lazy susans in corner cabinets...love them? or not?

[kfeusse]

My dear friend and I were discussing my new kitchen plans (tenative plans)...and it included a lazy susan in the corner cabinet. My friend's response was, "I hate those things. Everything falls off, they are hard to clean and I had my removed as soon as we moved in".....so that got me thinking...are they as great as I thought and her opinion is simply that....her opinion and most people wouldn't agree....SO...what does the hive say??? And if I didn't do that, would I just do big drawers instead...I certainly don't want to be climbing in the cabinets to find the stuff in the back.

[nmoira]

Sqeeeeeeeeeeeeak. And who knows what has fallen off and is hiding in that very back corner?

 

I'd rather have something that pulls out.

[stripe]

I had one in a very awkward corner. I liked it a lot; it utterly transformed a useless space.

 

I always wanted to have one in the middle of my table, like in some Chinese restaurants, but...not yet.

[Xuzi]

We have one in an upper corner-cabinet. Things would get lost back there *without* the lazy susan, because you just can't see that far back. At least the resistance it causes to the lazy susan's spin lets you know something's fallen out of place. :p

[justLisa]

We have one on the bottom. Otherwise it would basically be useless. I keep all of my tupperware type containers, a few colanders, a salad spinner....what else. Extra large mixing bowls and a bin of random and seldom used cookie cutters and things like that. The thing is to not have a bunch of itty bitty things loose, or at least keep them corralled in another container so they don't fall

[SJ.]

We have one in the corner near the stove/oven and I love it. I use it to store cooking oils, vinegars, and small appliances. Like Strider mentioned above, ours uses a space that would otherwise be useless.

[DragonflyAcademy]

I love mine.. I have the one with a solid shelf in between.. so each lazy suzan can swing independently..and it is quite sturdy..

[Annie G]

We have four- two upper and two lower. They hold a LOT of stuff.

[LaxMom]

I hate them. They suck up space, stuff falls off, doesn't fit, etc. We opted for swing out shelves in our lower corner cabinet. They're ok, but you still lose a lot of space.

[Pink and Green Mom]

I love it for baking dishes, small appliances, and pots and pans. In my old house my baking dishes were stacked in a cabinet over the wall oven/microwave unit; I could only reach the bottom shelf, and always (always!) the glass pan I needed was under several others.

 

I've never had anything fall off either. I do have the one that sits independently with a solid shelf in between as well, as opposed to two levels on one pole (had that kind at our old house and after lots of usage the screw holding the pole in place would loosen and it would get wobbly).

[porque]

Hate it! Stuff falls down, gets stuck behind, I have to empty everything else off to crawl part way in and reach what has fallen.

[KatieJ]

I have them in my upper and my lower corner cabinet. I absolutely hated the dead corner space I had before so anything was an improvement!

 

However, I had seen a a cabinet at Home Depot like the pictures I uploaded for you. The uppper cabinet has shelves and then a turntable in the middle of each. They are amazing. I love, love, love them! I stuff things in the corners, and I keep canned goods on the turntables.

 

The bottom cabinet we just put in a the traditional plastic turntable..( It was a missunderstanding with my contractor and he agreed to change the upper one, but not the bottom one. If I had to do it again, I would insist on the solid shelf with a turntable on the bottom too.) I do occasionally lose things, but let's say twice in 4 years. I have big mixing bowls, rubbermaid containers with baking things, (GF flours, chocolate chips,etc) and my grain mill.

If you can figure out a way to not do turntable and redeem that space in another way, go for it. If not, consider the shelf with a turntable. Kraft Maid cabinets at Home Depot have the shelf thingy I am talking about.

[Joshin]

We have one in a bottom cabinet that would be wasted too-deep corner cabinet otherwise. I love them. I keep my baking goods (flour, etc) on the bottom spinner and spices on top. Ours has a deep 1-inch lip on it so nothing ever falls off. I bought some plastic shelf liner things at Target or Shopko when we moved in that were made to fit a lazy susan tray, so to clean them I just pull out the shelf liner and wash it in the sink.

[gardenmom5]

I love mine - there is a huge difference in what's out there. I've upper corner cabinets that didn't come with turntables, I installed them. I've installed them on high pantry shelves. It's so much easier to get to things/find things if I can just swivel the turntable instead of getting out a ladder and emptying half the shelf to see what's behind things.

 

I love things organized and easy to get to, saves lots of time I don't have to spend "looking".

[AdventureMoms]

I love mine. Otherwise what are you going to put in there? Leave it empty? Hide stuff in the way-back of an awkwardly shaped cupboard where you can't see it?

 

Mine pretty much only houses canned goods, so they stack well and don't fall off. Also they don't really get messy other than maybe a little dust. I wouldn't keep bananas back there.

[Jpoy85]

I dont have one, but I think if i could id have one.

[waa510]

We have a lower one in what would otherwise be a useless corner and we love it. A tooonnnn of stuff can fit in there. I store my rice cooker, juicer, all of my tupperware and pots and pans that I rarely use with no issues. It doesn't squeak and things don't get lost because it won't turn if something's wedged in the back ( thus forcing me to dig it out and find it:tongue_smilie:)

[DB in NJ]

We store our pots & pans in there. I love it and hate it at the same time. It is awkward and difficult to clean, but it does make use of otherwise useless space.

