OS and a tiny kitchen?

Prudent

I am fairly os, cooking most meals from scratch. I also like to bake. I have a tiny kitchen which is poorly designed. I find storage of equipemnt and ingredients difficult.

Does anyone have any tips? Anyone else in the same situation?

jinny

Hi, Just lost a posting, grrr. any way my kitchen is also very tiny, i only have one sink unit, a washer, a cooker and a pantry to keep my fridge freezer in. A friend put up some shelves for me to keep plates ect. I have some of those plastic storage tubs with lids down one end that I keep my pans and slow cooker in ect, I have a small wire trolley for veg as well. Its a nightmare to keep it clutter free as i am a tidy freak. I just keep stuff in see through containers and take out everything I need before cooking, then put it away I go. One day I will get it fitted when the cash allows. Until then I just keep it as bright as possible with good lighting and pretty curtains.

otterspasm

Hi there,
I know the feeling! My kitchen is tiny too. I try to only keep things I use often in the kitchen and then stuff I use less than once a week I keep upstairs under my bed or in a built in cupboard I have a little space in. So I store things like my slow cooker, pressure cooker, any spare baking sheets/muffin tins, popcorn maker etc upstairs. I only keep one of everything in the kitchen...one casserole dish, one baking sheet, one mixing bowl etc. Otherwise, I have painted it white and try to keep the surfaces and walls as clear as poss. Not easy as I need my kettle, toaster, breadmaker, and a few other bits out all of the time.
HTH

misty-moodles

Hi Prudent,
I also know just how you feel, before we moved to our present house a few months ago, my kitchen was really tiny. Like otterspasm I only used to keep one of everything in the kitchen, and also bought a wall-mounted pan rack from Lakeland, which was brilliant, all my pans etc went on that, so they were to hand, but out of the way.

Since moving here to a larger kitchen, I'm so used to a little one, I don't quite know what to put in all the cupboards. I still find I'm cramming things into 1 or 2 little cupboards!:D

zarazara

can you srew i cup hooks to beams or spars or cupboard sides? I do thisand find them useful.

charleybabes

ikea do the wall hanging thingies.. that you can put hooks on and have alsorts on them,
could you not put a cupboard in another room eg..your dining room for your plates etc.. thats what ive had to do with all my glasses as i dont have space for them in my kitchen so i keep them in a cupboard in my living room..

Debt_Free_Chick

Me too - renting at the moment and the kitchen looks stunning, but was certainly not designed by a cook!

You simply have to be disciplined. Anything you use less than once a week, put it away somewhere. A utility room/area? Dining room? Even the garage, if you have to.

Keep the surfaces free too. Clutter on the surfaces in a kitchen which already has inadequate space will send you potty!

Could you put a ceiling hung rack up? Like this but probably not at that price (I just picked the first thing I found on Google). Someone fairly good at DIY would probably make one

Avoid cramming the cupboards too. Again, you'll go bonkers trying to find what you want and you may have to take half the stuff out to find that tiny jar of salted capers hiding at the back I bulk buy and store tins in the garage - dry goods (flour, sugar etc) too, but be sure the garage is dry or store them in plastic lidded crates, off the floor (a couple of bricks will do).

Rethink your usual way of cooking - adapt to what you have and soon you'll forget how pants your kitchen is

ceridwen

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Rethink your usual way of cooking - adapt to what you have and soon you'll forget how pants your kitchen is

I wish!'fraid I've never forgotten how pants my kitchen is and I've been here years:D

Its too small (though I know some people have ones even smaller) and was definitely not designed by a cook - which makes things even worse. If it had been designed properly I could get in an extra cupboard and extra worksurface space.

I supplement the space in mine by using cupboards in the sitting room to store goods (food and cleaning materials I've stocked up with) and keep stuff I "might" use again - but not that often - in the loft.

If I had to start from fresh again in buying kitchen things then everything would be carefully chosen to "earn its keep" in terms of how much storage space it takes - as in square (not round) plates/bowls/casserole dishes/etc - so as literally not to waste so much as one square inch of shelf storage space.

(Daft set-up in my house in that sense - being an old house I've got plenty of storage space generally - its just the kitchen and pocket handkerchief back yard that drive me nuts. Yep - I'm a frustrated gardener as well - this house wasnt designed for a gardener either.)

sammy_kaye18

I think i mus thave the smallest kitchen in the world

It is exactly 83 inches across by 87 inches (it makes a little square). Plus i inconveniently have the combi boiler box thing wall mounted half way up a wall so blocks it off. I dont have a pantry - my fridge freezer has to sit in my living room behind a door. I have 5 low cupboards, 2 under sink with cleaning stuff in. One cupboard for things for cleaning pets with. one full of dog food and one with obligitory carp in it - phone boxes,chrismtassy bits left over (ie crackers/biscuits etc). Then 4 wall mounted cupboards - 2 with plates/cups/bowls/mugs etc. 2 with tins,pasta. On top of said wall mounted cupboards are boxed cereals, baking tins, mixing bowls etc.

I have 2 and a bit work tops. The main worktop currently houses my toaster, kettle, george foreman, 3 big 3ltrs of juice, 2 packs of current hot cross buns and a loaf of bread. The other worktop is tiny and houses my microwave and slow cooker, and is also the side for dirty dishes as its next to the sink. The odd bit of side board has a chopping board, cooking utensil holder (potato masher/wooden spoons/ladle etc). If i can figure out how to post a picture i will show you.

Lol, I couldnt actually get in my kitchen to get a good picture so you can see it through the door instead! Thats how small my kitchen it! (now need to wait for bf to ge thome to help me download it off his fancy camera - dont want to risk deleting all the other pictures! :eek:

csarina

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb235/tootles43/14OronsayHouse004.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb235/tootles43/14OronsayHouse003.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb235/tootles43/14OronsayHouse005.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb235/tootles43/14OronsayHouse002.jpg


This is my kitchen in our apartment it is so wee I can just put my arms out and touch the walls. As you can see there is really very little wprktop space, but I do manage to cook from scratch and bake. The best investment I made was in the wall cupboards, there were none in when we moved in. I bought them in the sale at MFI and they hide a multitude of sins.

The little unit that holds my spices etc came from a friend in the US it is really for a hall, but works well in the kitchen. The plate racks are from Argos and holds the plates and also the mugs, although if I replace the awful cooker which drives me mad I may well put a bar on the wall under the plate racks with hooks for mugs, cups etc.

bertiebots

Hi do you have any space above your cuboards? You could get some nice baskets to keep bits and bobs in up on the tops...;) If you are small like me try and get one of those folding steps so you can retrieve it once its up there!!:rotfl: If you have space in another room could you get a small side board to keep plates etc in and those things you dont use very often?. Make sure you only keep the things in your kitchen that you actually use...I used to have a kitchenette...not even a kitchen (lounge & kitchen in one small room 12 ' by 12') and ended up keeping roasting tins in the oven as there was nowhere else and very organised cuboards.