Coping with a small kitchen

rosie383

Thank you so much one and all for your great ideas. Hearing how small some of your kitchens are, mine isn't that bad!
We discovered shelves stacked up with their brackets in the dining room. 5 good big shelves so that is a huge bonus. By the looks of things the previous owners were taking them apart and then gave up. DH has stacked loads of boxes in front of them which is why I didn't see them before.


There is also under stairs storage which is a decent size but has just got little skinny dirty shelves which have been used to store goodness knows what! I am going to scrub it and get some decent sized shelves from somewhere and use the space.
I saw small step stools in Dunelm Mills the other day for £5 which I didn't want to pay, but they do fold up flat so I can store them on a hook and I think in the long run I would be glad of the investment.


I've discovered 5 good strong hooks in the hall outside the kitchen in a little alcove.


GQ I'm going to use your idea of using a strong bag hanging from a hook for my recycling, so I can have just one small bin in the kitchen and can use the rest of the under sink cupboard for other things.


I also have too many plastic containers, all of different sizes. I thought I was doing well getting rid of any lidless ones etc, but am sorely tempted to just give the whole lot away on freegle and get a set of 18 which all fit inside each other from Ikea and are on sale for about £3.


Big clear plastic clip lock thingies I will use on the high shelves and will also put extra unused stuff in the dining room on the shelves.


I like the idea of the sticky back plastic on boxes. It's the first time I have ever had a dining room and want it to look nice and have been looking at cardboard boxes and oddly assorted stuff for so long!


I have another twenty mins library PC use now so going to jot down all the ideas in my moving house book so that I don't forget them by the time I get home!!


P.S. Can't use top of the cupboards as they are up to the ceiling. But I can use the top of the fridge freezer.
Oh, and in a charity shop yesterday I discovered and extra strong hook thingy for 50p which I can stick on the inside of the under stairs cupboard door and use for my mop and brush etc. No kitchen door though.

Teddi

Overdoor hanger and 'jewellery' hanger on the back of the door is perfect for herbs and spices, packets, etc. Which will free up one shelf for most people.


Ikea have fold up steps for top shelves, and if like our house there is a gap between the top and the ceiling, they have super cheap boxes that can be painted to match your decor, can live on top of your cupboards and the steps fit in the gap at the side of your fridge or other appliances, the boxes essentially emd up as another shelf for each cupboard so you can free up a lot of space.

rosie383

Teddi what a great idea to paint the boxes! Someone else mentioned sticky back plastic which I was going to look out for but I hate trying to put it on neatly. I do however have paint!

Can't use any overdoor hangers, even though I have a couple of good big ones. There is no kitchen door, and all the other room doors have no gap at the top at all and I can't use them at all.

I have to say to everyone a HUGE THANK YOU!

I woke at 4am full of your ideas, gave up on sleep at 4,45 and got up and started to put stuff away. I saw my kitchen in a new light today, made better use of the space, put any excess stuff in only a couple of boxes on the dining room shelves.
Best of all I felt more positive about it all and without a feeling of disappointment at the size of the kitchen. Instead I enjoyed being in there and was able to enjoy looking out of the window as I worked, at all the early morning birds, robins, noisy starlings, sparrows, wrens, blue tits and great tits.

Went off to the car boot with lots of ideas and managed not to buy any tat! I did however buy some useful baskets of the kind that I actually needed, and thought carefully about each one and where it would go before I parted with any money.
I didn't find one decent hook though! Not a cup hook to be seen at two boot sales!

I did get a perfect door curtain though for £2! And a lamp in exactly the same colour as the living room! I'm off to return my two bins to Wilko's. I'm using GQ's idea of a bag on a hook for recycling, and am just going to get a wee bin for actual waste from the pound shop. So I am saving myself £9!

Islandmaid

We got a new kitchen this year and one of the first things I did was invest in some 'Lock and Lock' boxes for things like flour's, couscous, pasta etc the stack well and save space from all those packets. I know it's paying out, but the likes of Sainbo,s have them on offer this time of year

kathrynha

My kitchen storage has extended in to the hallway. The cupboards under the stairs and cupboard over the meter cupboard provide me with extra kitchen storage.
Also my dining room becomes kitchen overflow too. When I'm baking I use it for cooling stuff.

PasturesNew

Most of my kitchen is unusable. Although it looks large, the units are all wrong and everything's in the wrong place..... poor design. So many poor designs these days. The wrong cupboards, wrong carcasses, not enough room to put "sets" of things to keep things all together - and inability to reach/use the top shelf (or most of the middle shelf) for anything.

Plus, as I've just discovered in my first modern/fitted kitchen - there are sockets behind the units for the oven/hob etc and the gas switch off lever - which need to be reached.

The only answer is to get a good sized cupboard in another room that's "kitchen stuff". And don't skimp with its size.

