Essential Kitchen Furniture Items

Your kitchen is one of the most important rooms in your entire house. The kitchen not only provides food storage and preparation surfaces, but it is also a location for storing dishes, silverware, and a number of other necessary household items. Due to the sometimes massive storage requirements of a kitchen, many people will find that their find their kitchens will become cramped or crowded. If this is the case for you, worry no more. There are a few kitchen furniture items that can be used to actually improve the storage potential of your kitchen while making it not only more functional, but also improving your kitchen organization and removing clutter. Best of all, many of these essential kitchen furniture items can be found at reasonable prices so that you can save money while improving the overall functionality of your kitchen.

One of the most essential kitchen furniture items is a storage unit. Storage units are available in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, materials, and capacities, and are designed to be able to give you more storage space in your kitchen, without taking up a large amount of room. You can conveniently find storage units that consist of a number of wicker or wooden drawers that are either stacked vertically in a single-column frame, or in a frame that spreads the drawers out both vertically and horizontally. Pantry units and wood or metal baker's racks also fall into the category of storage units, helping you to keep your kitchen goods organized and clutter free.

Another essential kitchen furniture item is the kitchen island. These islands are available in a number of materials, and often feature a butcher's block top or additional storage space to help you make even better use of the room available in your kitchen. Certain islands feature deep storage areas and contoured tops, while others feature barstools that make them into additional seating and counter space in your kitchen. There are a number of islands that are even on rollers which allow the island to be easily moved out of the way or to another part of the kitchen with ease. These islands also feature locks for the rollers for additional safety.

Cabinets and cars that conveniently and safely store your microwave are another essential kitchen item. These come in handy especially if you have a microwave that is not able to be mounted easily in your kitchen. Many people will end up leaving their microwave on their available, yet limited, counter space resulting in them losing additional space for activities such as food preparation or the placement of smaller appliances. A wooden microwave cabinet, or a rolling microwave cart, will not only give you a place to put your microwave that is not taking up valuable counter space, but most cabinets and carts have the added benefit of offering you even more storage space. Usually there are doors underneath or above where the microwave goes that gives you extra room to store unsightly appliances until they are needed. Certain microwave carts will even feature beautiful and handy baskets which can be used to hold spices, towels, or other small items to keep them close at hand.

Another helpful kitchen furniture item is a butcher's block, or chopping block. A butcher's block is generally made of wood, although a number of different designs are available at a reasonable cost. With your chopping block you will always have a place to cut meats, poultry, vegetables, or any other food products that you might need when fixing food for yourself or your family. Since butcher's blocks are made from a durable wood material, they are easy to clean and can be sterilized using bleach, or other sterilizing agents, without having to worry about damaging the butcher's block. This can make clean-up extremely easy while ensuring that you will always have a safe cutting surface that you can sterilize both before and after use.

Once you pick up the select essential kitchen furniture items discussed above, you will find that your kitchen is much more efficient, and that you have both more storage and counter space than you might have ever thought possible. With items such as storage units, kitchen islands, microwave cabinets and butcher's blocks, you will no longer have to worry about keeping a number of small cutting boards clean or rummaging through all of your cabinets to find what you are looking for. You will soon be the envy of friends and neighbors with your easy to access kitchen.

Arianna Jordan is a freelance writer who writes about home decorating, often focusing on one type of decor such as kitchen furniture.