Kitchen Tip: Knife Storage

Some years ago I decided to keep my knives in a drawer rather than on my counter in a knife block.  There were a couple of reasons for the switch.  One is that I had a small kitchen at the time, and the counter space was more valuable to me than the drawer space.

The problem is that when you have your knives loose in a drawer, the blades are exposed which can be dangerous, and it can result in the blades becoming dull from rubbing against each other.

One solution would be to buy an in-drawer knife organizer, but at the time I was looking for a solution that didn’t require purchasing anything.  What I came up with has stuck.  I simply made blade protectors and then placed the knives in a plastic drawer organizer that I already had.

At the time, I had leftover craft foam from a project I had done with the kids.  I decided the foam would work as a guard because it was soft enough that it wouldn’t harm the edge of the knife blades, but thick enough to protect our hands from the blades.  I even made a cover for my pizza cutter.

I made the covers by cutting a rectangular piece of foam the length I needed for the knife blade.  The width I made a little larger than twice the size of the blade width.  I then used a craft knife (the edge of a scissor blade would work) to score a line down the center lengthwise.  This allows the foam to fold nicely.  The scored side of the foam should be on the outside. After I folded it, I used a stapler to close up the open edges.

These have lasted for years and are showing very little signs of wear and tear.  However, since I no longer have any craft foam, I have bought plastic knife guards for new knives I have purchased.  The plastic ones slip over the edge of the blade.

How do you store your knives?