Plan storage around what you keep

Most kitchens do not lack space, they lack the right space in the right place. Before choosing fronts and colours, decide what has to be stored and where it will be used.

List what you own: pans, plates, glasses, dry food, cleaning products, small appliances. Mark what you use daily, weekly and rarely. Daily items belong between hip and shoulder height, rarely used items can go high or low.

Deep drawers under the worktop show their contents at a glance, so pans and plates are easier to reach than behind a door. Keep doors for tall cabinets and for spaces where shelves make more sense.

Corners need a plan: a carousel, pull-out fittings or simply a door with easy access. Tall units next to the fridge make a useful pantry. If the room allows it, a separate pantry keeps food and appliances out of sight.

Coffee machine, toaster and blender take worktop space. Give them a fixed place with sockets nearby, or a tall cabinet with a retractable door, so the worktop stays free for cooking.

Drawers are only useful if their sizes match what goes into them. A base unit is usually about 60 cm deep, and drawer widths of 60, 80 or 90 cm suit most kitchens; very wide drawers of 100 cm or more need heavier runners and get heavy to pull when full. For pans and pots, an internal height of around 20 to 25 cm works well. Plates stand best in a drawer with adjustable pegs, and cutlery needs only a shallow top drawer of about 7 to 8 cm.

Many kitchens serve a family at one time and renters or visiting relatives at another. A mix of one shallow drawer above two deep ones, repeated along the run, is easy for anyone to learn. Avoid stacking four or five shallow drawers where pans will end up, because they fill quickly and waste height.

The southwest monsoon brings long wet spells to Phuket from roughly May to October, and a house or condo that stays closed during those months can grow mould inside cabinets within a short time. Storage should be planned so air can move. Ventilated plinths, a small gap behind tall units and cabinet backs set slightly off a damp exterior wall all help.

What you store matters as much as the cabinet. Linen, paper bags and cardboard boxes hold moisture; store tea towels in a drawer that gets used and aired, not in a sealed corner. If the property is empty for part of the season, leave cabinet and fridge doors slightly open, empty the food drawers and ask whoever checks the house to run the air conditioning or a dehumidifier now and then. Under the sink, a waterproof mat makes small leaks visible before the base board swells.

Condo kitchens on Phuket are often a single run of 2 to 3 metres, sometimes facing a living room. Here every centimetre counts. Narrow pull-outs of 15 to 20 cm beside the hob hold oils and spices, and a slim tall unit next to the fridge can work as the whole pantry. Wall cabinets that reach the ceiling add a lot of storage to a short row, and an inner drawer behind a single deep front keeps the face of the kitchen calm.

In an open-plan condo, what you can see matters. Keep the worktop clear by giving the kettle and coffee machine a home in a tall unit with sockets inside, and choose fronts that match the living area. Before planning around pipes, risers or a water heater in a cabinet, check with the building's juristic office what can and cannot be moved.

In a villa that is rented out between your own stays, kitchen storage has to explain itself. Group things by task: prep tools and boards near the main worktop, pans and oils near the hob, plates and glasses between the dishwasher and the dining table, and cleaning products under the sink. When storage follows the way people move, guests put things back where they found them.

Use glass or open fronts sparingly, for example one wall cabinet for glasses, so visitors can find the basics without opening every door. Inside, a simple label on the edge of a shelf helps housekeeping as much as guests. Keep dangerous items, such as sharp knives and cleaning chemicals, out of the lowest drawers if children often stay, or fit child locks that adults can open easily.

The bin is the most used storage in any kitchen and often the last one planned. A pull-out waste unit under or next to the sink, at least 45 to 60 cm wide, holds two or three bins for general waste, plastic and glass. A separate small container for food scraps, emptied daily, helps a lot in a warm climate where smells and ants arrive quickly.

Choose bins with lids and a runner that can carry the weight of full bins and glass bottles. Keep the cabinet floor protected against spills and plan a spot nearby for bags and cleaning products. If you send us the room measurements and photos of your kitchen on Phuket, we can show where every one of these pieces fits.