City living Old Style?

liz545

I live in London - not a tiny flat, by local standards, but not huge, and I completely share the difficulties of mostly Tesco Metro supermarkets!

If you've got wall space, buy something like these shelves. Not only can you hang your pans from the rails, you can free up a bit more cupboard space for food storage.

Using your walls means you're making more of the square footage! Ikea sell dish drainers, saucepan lid holders and spice racks that can all be wall mounted, and if you pick carefully you can make it look like a pricey design feature. Cup hooks screwed into the bottom of wall cupboards give you somewhere to stash mugs, utensil rails can go on the walls, etc.

Gain a bit of extra work surface with an island/butcher's block. It can be wheeled out of the way when you don't need it, you can put a couple of deep baskets on the shelf for more storage, and it's very handy for when both of you are in the kitchen!

Even if the top of the cupboards are out of reach, get a step-stool and use them to stash the stuff you don't need often (big pans, mixer etc) or the stuff that looks good on display (vases, Le Creuset etc).

Invest in nice looking storage containers (I like lock & locks) so even if stuff does end up on show, it doesn't look untidy.

Keep it clean - wash up as you go as it'll quickly overwhelm you if you don't have much kitchen space to work in!

Be ruthless. If you've not unpacked everything, leave it in boxes and when you need it, unpack it, wash it and put it into regular use. If you don't need to unpack it within a year, you probably don't need it after all! Same goes for chocolate fountains, fondue kits etc given as gifts - if you don't need them, don't unpack them, send them straight to the charity shop!

Explore local markets, ethnic food stores and discount supermarkets - much cheaper than "convenience" stores, you can get more interesting ingredients, and open to a bit of friendly haggling if you can do it with charm

Shop smart - buy only what you need, use up what you've got, and don't over shop - if the cupboards don't have much space you'll have to empty them out before you go to the supermarket!

Use reuseable bags for your shopping - much nicer looking hung on the back of the door, and you don't have to sacrifice a cupboard/draw for stuffing plastic bags in! Or a wheely bag - you can get nice looking ones that don't look bad if you leave them out, and they're much better for bringing a full shop home if you don't have a car. There's a reason why every granny's got one - they're darned handy!

juliapenguin

liz545 wrote: »

I live in London - not a tiny flat, by local standards, but not huge, and I completely share the difficulties of mostly Tesco Metro supermarkets!

If you've got wall space, buy something like these shelves. Not only can you hang your pans from the rails, you can free up a bit more cupboard space for food storage.

Using your walls means you're making more of the square footage! Ikea sell dish drainers, saucepan lid holders and spice racks that can all be wall mounted, and if you pick carefully you can make it look like a pricey design feature. Cup hooks screwed into the bottom of wall cupboards give you somewhere to stash mugs, utensil rails can go on the walls, etc.


Gain a bit of extra work surface with an island/butcher's block. It can be wheeled out of the way when you don't need it, you can put a couple of deep baskets on the shelf for more storage, and it's very handy for when both of you are in the kitchen!

Even if the top of the cupboards are out of reach, get a step-stool and use them to stash the stuff you don't need often (big pans, mixer etc) or the stuff that looks good on display (vases, Le Creuset etc).

Invest in nice looking storage containers (I like lock & locks) so even if stuff does end up on show, it doesn't look untidy.

Keep it clean - wash up as you go as it'll quickly overwhelm you if you don't have much kitchen space to work in!

Be ruthless. If you've not unpacked everything, leave it in boxes and when you need it, unpack it, wash it and put it into regular use. If you don't need to unpack it within a year, you probably don't need it after all! Same goes for chocolate fountains, fondue kits etc given as gifts - if you don't need them, don't unpack them, send them straight to the charity shop!

Explore local markets, ethnic food stores and discount supermarkets - much cheaper than "convenience" stores, you can get more interesting ingredients, and open to a bit of friendly haggling if you can do it with charm

Shop smart - buy only what you need, use up what you've got, and don't over shop - if the cupboards don't have much space you'll have to empty them out before you go to the supermarket!

Use reuseable bags for your shopping - much nicer looking hung on the back of the door, and you don't have to sacrifice a cupboard/draw for stuffing plastic bags in! Or a wheely bag - you can get nice looking ones that don't look bad if you leave them out, and they're much better for bringing a full shop home if you don't have a car. There's a reason why every granny's got one - they're darned handy!

Thanks for all your great ideas - sadly I can't put anything on the walls at all - not if I want to get my enormous deposit back when I move... My work surface space is literally just enough to put down a chopping board, but I find that I can use the draining board as long as I've dried the last lot of washing up! The wheely butcher's block is a fantastic idea which I will definitely look into, though. I've got rid of all my extra pans and gadgets, but I do miss the food processor for making yummy cocoa, date and walnut balls. I've got a wheely bag - it folds up nice and small and lives in the hall on the coat rack. It's nowhere near as good as my lovely granny trolley, which was really easy to pull even when fully loaded, but it beats carrying bags.

