Coping with a small kitchen

suki1964

I hang my pans and utensils up and keep roasting tins in one of the ovens. Tops of cupboards is for the stuff only needed once a year and I step up on to a chair to reach

You can get those undercupboard hook thingies that you can hang mugs from as well

Does everything need to be stored in the kitchen? My kenwood is in the lobby and my spare (posh) cutlery and dinner service is in the built in wardrobe in the back bedroom

melanzana

culpepper wrote: »

Our kitchen is v small too.For things on top of cupboards or the top shelf, consider a fold up chair to stand on.. I have one that I use for this. It can be used where we sit to eat or folded and hung behind a door on hooks.
I have pan lids and cooling racks hanging on the wall on hooks I made out of oogoo (search for it on instructables).
We are toying with the idea of removing the kick boards from under our cupboards and making roll out boxes to go beneath. The board would then be used as 'drawer fronts' for the boxes.
We have our bread-maker and the big dehydrator in a cupboard in the living room .

That is one brilliant idea!

Have to get a new kitchen soon, the current one is on its last legs. I will look into this. Great way of using up dead space. Thank you.

fuddle

I have shelves fixed to the walls that store my dried goods and a few regularly used baking items. This leaves space in my one cupboard I have for storing any equipment. I have had to down size my kit, nothing in my kitchen stays if it isn't used. I'm at a level that I like and can cope with now but somehow I have lost my cake tins!

emg

I agree with previous posters who have said rethink what really needs to be stored in the kitchen.

My kitchen is tiny but my bathroom is huge so I moved all my undersink cleaning stuff to the bathroom. I also used to keep first aid stuff in my kitchen but this is now in the bathroom too. I boxed up all my christmas crockery (is it just me who can't resist this stuff?) and put it in the loft with the christmas decorations.

My food processor is in a basket on top of the fridge freezer. I had a major cull of plastic boxes (another thing I find hard to resist) and tend to store things in the ikea zip lock freezer bags instead. I keep my teatowels folded up in my wine rack (wine tends to be either in the fridge or all gone). I chose pans that stack and try hard not to stockpile too much food.

Another thing that saved space is storing my trays and baking trays upright at the edge of a cupboard instead of lying them down, makes them much easier to get to.

Some great ideas here

micky2phones

melanzana wrote: »

That is one brilliant idea!

Have to get a new kitchen soon, the current one is on its last legs. I will look into this. Great way of using up dead space. Thank you.

Hi, also if you make it a solid block when pulled out you can used it as a step

warehouse

OP get down to your nearest Ikea. I got dragged down there last weekend and they had some brilliant ideas for small kitchens and a few demos of small kitchen setups too. I got some great ideas.

melanzana

micky2phones wrote: »

Hi, also if you make it a solid block when pulled out you can used it as a step

Another great idea too!

BUT..... what weight would it take...ahem :rotfl:

krlyr

I store lots of jars, sauces etc. in the fridge even if not opened (or necessary to keep refridgerated). Main reason being we have lots of spare space in the fridge and less in the cupboards!

FrugalWorker

I'm going to be a little mean and say that you've too much stuff for the size of your kitchen. But I don't know the numbers of people in your family and how much stuff you need. I will say only keep things you need.

You can do things like others have suggested in increase the amount of space. In the past I've used a pot rack / hook for utensils. Use storage outside the kitchen for rarely used items.

Keep enough crockery for the number of people in your family, but not enough to serve armies. No need for good dishes and every day dishes, just one set.

I got rid of the knife block, in favour of a really sharp japanese chopping knife I keep in a separate section of my drawer and two paring knives. I don't believe in keeping things like christmas/seasonal stuff, etc... My serving bowls are used decoratively in my sitting room. I don't have, or miss having, a microwave. I don't have a food processor or mixer, I do have a hand held immersion blender, which has a whisk attachment, which I use for making soup/whipping things.

I check frequently that everything is used on a very regular basis. Go through your boxes, put stuff in to a box for 6 months and see if you miss it.

There are lots of things I'd love to have, eg different size baking pans, etc... but they won't improve the quality of my life and in honesty I don't miss not having them at all. I do value having a kitchen which is clean organised and easy to prepare meals from.

On reflection, I have Kondo'd my kitchen unintentionally. Everything in there brings me joy, or my OH joy. It's is all to hand and organised. Eliminate unneeded duplicates.

The kitchen is my favourite part of the house, of any house. I love to prepare food, to feed people, the functionality of it, the community of it, but it's about the people and the food. You actually need very little for a functioning kitchen.

WantAnOrange

I keep my baking trays inside the grill. I rarely use it so it's not an inconvenience. I actually have a massive kitchen but it is so poorly designed it barely functions. I miss my old. Tiny kitchen with it's well thought out cupboards.....