[Davysmom]

It depends.

 

I love mine - the design is wonderful! It's really hard for stuff to fall off it. But I have a friend who has one she hates. It's awful, and stuff always falls of. I stayed with her for a few nights, and I have to agree the design she has is awful.

[DianeW88]

I have two large ones...in each corner of my lower kitchen cabinets. I love them! They hold my large, awkward things (Crockpots, electric frying pan, mixing bowls, drink pitchers, cookie press, blender, etc.) really well, and I can access them quickly with one spin.

[Desert Rat]

Meh. Had one in a house when I was a kid and I liked it. It was fun to play with and put things away. As an adult who organizes other peoples' cabinets, I dislike them. There is a lot of wasted space in the corners. There are shelves that pull out and swivel that are very cool. Don't know what the price point is compared to a susan though.

[craftyerin]

I have two lower ones. I love them. The corners they are in would be useless in my kitchen without them.

[Susan in TN]

Hate it Hate it Hate it.

 

Nothing stays on it. If I want something to accidentally on purpose disappear, I put it away in the corner cabinet and it will disappear down the cracks pretty quick. If it's too big to disappear down the cracks, it will inevitably shift around until it jams the door open (or shut).

 

FWIW, I believe there are some really nice quality ones out there. I'm considering chopping the thing up and taking it out. I'd put in some kind of shelf there, or my kids could use it for a hideout. I once saw a moving shelf system for a corner that looked pretty cool.

[Forget-Me-Not]

I have sort of a modified one that swings/pulls out of a very deep corner cabinet. Love it. I use it for pots and pans. The space would be basically useless without it.

[Stratford]

Hate mine. I'm forever having things fall off and get lost/broken.

 

In our old house, our corner cabinet had a fixed shelf that didn't quite fill the entire space.....I used the shelf area for things I used less often, and in front of it (the tall area) I put things like the blender, mixer, etc. I liked that option better.

[Truscifi]

Love mine.

[ktgrok]

I hated our lazy susan because stuff fell off. Now we have a crazy cool cabinet that has shelves that swingout, revealing hidden drawers that pull out....hard to explain. Our cabinet guy at lowes suggested it.

[provenance61]

A few years ago I would have said NO don't get one, I hated ours. Things were constantly falling off.

 

Then we raised our ranch (literally, built to a second level) and redid our kitchen. I insisted no corners, but eventually caved since they made good use of two corners in our modest size kitchen. The designer said they would be good. And they are really, really useful. Nothing really falls off. We use one for canned goods and tupperware, and the other as my baking supplies cabinet. I love them both!

 

Amy

[Ellie]

Love mine. And it beats getting down on hands and knees to search for flotsam and jetsam that gets lost in blind corners. :glare:

[GailV]

I love mine.. I have the one with a solid shelf in between.. so each lazy suzan can swing independently..and it is quite sturdy..

 

That's what we have. Actually, I use the shelf space behind for some of my herbal tinctures that are in tiny bottles and that I don't use often -- they need to be stored in a dark place at a fairly constant temperature, and the corner of the lazy susan is perfect.

 

Quality really makes a difference.

 

Before the remodel there was dead space there. It turned out to have accrued various really odd things during the previous owners' reigns ... things that had been put in shelves nearby and gradually slipped into the dead space ... like an old bag from a bag of onions, for example. YEARS of this stuff. Ick.

 

(We also found some really weird stuff when we pulled up the carpet. And when we cleaned out the dryer vent that led to the outside. I hope I never meet any of the former owners, because I'm becoming fairly judgmental about them, if only because they lived with all of the gunk in the far reaches of the house for all of those years.)

[besroma]

I hated our lazy susan because stuff fell off. Now we have a crazy cool cabinet that has shelves that swingout, revealing hidden drawers that pull out....hard to explain. Our cabinet guy at lowes suggested it.

 

This what I would suggest. I have a lazy susan, and things fall off every.single.day.

 

I did have one in an upper corner cabinet that I loved. It had a center pole with two round discs on it (my lower ones that I dislike are not complete circles). I used it for my spices. I have a ton of spices, that organize alphabetically. I loved being able to spin the lazy susan to find the spice I needed.

[Denisemomof4]

I have one. I don't think anything falls off it because I use it for larger things like bowls, collanders, strainers, more bowl sets, etc. My mom used hers for all her pots and pans.

 

I honestly don't know how I feel about it. On one hand, it is a great way to have everything at your fingertips with a simple fling of it. If it was a huge cubbyhole style cabinet, it would be hard to keep organized because of it's size, and awkward positioning would make me unhappy. It also does have dead space above the bowls and such.

 

Well, I guess the above tells me it is a good use of space..... And yet I can't decide whether I'd recommend one.:tongue_smilie:

[tex-mex]

We have one in an upper corner-cabinet. Things would get lost back there *without* the lazy susan, because you just can't see that far back. At least the resistance it causes to the lazy susan's spin lets you know something's fallen out of place. :p

:iagree:

MIL has 2 in her kitchen in odd corner cabinets. I like them. Nothing ever spills. I know she lines her cabinets/lazy susans with that "tack/grip" Rubbermaid liner paper.