The awful truth is that we've not yet found tenants for our house, and I've still got piles of stuff to bring over. I've just finished my MA this week and I've been working harder (teaching a university summer school) than ever before in my life, so I've only just started to sort out the flat even though I've been here two months already. I'm feeling overwhelmed...

RightyTightyLeftyLoosey

I used to live around that neck of the woods in a newbuild flat with a tiny kitchen!!!! Basically, I used to shop like this:-

Big shop = Asda in Hulme or online once I got into the routine of having standard things I bought in a supermarket shop (used the online list facility on the Asda website).

I supplemented this with using the big indian supermarket in Rusholme for bulk buying rice, spices etc. Also Wing Yip in Ancoats is brilliant for chinese/south east asian products. Got nice breads from On the Eighth Day.

There used to be a Lidl on Oxford Road, is that still there? My flatmate used to get everything from there and she swore by it - she was a postgrad student and watched every penny.

juliapenguin

Ellidee wrote: »

Julia - there is an Aldi in Market Street/Arndale centre but I guess you would have to carry any stuff you bought.

Do you know, I'd completely forgotten about that Aldi - it's quite new, isn't it? I've not had time to go near that part of the city since I moved (too busy with work/study) but there's no reason I can't do it now, and that would save me loads of money (once I work out where to put it all :rolleyes:)

I wouldn't go back to living in a small town in a hurry (I'm an empty nester, by the way - I liked small town life when DS was growing up) but it never occurred to me until this week that the little Sainsburys don't stock basic cooking ingredients. Now that I've got time to cook again I'm going to have to get better organised! Maybe I could get rid of OH and use his side of the bed to store food :rotfl:.

Ellidee

Julia my son and his gf rent a flat in Manc city centre. The kitchen is very small and they use vintage suitcases to store stuff UNDER the kitchen cupboards.

:rotfl:@ getting rid of OH !

juliapenguin

RightyTightyLeftyLoosey wrote: »

I used to live around that neck of the woods in a newbuild flat with a tiny kitchen!!!! Basically, I used to shop like this:-

Big shop = Asda in Hulme or online once I got into the routine of having standard things I bought in a supermarket shop (used the online list facility on the Asda website).

I supplemented this with using the big indian supermarket in Rusholme for bulk buying rice, spices etc. Also Wing Yip in Ancoats is brilliant for chinese/south east asian products. Got nice breads from On the Eighth Day.

There used to be a Lidl on Oxford Road, is that still there? My flatmate used to get everything from there and she swore by it - she was a postgrad student and watched every penny.

Will Asda bring the stuff upstairs in the lift? The builders of my apartment block went bust before they finished installing the doorbells and entryphone system, but I could give them the code to get in if they are willing to do that. I've never seen anyone get a delivery, but given that all the apartments have a combined kitchen/dining/sitting room which isn't big enough to swing a cat, it's not surprising!

I love 8th Day bread... And Sainsburys queen green olives in lemon and coriander.... No wonder I've got no money .

juliapenguin

Ellidee wrote: »

Julia my son and his gf rent a flat in Manc city centre. The kitchen is very small and they use vintage suitcases to store stuff UNDER the kitchen cupboards.

:rotfl:@ getting rid of OH !

How do they get stuff UNDER the cupboards??? I've just had a poke at the board thingy that runs along the length of the cupboards but it's not shifting. It's a lovely idea though.

Actually, maybe they could store my OH under their kitchen cupboards, and I could come round to get him for special occasions.... :cool: I could use his share of the wardrobe to store kitchen gadgets and bottles of wine.

Ellidee

juliapenguin wrote: »

How do they get stuff UNDER the cupboards??? I've just had a poke at the board thingy that runs along the length of the cupboards but it's not shifting. It's a lovely idea though.

Actually, maybe they could store my OH under their kitchen cupboards, and I could come round to get him for special occasions.... :cool: I could use his share of the wardrobe to store kitchen gadgets and bottles of wine.

:T :rotfl:

Ellidee

I haven't looked at their cupboards very closely but I think they are the Ikea type that are just on legs iykwim - or maybe they took the 'kickboard' off.

juliapenguin

Another annoying thing about the flat is that the very attractive internal doors are really thick - presumably because they are fire doors - so all the great hangy things you can go over the door don't fit.

Anyone know where you can find over-the-door hangers which are extra-deep? I could hang all sorts over the doors, even bags with food in (or OH.... now there's a thought).