[Deleted User]

[QUOTE=PasturesNew;69112796, the units are all wrong and everything's in the wrong place..... poor design. So many poor designs these days. The wrong cupboards, wrong carcasses, not enough room to put "sets" of things to keep things all together - and inability to reach/use the top shelf (or most of the middle shelf) for anything.
.[/QUOTE]

I do so agree with this. I am in the process of having a completely new kitchen put in, one that I designed. No more kneeling on the floor at almost 70, ridiculous having an oven at such a low level and all those cupboards that would be completely unusable in several years time. Such a waste of space in so many cupboards, I spent loads on buying racks to make levels in cupboards, simply to hold more dishes. Now I am having lots of drawers, an oven that I can stand up to use, a carousel in the corner cupboards and cupboards just about up to the ceiling. I do have a very light and safe step ladder in the house so they are not impossible cupboards

I saw lock and lock mentioned in an earlier post. I have dozens of them, they were a life saver, holding all the different pulses, rices, dehydrated foods etc. Hooks, I had lots of utensils hanging on ikea rails. That worked very well at the time. No hooks in my new kitchen though. I want sleek and I will have the drawers

How do I know that my design will give me more storage? well the old kitchen was taken out and the boxes are all stacked up here ready to go in. There are far more than were taken the reason being that it was designed better

I saw something about narrow shelves under the stairs. My husband put several narrow shelves in a previous house under the stairs, they were wonderful for storing preserves and lots of lock n lock boxes. One layer of everything and all labelled so no rooting

skint_chick

If you have space in the bathroom move your cleaning supplies there and use the space under the sink for storing saucepans, baking dishes etc. Put up a hook for teatowels, and get a wall mounted kitchen roll holder. I got shelves from Ikea that fit in my sloping under stairs cupboard and if I buy tinned food in bulk then I store tins there. Our kitchen is tiny - 5.5ft by 11ft with units in an L shape. I have one set of drawers, one base unit under the sink and 3 wall cupboards so space is at a premium.


plates and cups cupboard - 1 shelf plates and bowls, 1 shelf glasses, 1 shelf cups
food cupboard - 1 shelf spices and non fridge veg, 1 shelf cans and tins, 1 shelf dried baking ingredients
everything else cupboard - 1 shelf baking dishes, 1 shelf food processor and slow cooker, 1 shelf tin foil/food bags/clingfilm and plastic bowls


In the drawers I have cutlery in one, plastic tubs for lunches and food storage in another and saucepans etc in the big one. We have 6 sets of plates, cups etc, and a whole shelf of various glasses. I cook most things from scratch but tend to work my grocery list so that I use everything each week and don't have to store much.

rosie383

Again, thank you for the replies. I went to screwfix today and got cup hooks and slightly bigger hooks for mugs, jugs and utensils. When we have our new kitchen, perhaps next year, then they will be hidden, but it will save me space for now.
I have some lock and lock boxes. I have been so daft and have lots of plastic boxes, and lots of packets of stuff. DUH! I shall be going home and putting the stuff from the packets into the boxes! Sometimes someone needs to point out the obvious.
I have a tiny, skinny spice shelf under one cupboard. I found 5 lovely wee tall, slim plastic tubs for 10p each yesterday so they will look great all labelled up on the shelf. I also took back the bins and got my money back which has paid for all the good and useful things I got at the car boot plus the entrance fee. I'm also going to take advantage of having a door at the side of the house now (it's a semi) and put my bins just outside that door and only have a small bag for rubbish and put it out more frequently. Still trying to decide to treat myself to the £5 set of steps from Dunelm. I think I won't regret it.
Bathroom space is limited too but I will be able to put some cleaning stuff up there if I organise it well.

Pastures new I feel your pain. I was delighted to see that there are plenty of sockets in the kitchen. Unfortunately four are right behind the washing machine under the workbench, two are about an inch above the workbench so are usable but it's only on a small area of workbench so limited for space, and the other six (told there were lots!) are all literally 1/4" above the workbench so unless I was able to put my plugs in upside down, they are unusable! Why????????

Kittie enjoy your new kitchen. I'm sure it will be great!

JP08

All I can add here is to really go to town with the shelving in that under stairs cupboard. Every cm in there is usable. If the ironing board isn't touching the door on one side and the shelves on the other (or even better, you've cut a notch in the shelf to accommodate it), you haven't made them deep enough ! If there's room to squeeze in a 10cm shelf then squeeze it in - you can get a lot of stuff on a narrow shelf.

[Another thought, can the bin live outside the back door? We have a very small bin for rubbish and a "compost bin" bucket things (little metal beastie) on the windowsill. The main bins are about 8 foot from the back door, so it's no hardship to empty either on a regular basis.] - Ignore this, you've already done it.