What to store in the cabinet above the fridge? That cabinet above the refrigerator is annoying at best, a hazard at worst. For a quick organizing idea today, I’m going to give you a unique take on that cabinet above refrigerator – what goes there.

Usually you get a cabinet with a shelf inside and two doors. To reach anything above your refrigerator, you might have to use a step stool. If you are lucky, you cabinet is full-depth, you can reach the bottom of without a step, AND you have an adjustable shelf. If you do, here’s a crazy idea…lower that shelf as much as you can.

Cabinet Above Refrigerator- What Goes There

By creating a short shelf, it becomes the perfect space to store food wrap rolls and plastic storage bags, or any group of small, long boxes that are otherwise hard to keep in order.

Let me show you what I mean. Here’s a typical deep cabinet above the refrigerator. Basically, it’s a black hole of randomness.

Drop that shelf in the cabinet above the refrigerator to its lowest position, and look what we’ve got a perfect home for. Aluminum foil, food wraps, deli paper, and zip-top bags, and in one neat row. Your situation may be a bit different, but this homeowner (who is a woman of average height) can reach that lower shelf without a step ladder. Yay.

This cabinet is so deep, that you can probably see the vintage CorningWare we stored at the way-back of this short shelf. She doesn’t want to part with it, but she doesn’t use it, either. This storage space in the back is a perfect, out of the way hiding spot.

Make Use of the Cabinet Above Refrigerator

What to store in cabinets above the fridge that are empty? We actually ended up with two empty cabinets in this kitchen after organizing! Don’t worry, we’ll find the perfect things to store up there, things that are light, bulky and not used very often.

I love to see upper cabinets organized with tray dividers, like this one below. You can see this time that we reversed the equation and stored low-use platters at the very top of this cabinet because she used the baking trays more often than the platters.

I used this same short-shelf trick recently on the very top shelf of a pantry to store coffee pods. For a shorter client, she could just barely reach the very top of the pantry without a stool. We stacked her Nespresso boxes at the tippy-top all in a neat row, and made perfect use of that little slice of space. That space would have otherwise gone to waste, but here it looks so organized.

Does that cabinet above refrigerator seem like a waste to you? You and thousands of other people today are searching the internet for “what to store in cabinet above fridge.” I’ve given you a couple of ideas of what goes there, but you might have to move a shelf to make it really work for you. Are you up for it?

This is a great example of Step 4 of SORT and Succeed. Small tweaks that you make in your kitchen can have a bigger payoff than you expect. Are you up for learning more organizing ideas and how to apply them with SORT and Succeed? Start with my free organizing mini course today.