Tree, a dish rack for just about $1.50. Pan lid storage is also one of the ways to repurpose your old dish rack that you already have but don't want to use for drying dishes anymore, in which case, the organization method is free. Store your dish rack in a cupboard or deep drawer as close to your pots and pans as possible so that everything's ready to use when you're cooking.

Pan lid storage is just one of the many clever uses for a dish rack. Just as you would with pot lids, you can keep the lids of Tupperware and storage containers neat with a dish rack, use it for drying vegetables, or even turn it into a handy, low-maintenance cookbook shelf. Plus, your standard Dollar Tree dish rack works wonders for your cutting-board storage needs too. While a dish rack is ready to organize as is, you can paint yours or cover it with decorative contact paper, especially if it will be visible on a shelf or countertop, you can securely fix it into a cabinet or drawer, or you can even hang it on a cabinet or pantry door depending on what you're storing in it.

If you don't have the space to store pan lids on a dish rack, there are more options. You can use hooks to secure pot lids inside cabinet doors, resting each lid on two carefully measured and placed hooks — you can also do this with pegs on a peg board. In fact, you can hang lids by their handles if you do have or can install an overhead pot rack, meaning lids can hang horizontally. If you're limited to a cabinet, stand lids up and place these Haoyunte tension rods between them for neat separation.