Drawers (full extension) instead of pullout shelves! (No, not an "insert", but a big consideration)

Custom-made cutlery insert...I ordered one w/my cabinets & it fits like a glove (rather trying to retrofit after market)! (It's "field installed" which means it's removable.)

Extra shelves for the cabinets you store your dishes in so you don't have to nest different items on top/inside of each other (like dessert plates on top of dinner plates or cereal bowls inside larger serving bowls). Here's an inspiration photo I saved from JamesK's kitchen (I tried linking to his pics, but his finished kitchen links to yahoo so it no longer works)

Step-in/walk-in pantry instead of pantry cabinets...much more versatile than pantry cabinets. [Again, not an insert per-se...I didn't like the pantry inserts so I put in a very small corner pantry instead]

Here is a link that might be useful: Best advice from this forum

I added my knife storage myself and it fit without any adjusting. I also got bamboo utensil inserts for $12-20 and made each drawer work the way I wanted it. That seemed better than getting stuck with what came with the cabinets. And I'm esentially too frugal to want to pay cabinet maker prices for them

Some folks like the spice inserts. I liked making a spice drawer without inserts -- just standing the bottles upright and labelling the lids. Cost me about 50 cents a jar, no inserts and everything looks neat and uniform, is eay to find and in easy reach where I nee them.

I do like the idea of more shelves for dish storage and more drawers in general. I only have drawers in my base cabinets other than the trash pullout and sink bases.

I replaced the small corner pantry with pantry cabinets -- one 12" pullout tower with heavy wire shelving and one 24" withrollouts. My cabinets are frameless, so I have minimal loss in those widths. I like them much better.

Look at what has worked for you in the past and what hasn't. Look at the various inserts available and consider how much organization and efficiency you gain and home much space and how much money it will cost you.

Jbradshaw, this is a very good question. We all fall in love with the handy/cute storage and organization add-ons in the glossy brochures, but a forum like this is great for finding out what works in real life for real people. You might want to re-post with a different title because when I read "inserts," I thought you were talking about any number of things, including how to insert a picture into a design.

My two cents' worth: I really don't like "cute" drawer space dedicated to spices, knives, or other highly specialized things -- what if you want to rearrange later? I did ask my cabinet people to include a towel rack, cost $80, only to find out that it could be purchased at HD or Ikea for $10-20. I'm not a fan of the tip out fake drawer fronts on the sink cabinets -- an old one rusted away, and forgotten sponges would first smell bad and then mummify -- with an apron front sink, I can't have what I don't want, so that works out nicely. (There was a thread on this a few weeks ago. Many strongly favored them.) I know I will add on a cutting board holder to some inside cabinet, somewhere, because cutting boards are like clean underwear -- you can never have too many. Those are all things that I know work (or don't work) for me. YMMV.

I really wanted an insert for a trashcan in one of the cabinets. But our kitchen is small and I didn't want to give up one food/dish storage for a trashcan. Mistake! I really wish I had gotten the trashcan insert because I don't want an ugly trashcan sitting out in my new kitchen. We may try to retrofit one but it probably won't work as well as if had been designed in.

BTW we put a Rev a Shelf stacked two-drawer pull out insert in our new bathroom vanity. Good move. Works great and relatively inexpensive.