There is a lot of hardware out there to help you organize your kitchen and maximize the space in your cabinets. This glossary includes all the important terms you need to know related to kitchen organization.

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Adjustable Shelf A shelf that can be adjusted up or down to optimize storage space, make room for taller items, and reduce dead space above shorter items.

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Appliance Lift A specialized piece of hardware that lifts an appliance from beneath the base cabinets to a comfortable working height at roughly countertop level.

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Appliance Garage Refers to a small, enclosed cabinet, level with the countertop, that houses a toaster, blender or other small appliance. Appliance garages are often covered by tambour doors in order to prevent the swing of the door from being obstructed by items on the countertop.

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Base Cabinets Lower cabinets, typically 36" high and 20" to 24" deep that support the countertops and sink.

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Blind Corner Shelving Unit Sometimes called "magic corners," these units feature multiple slides that pull items out of the blind corner in several stages. Pull out the first section, slide it to the left or right, then pull out the second section that was previously hidden.

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Corner Cabinet Any cabinet that occupies the space in a corner where two walls and/or banks of cabinets come together.

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Blind Corner Cabinet A blind corner cabinet is formed by two cabinets that butt together in the corner like two Lego bricks. Only one cabinet actually occupies the corner, called the "blind corner", and the contents of this cabinet are inaccessible from the adjoining cabinet.

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Diagonal Corner Cabinet A diagonal corner cabinet is a type of corner cabinet with a single door, set at a 45° angle, that spans the two banks of cabinets.

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Corner Guards Plastic protectors that help prevent pull-out shelves from damaging doors. This damage can occur when the shelf is pulled out and the door is not fully opened.

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Drawer Insert Sometimes called a "drawer tray," this is a one-piece insert with divided compartments for organizing kitchen gadgets, silverware and other small items.

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False Drawer Front A drawer front with no drawer box behind it. False drawer fronts are sometimes necessary in front of sinks and built-in cooktops. Tip-out trays are a storage solution that provides a way of using the narrow space behind the false front.

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Filler Pull-Out A narrow pull-out shelving unit designed to fit behind a decorative column that normally eats up usable space. Filler pull-outs may also be used to utilize narrow "leftover" spaces that often result from fixed-width appliances.

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Full-Extension Slide A short screw with a thick shaft and coarse thread, used in the European 32mm system for installing hinges and drawer slides into 5mm diameter holes.

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Garbage Pull-Out A specialized pull-out shelf, intended for waste management, with spaces for one or several waste baskets or recycling baskets. Available in door-mount units, or bottom-mount units with full-extension slides that mount to the bottom of the cabinet with brackets.

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Lazy Susan A circular or semi-circular tray that allows the user to access items from a single location simply by spinning the tray. Available in small sizes for countertop use or in larger sizes for accessing items at the backs of corner cabinets.

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Pie-Cut Lazy Susan Sometimes called a "kidney-shaped" lazy Susan, a pie-cut lazy Susan is a rotating tray shaped like a pie that's missing a wedge roughly one quarter of its area. The missing wedge aligns with the back of the bi-fold door or dual doors that cover a 90° corner cabinet.

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Half-Moon Lazy Susan A rotating tray in the shape of a half circle. Half-moon lazy Susans are used to access items at the back of a blind corner cabinet.

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Full-Round Lazy Susan A rotating tray, or set of trays, in the shape of a full circle. In cabinetry applications, full-round lazy Susans are often used in corner cabinets.

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D-Shaped Lazy Susan A rotating tray, circular in shape, but with one section of the perimeter flattened where it aligns with the back of the cabinet door. D-shaped lazy Susans have slightly more surface area than their full-round counterparts.

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Lid Organizer Keeps your pot and pan lids in a neat row so they don't end up jumbled in a drawer. Makes it easy to select the single lid that you need so you don't have to dig through a jumbled pile.

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Lock-Align Drawer Organization System A customizable drawer organizing system with trays and dividers that fit into a standard grid of non-slip material lining the drawer bottom. The trays and dividers can be removed and adjusted as needed to fit your items.

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Over-Travel Slide A type of drawer slide, also used on pull-out shelves and other pull-out storage units, that carries the drawer beyond the cabinet face by an inch or so. Useful for spice drawers and other applications where you need to be able to access items at the very back of the drawer, even when the countertop overhangs the edge.

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Pantry Cabinet A cabinet for storing canned goods, dried goods and other preserved food items. Pantry cabinets are typically tall and deep, but may come in any size. To maximize storage and improve access, they may have adjustable shelves, either traditional or pull-out, or be equipped with one or more large pantry pull-outs or a swing-out system that lets you page through your pantry in layers.

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Pantry Slides A type of heavy-duty drawer slide system that can accommodate a tall pantry pull-out. When pulled out, these systems offer access to a huge range of food items without having to shuffle things around for access.

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Pilaster System Refers to the vertical mounting brackets used to mount pull-out shelves. Pilasters provide two functions: they space the pull-out shelf away from the cabinet wall so it clears the door and its hinges, and they also provide multiple holes in a vertical array for adjustment of the roll-out shelves.

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Pot and Pan Organizer A rack, typically made of wire, for organizing frying pans and other cooking vessels in a drawer or cabinet.

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Pull-Down Shelf A shelving unit for upper cabinets that swings out and downward, providing easier access to items on high shelves.

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Pull-Out Shelves Also called "roll-out shelves," these are shelves mounted on a pair of drawer slides, which allows them to be pulled out of the cabinet for easy access to the back of the shelf. Pull-out shelves are often mounted on a set of four "pilasters" inside the cabinet, which have multiple holes for height adjustment.

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Shelf Pins Metal or plastic shelf supports that fit into holes drilled into the cabinet walls and/or partitions. Shelf pins are available to fit specific hole sizes, typically 1/4" or 5mm in diameter.

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Shelf Standards A narrow metal column with slots or holes that attaches to the interior of the cabinet and accepts shelf supports, and in some cases, drawer slide brackets. Provides an easy way to add adjustability to your shelves.

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Spice Rack/Spice Tray Insert Organizers for spice jars, available as either pull-out units or as sawtooth drawer inserts that keep spice jars neatly tipped up for easy viewing of the labels.

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Swing-Out Pantry A type of layered pantry storage system that consists of a door-mounted shelving unit that swings out to reveal a second swing-out shelving unit inside the cabinet. When the interior swing-out is opened, a third layer of shelves at the back of the pantry is revealed.

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Tiered Drawer Organizer A type of drawer insert with multiple layers that slide back and forth, maximizing usable space in the drawer and easing access.

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Tip-Out Tray A shallow tray installed behind the false drawer front of a sink cabinet. Useful for storing sponges, scouring pads and small bottles of detergent.

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Towel Holder A rod for holding dish towels and rags - keeps dirty towels out of sight, but within easy reach when needed.

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Tray Divider A wire rack that lets you store baking pans and cookie sheets vertically, making them easy to access without having to unstack items. Also helps to protect non-stick finishes by minimizing contact between selected pans/sheets.

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Upper Cabinets Cabinets, typically 12'' deep, that are mounted above the countertops.

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Zero-Clearance Hinges Hinges that swing entirely clear of the cabinet opening, useful for providing the needed clearance when installing pull-out shelves.

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