So my tagline of "Small kitchen - Big expectations" seems fairly obvious. But I figure I should fill you in on how small of a kitchen I'm talking about. My apartment is only 620sqft; and the kitchen is a small fraction of that. The dishwasher and stove can hardly be open at the same time. The refrigerator and the drawer opposite can't open all the way at the same time. So yeah, we're talking tiny here. (Though not as tiny as the "kitchen" in the RV I lived in one summer).
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| Sink side with minimal counter space, half of which has been taken up by the microwave. |
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| ...and some almost as small counter space on the right. |
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| Stove Side with very tiny counter on the left, my three staples of the stovetop... |
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| Lack of storage space in the open leads to filling the hall closet/heat pump/water heater space with your dry goods, etc. |
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Alright, so now you have a basic idea of the lack of space I deal with on a three-meal-a-day basis. But rest assured I am NOT writing this post to gripe about it! I am writing instead to share some of the innovations I have come up with. One of the problems I face is the lack of storage space in drawers to keep things for quick access without having to dig for particular items. Especially things like measuring spoons and cups... Hence the >$5 solution:
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| Take a strip of trim wood and framing nails, pop in the nails and label the spaces. Secure to wherever with those double sided sticky foam strips and you're done! Oh, by the way if you are going to put this on the back of a cabinet door, switch the nails out with cuphooks. Otherwise you'll have spoons flying across the kitchen whenever you open the door. That's why my cabinet door stays open all the time. |
For the second space saver I'll be brief. I love having fast access to spices. But I had nowhere to keep them. I have seen ideas about making magnetic spice jars to put on the sides of refrigerators, on top of stove backs, I'd even go so far as to saying on the top of the vent hood. Well I had a blank wall and figured I'd find something to work there. Lowe's had this nifty shelf for around $30 I think. Hangs with 2 (or 4) screws. Works out great!
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| The left and rightmost shelf spots get skinny as the whole shelving system is bowed almost like a cross hatched bubble on the wall. |
For my last space saver, I present the problem of counter space, or the lack of it. Anyone who cooks in a small kitchen will know this pain. There is never enough counter space to do what you want. Well back when I was face with the kitchen in the RV, my dad gave me a slab of granite cut to fit over top of the sink. That created the one counter in the whole kitchen. As for now, it works over the sink in my current kitchen, but when the sink is full of dishes waiting to be washed, it needs somewhere else to go. So when I was preparing the mini-lasagnas from my last post, I desperately needed some more counter space. Putting that granite slab onto the ironing board was the perfect fix. (Common Sense Alert: If you're going to be messy with this extra counter, put something on top of your ironing board to avoid staining it.)
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| Instant Spare Counter! |
Other space savers I have found useful is putting wine bottles on top of the cabinets, storing bread on top of the fridge, even putting less frequently used items (like wine glasses and the fancier dinner ware) in another room where you have a little extra space.
If you have any of your own space-savers, especially those out of the ordinary ones, I'd love to hear about them!
Take care and may God always bless your kitchen!
Very cool!
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