9 Small Kitchen Storage Ideas

For the past few weeks, I've been on a real purging spree around the apartment—I'm talking 5 full trips to Goodwill in the past 2.5 weeks. And let me tell you, it feels GOOD. But sometimes, no matter how much you purge, all of the necessary supplies still won't fit into your children's-playset-sized kitchen. And when that happens, it's time to turn to the expert: Zillow. (Just kidding! Mostly.) Instead, I turned to my favorite source for ideas and inspiration, Pinterest, where I saw some gorgeous dining rooms stocked with extra shelving for kitchen supplies. While I'm certainly not done styling and decorating and rearranging (will I ever be?), I'm pretty thrilled with how much more functional our kitchen is, and how much more adorable our dining space is now:

See? Now the toaster and all those cookbooks I've been meaning to test-drive have a place they can show off without taking up valuable counter real estate. Also being stored on this multi-talented bookshelf: a wooden cutting board, five casserole dishes, our hand mixer, serving utensils, and lots of extra flatware. 

If you're in the same boat when it comes to kitchen storage, here are a few of my favorite space-saving Pinterest finds, including my inspiration for our dining room shelf:

Which of these would you try? Have you solved your small-space problems differently? I'd love to know!