How to Organize and Store Cookbooks

For those of us who perhaps aren’t exactly chefs, cookbooks are a great thing to collect. You might have cookbooks containing regional recipes, specific diet plans, or even cookbooks related to fandoms such as Star Wars or Winnie the Pooh.

While you can keep your cookbooks in a bookcase, it’s easier to have them nearby in the kitchen. Here are some great ways to store and organize cookbooks at home.

Cookbook Storage at Home

First, consider how you want to sort your cookbooks. Do you want to sort them by region or types of food, such as Chinese, French, Mexican, and Italian? Do you want to sort them by cooking type? For example, you might want to sort by cookbooks for wok, crockpot, and stovetop. You may also want to put all your fandom related cookbooks together. Alternately, you might just want to sort them by author or publisher.

Let’s cover some ways to make your cookbook collection look attractive in or near your kitchen.

• Stacked On the Counter: This is simple but effective. Perhaps you like keeping most of your cookbooks on your bookshelves in your living room or home office. If you keep only a few at a time in the kitchen, and you have the counter space, you can simply stack them, spines out, on the kitchen counter. You’ll be able to easily pick which book you want to use and open it on the counter beside the others.

• Lined Up On the Counter: Rather than stacking them, you could also have them lined up on the counter. In this case, consider getting a nice set of bookends to keep your cookbooks upright. This has the advantage of looking more intentional than simply stacking them.

• In the Pantry: If you don’t necessarily want to display your cookbooks, but instead just want them somewhere sensible, consider keeping them in your pantry with your canned and dry goods.

• In Wire Baskets: A simple but effective solution is to get stackable wire baskets for your cookbooks. These could go on your counter, in your pantry, or on the floor beside the counters.

• On a Hutch: A standing hutch is a great place to keep various kitchen items. The combination of drawers, cabinets, and shelves means you can keep your china in the cupboards, silverware in the drawers, and cookbooks nicely presented on the shelves. Depending on your kitchen setup, the hutch can go in your kitchen or nearby in the dining room.

• On a Kitchen Cart: Consider getting a kitchen cart and using it similarly to how you would use a hutch. Cookbooks can go on the middle shelf, spines upright, so they stay in place when you move the cart from one place to another. You can easily grab your cookbook of choice and open it up on top.

• On Floating Shelves: Floating shelves are great for displaying all sorts of things like pictures, figurines, and other knick knacks. They also work well for books. Put up a couple near the kitchen in the dining room a bit below eye level, get two sets of bookends, and you can display your cookbooks there, in easy reach.

• On Ledge Shelves: Ledge shelves are similar to floating shelves, except they’re not as deep and they usually have a lip in front to prevent items from falling off. Put them in the same place you’d put floating shelves. The great thing about these is that you can easily display your cookbooks face out. If you have some you really like, and especially if they have attractive covers, this can add a wonderfully homey look to your kitchen area.

• On Book Racks: There are different types of book racks. They’re like shallow bookcases meant to display your books forward. Some go straight up and down, while others use a stepped configuration, like many magazine racks. These can look great in your dining room near your kitchen. You could even reserve a couple of sections for cookbooks, and the rest for magazines or your children’s books.

In Self Storage

Wait, perhaps you came here wondering how to put your cookbooks away, safely, in self storage! Fortunately, that’s a topic we’ve already covered in some detail. The basics are to make sure they’re clean and dry, that you use a bit of packing paper in the bottom of the box, that you pack them face up, and that you get a unit with climate control. For all the details, check out our article on how to pack and store your books.

There you have it! We hope one or more of these ideas appeals to you, or that they spark your imagination. Having your cookbooks in plain view every day is a good reminder to actually do some cooking, so have fun with all your collected recipes!