I joke that I'm doing overhead press when I take them off the high shelf. But am a mid 50s lady and would worry if I couldn't wrangle the iron pans. I do agree that it depends on your cooking style though. I am not careful enough for nonstick pans and a lot of what I do make works best in those wonderful heavy nearly indestructible pans. I have one steel not heavy skillet, and pasta pots and loaf pans and baking sheets and cake pans, so much stuff at this point but the things I need most and use everyday, my essentials, are those cast iron pans, the big chef knife, and the cutting board.