The Best Cookware and Tools for Small Kitchens (2024): Storage, Cookware, and

You’ve got a dilemma. You love to cook, and you love to eat, but your kitchen has no room to prepare meals. Seriously, it’s like gerbil furniture. You could just declare all hope lost and rationalize eating out night and day. But you and I both know it’s a lot healthier and cheaper to cook for yourself.

As someone who lives in New York City, I know a thing or two about small kitchens. Over the years, my colleagues and I have tested various pieces of furniture and other kitchen gear to help make cooking in a small space easier (and saner). Don’t forget to check out our other buying guides, including the Best Cookbooks, Best Chef Knives, and Best Pots and Pans.

Updated March 2024: We’ve added the Umbra Tug paper towel holder, Oxo spatula set, Le Creuset Revolution scraping spoon, and PUR faucet water filter.

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Maximize Storage Space

Magnets are hidden beneath this wood, wall-mounted bar that can house your knives. That means they won’t chip or dull your knife blades like an all-metal bar. Skip the countertop knife block—not only does it take up counter space, but it also dulls the knife blades more quickly.

Getting those pots and pans onto the wall will free up precious drawer and cabinet space. This bamboo and aluminum rack holds up to 30 pounds, but mine has been rock-solid and sturdy even with a full set of stainless-steel cookware and cast-iron skillets. If you’re mounting into drywall and not studs, pick up some E-Z Anchors. If you don’t have room for a shelf, a hanging bar will still get skillets, saucepans, and woks out of your way.

Store your cooking utensils in a ceramic container if you’re low on drawer space. This has enough room to hold all your spoons, spatulas, and tongs and is available in several colors. You can also get the 1-quart version for $35.

WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu lives in New York City and has seen his fair share of tiny kitchens. He’s used this Simplehuman wall-mounted paper towel holder for years with zero problems. You can use a few simple screws to mount it into drywall (it’s easy to patch the holes with some spackle if you’re renting). Replacing a roll is dead simple too. Why take up precious counter space with a paper towel holder when you can mount it instead? If you prefer a countertop solution, I’ve used this Umbra Tug holder ($17) for years, and its weighted base and rubber-coated stem make it easy to tear a small amount with one hand.

Tight on refrigerator space? Swap from a pitcher filter to a faucet-mounted filter to free up quite a lot of space on your fridge shelves. The sales literature says it’ll filter 100 gallons, which should mean about three months of usage before it needs a replacement filter. You can buy a PUR Filter Replacement two-pack for $25. I cook a lot at home and make a lot of coffee, so my filters tend to last about half that, but knowing that it’s removing potential contaminants from my food and drinking water makes the regular filter replacements well worth it. A color-coded light activates whenever you run the filter, so you’ll know when to replace the filter. My previous model lasted more than seven years, and the replacement I bought last month looks nearly identical.

WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu has been using the StoveShelf for more than a year and loves it. It’s a smart way to save some counter space, and it’s easy to clean. This is just a sheet of metal with magnets at the base, and it sticks to the top of a stove, making it super easy to install. You’ll need to make sure this part of your stove is metal and not plastic, and that there are no buttons or switches that might be blocked (like an oven light). The rear guard ensures that nothing falls into that gap between your stove and the wall. I’d make sure to avoid putting any cooking oil there.

You don’t need to use precious counter space to store fresh fruit and vegetables. Leave your tomatoes, potatoes, and stone fruit out of the refrigerator and regain some prep space for knife handling and mixing bowls.

Here’s another one that WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu bought in 2022. This pantry storage system will take up some floor space, but if you can swing it, you can save so much counter space, and it’s especially great for anyone with limited cabinets. It’s daunting at first because it comes in what seems like a million pieces; it took Julian around four hours to complete…