[nukeswife]

I hate mine, but only because the actual spinning parts are 2 plastic shelves, and it's the only cabinet my pots and pans fit in, but because the shelves are so flimsy it doesn't spin very well.

[tex-mex]

 

Quality really makes a difference.

 

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

[Swimtaxi234]

I've had two of them over the years.

 

1) Loved it because it had 360-degrees of storage trays and the door was wide enough to fit a shoulder inside to reach the few things that fell off.

 

2) HATE it because the door is L-shaped that fits inside the trays (top and bottom). That means that the stupid trays need to be rotated to match the L-shaped door. It sounds stupid to complain, but I always stand up and try to shut the door as I walk away - GRRR - then I have to walk back and squat down to spin the trays to match the door.

[Lucy in Australia]

Not a lazy susan but this.

 

It is the best thing that ever happened to my cabinets. It holds heavy stuff, pulls out completely so you can access everything very easily AND clean the back corner of the cabinet.

[Julie Smith]

I had one in a very awkward corner. I liked it a lot; it utterly transformed a useless space.

 

I always wanted to have one in the middle of my table, like in some Chinese restaurants, but...not yet.

 

We have two spinning boards that can go on any table and make that table into a "Chinese restaurant table". We use them for bored gaming all the time and love them.

 

Out kitchen has one corner with no lazy susan, no spin out cabinets, no nothing. There is no way what so ever to access the same under the counter in that corner. I have given thought to breaking through the wall on the other side of the kitchen to find out what is hidden in that space.

 

But odds are I will only find dust, and other things I don't want to thing about.

[kitten18]

I would love one. I seriously have NO IDEA what is in the back of my corner cupboard.:001_huh:

[Julie Smith]

I would love one. I seriously have NO IDEA what is in the back of my corner cupboard.:001_huh:

 

But you have a corner cupboard?

 

To the left and right of the corner cupboard are large pull out drawers. I can not find out what is in the space a corner cupboard would occupy without a sledge hammer to knock out a wall.

 

If I wanted to find out from the kitchen side, I would have to remove all the drawers and take a sledge hammer to the wall to find out what is in the space a corner cupboard should? Occupy.

 

Strange kitchen. I blame it on the strange previous owners. But other then that oddity, I do really like my kitchen.

[KathyBC]

I'm in the 'hate lazy susans' camp. When we remodelled I convinced the reluctant cabinet maker to just put a top shelf in the corner cupboard. I prefer it.

[Sara in AZ]

My Mother's is a big, huge pain. But she tends to overload things, so that could be why.

[Guest peggy6e]

I would like to turn mine into a trash and recycle cabinet. Here is an example from Better Homes & Gardens.

[BugsMama]

I just send my 3 year old in ours to collect the things that fall off. Loose tupperware in the lazy susan is a bad idea. I LOVE the shelves though. (we have 4 large lazy susan shelves). I love the big deep drawers more- I keep all our pots and pans in drawers and LOVE it.

 

This is the best kitchen I have ever had!

[StephanieZ]

I love them on the bottom corner. Makes the space so useful. I use it for large colanders, mixing bowls, etc. LOVE IT.

 

For the upper cabinet, I like a slanted cabinet front, but I've never had a lazy susan up there, so maybe I'd like it better there, too.

 

I HATE the old-style corner cabinets. Everything is impossible to get to. Hate them!

[StephanieZ]

p.s. Big huge drawers = LOVE LOVE LOVE.

 

I had them two kitchens ago (best kitchen ever), and if/when I design a kitchen, nearly all the bottom cabinets will be drawers. They are AWESOME.

[LaxMom]

Not a lazy susan but this.

 

It is the best thing that ever happened to my cabinets. It holds heavy stuff, pulls out completely so you can access everything very easily AND clean the back corner of the cabinet.

 

That's what we have. I keep pots and pans beneath, lids on the bottom swing shelf (which we mounted fairly close to the one above) and mixing bowls, etc on the top. There is still some extra space in the way back corner of the cabinet, where I keep things I don't use every day, like the stock pot.

[MomsintheGarden]

Not a lazy susan but this.

 

It is the best thing that ever happened to my cabinets. It holds heavy stuff, pulls out completely so you can access everything very easily AND clean the back corner of the cabinet.

 

That's what we have. I keep pots and pans beneath, lids on the bottom swing shelf (which we mounted fairly close to the one above) and mixing bowls, etc on the top. There is still some extra space in the way back corner of the cabinet, where I keep things I don't use every day, like the stock pot.

This looks interesting. How does it work? Could you please post a picture? Thanks!

[LaxMom]

Like this:

(please excuse the weird phone picture. My cabinets are white, but the phone case gives everything a weird tinge and I'm still on my first cup of coffee)

[MomsintheGarden]

Like this:

(please excuse the weird phone picture. My cabinets are white, but the phone case gives everything a weird tinge and I'm still on my first cup of coffee)

Ooh, I get it now! That looks like a great possibility. Thanks so much!