Lazy solutions

A Lazy Susan is a revolving tray, often divided sections, for holding condiments or pots and pans in a kitchen. The shelves slide ingeniously into a small and often useless storage spaces. When the cupboard doors are pulled open, the shelves swing outwards on a single pivot pole. This makes the access to stacks of dishes and pots and pans easy. And what is interesting is that the Lazy Susan fits comfortably into an space where regular shelves are difficult to place. Over the years, the system has spread out over many different rooms covering different ways of storage, for a variety of things including shoes and books.

Popular option

The Lazy Susan has been a popular shelving option for a long time, especially when space was of the essence. Originally, it was just a rotating tray placed on a tabletop. Many people still have Lazy Susans on their dining tables, on which a variety of sauces, jams and pickles are placed.

When the family sits down for a meal, they are able to happily just spin the Susan around and get to the desired pickles and sauces without worrying anyone to pass it to them. In fact, this is also found in restaurants with large circular tables and when a big group of guests sit down to eat, the food is placed on the Lazy Susan and everyone can serve themselves quite comfortably, with just a spin of the lazy Suzan.

Later, the idea moved to corner cabinets, making items easier to reach with a quick spin. Historians still can't agree on who the original Susan was. But in an Indian home especially where we use pressure cookers and a number of dekchis with lids, the Lazy Susan is a great idea to store a number of utensils without cluttering the counter top in a kitchen.
 
“The kitchen corner Lazy Suzan idea is marvelous to have in my kitchen,” says Amita Sundareshan from Koramangala. “One can have a Lazy Susan with full wood shelves or in today’s kitchens they could be wire shelves or even just plastic. These are great as they can be wet wiped clean once in a while, as we do have a lot of cockroaches in our homes, which can be a nuisance.”

“What’s great with a wire-rack lazy Susan is that you can clearly see everything stored on all the shelves, and then spin the rack to access whatever you need,” says Vineeta Vasudevan from Indiranagar.

This way, the dekchis and pans can be left to dry on a draining board and then stowed away in the Lazy Susan. With no humid and wet places to breed in, you can be happy with less insects infesting your kitchen space.

“The wire rack Lazy Susan optimises space in a traditional corner cabinet, allowing the user to rotate the shelves to bring items to the front of the cabinet,” says Annika Cutinha showing off her Lazy Susan for the picture.

A Lazy Susan in the bedroom is a great use of wasted space for shoes. “A Lazy Susan for shoes — is a brilliant idea,” says Sumitra Vasudevan. “I have a very large collection of shoes so I have invested in a  floor to ceiling Lazy Susan for shoes.” She stores everyday shoes on some shelves, evening wear shoes on others and her comfortable chappals on others. This gives an easy and quick access to her choice of footwear.

Plan a Lazy Susan for purses, linen and even your lingerie. But the best use of a Lazy Susan is to stack your pots and pans in the kitchen.