These are the same concerns I have and why I would never do it! Only works in show kitchens, not family kitchens where a lot of cooking and life happens IMO. Hands going to paper towels are often drippy and/or dirty. Common sense rules it out for me. I like my roll on a holder screwed to the underside of an upper cabinet.

We have a paper towel drawer above the pull put trash can cabinet. It has worked great for 8 years and my guys are messy! I am the only (daily) cookand slopping wet stuff on the paper drawer isn't an issue.

That would be a no for me. I want the paper towels easily accessible without having to open a drawer with wet or grungy hands. Mine sit right on my counter top on a paper towel holder. I actually have 2. One at one end of the kitchen and one at the other end. My kitchen is on the larger size.

100% chance of cabinet damage to that cabinet finish after 18 months. Paper towels should be stored where wet hands touch the towels first, Not the cabinets. Use an edge protector on the trash can door. Creating situations where your cabinets are damaged by standard use is bad design.

I have one over my recyclables pullout. It works for me because I mostly use cloth towels. I can see why it isn’t for everyone, though!

Thank you everyone for your comments.

In our previous kitchen, we had a paper towel holder over the sink. A pretty, decorative holder that we received as a wedding gift. It was in a very handy place, however, there will be no upper cabinets on the sink wall in our new kitchen. A bank of windows and no upper cabinets.

It seems to be 50/50 on this issue.

Placement elsewhere doesn't seem convenient, however it may could go on the island on a corner that would be close to cook top and across from sink. ?? The island will be 6' long x 3' deep. This would change my storage options in the island.

I don't mind a paper towel holder on the counter but have yet to find one that is truly sturdy and won't topple or move when tearing off a towel sheet.

A heavy cast iron one may do the trick.

I saw on another post on Houzz that someone had a stoneware paper towel holder that sat on the counter. It was very nice. I did some searching and found one that I like but it cost $350.00!

https://www.houzz.com/photos/lincoln-park-residence-traditional-kitchen-chicago-phvw-vp~27683423 This might work.

We have the same as amystoller’s posted picture.

How about a paper towel pig?

From the listing pictures of the house we recently purchased - not my pig, unfortunately!

(to left of cooktop)

(Since partially remodeled)

I agree that putting a paper towel holder in a drawer defeats the purpose of having paper towels available to wipe your hands before opening a drawer or cabinet.

I prefer one on a portable holder so I can take it where I'm working. I have one from OXO that has a somewhat weighted bottom plus an arm that sits tight against the roll so when you pull on it it exerts pressure so only one sheet is pulled out and torn. If you cannot find a weighted bottom one, perhaps add a weight to the bottom (inside if you can get to the interior).

@Rainbow Colors, while I agree that storing things on kitchen counters can be practical, in my experience it isn't essential to having a functional kitchen. Kitchens come in different sizes and layouts, and cooks have different needs and ways of working. I find a room that's very busy in the visual sense upsetting and off-putting. It makes me want to avoid that room. Since I don't really want to avoid my kitchen, most of my kitchen items, including my paper towels, are kept inside a drawer or a cabinet. Even my toaster sits in a tray inside a drawer except when I'm using it.

It works for me, in part because I don't use paper towels to wipe or dry my hands. I use cloth towels for those tasks, and save paper towels for cleaning things like dog messes. I can grab the whole roll out of the drawer—before I get my hands dirty!—if I need more than a few paper towels handy for a really big mess

.

This also works for me because I have a fairly large kitchen—huge by NYC apartment standards., probably smallish compared to many USA houses today. As I said above, it's not for everyone. But that certainly does not mean it's not for anyone. I love my paper-towel drawer!

All my life we had paper towels on a "hanger" attached to the under-side of a cabinet. Worked fine. Never thought much about it.

Then I got a countertop paper towel holder, and I LOVE IT. If we're eating outside, it's easy to take the paper towels with us. A couple years ago I made a big attempt to use fewer paper towels, and a paper towel holder makes it easier to move them to the pantr /make them harder to get to -- so instead I'll use cloth instead.

Off-topic, but I would never want a trash can inside a cabinet. Every kitchen trash can has some "mess" around it -- and they need to be washed occasionally. I don't want to wash the inside of a cabinet. Opening the door to use the trash can is not convenient.

i put papertowels in top drawer of a row of drawers next to trash, next drawer down is dish towells. both have push touch like you use on a cabinet, nudge with elbow and pop open. Also.. have my trash in a cabinet with an auto opener, i bump it with my upper thigh and pops open… made by blum, available from ikea for cheap. i dont have a lot of counter space and i like it clean/clear so i can use easily.

I have had the same paper towel holder as Buehl for over 10 years, and it's great. I love that I can grab the whole thing to clean up a mess in the living room, or move it from one side of the kitchen to the other for different tasks. Originally I thought we could keep it under the sink, since one of the goals of our first kitchen remodel was to get clutter off the counters, but it's so convenient (and so easy to move out of the way) that we've never bothered.

Mrs. Pete, many kitchens do not lend themselves to a stand-alone trash, like the U-shaped kitchen in our last house, or the L+island that we have now. It's so convenient to have the trash right next to the sink, where it's handy for prep and cleanup.

Thank you all for your input.

Mrs. Pete, I currently have a trash can in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. I have had this set up for years and it works for us, and it is not hard to keep clean. It can be inconvenient when someone is at the sink working, and you do have to open the cabinet., so I do want a pull-out trash bin next to the sink that will be more convenient. I do not want a stand-alone trash can

I like the paper towel drawer and storage in the picture provided by amystoller. I think that would work over a bank of drawers and have a separate cabinet for the pull-out trash bin.

Beuhl, Is your pig paper towel holder iron? Is it sturdy? Is the oxo holder attached to the pig? I have seen these pig paper towel holders on Etsy but have only seen one made of resin. I don't know if the resin one would be heavy enough to not slide around while trying to rip of a towel.