Coping With a small Kitchen.
I’ve mentioned before how small our apartment is, our kitchen although it has a lot of floor space, is lacking in cabinet and counter space. It also contains the washer and dryer.
Sometimes it’s hard to find room for everything, sometimes it’s hard to prepare meals on the 2 sq ft of counter space that we have.
One of the issues we have is dirty dishes. I DO NOT do dishes more than once a day, unless I am cooking something that dirties a lot of dishes. I do not have a dish washer, so I have to use my two hands to wash. I normally do the dishes during the day, after lunch. Which means I have the previous days supper dishes, break fast dishes and lunch dishes to wash. We make sure to only use one cup per person to eliminate extra dishes.
As you can imagine, having that many dirty dishes waiting to be washed can take up a lot of space in an already small kitchen. Especially since I refuse to let the dirty dishes sit in the sink. What I’ve learned to do to not only make doing dishes easier, but also to take up the least amount of space is this: rinse the dishes thoroughly- this means getting off ALL food particles, then stack the dishes neatly on the counter.
Other things we do to make extra space in the kitchen is make sure we don’t have any unneeded or unused appliances, containers or dishes. We also have space above the cabinets, which makes for nice storage for appliances and dishes we don’t use too often. The deviled egg container, serving platters, electric frying pan and food processor are a few of the many things stored up there.
The washer and drying being in the kitchen, although I complain, it makes extra counter space, especially since they are right next to the Stove. And I came up with this neat over the washer shelf, which as you can see serves for more than just laundry detergent.
It holds my laundry detergent, utensils, pizza stone, and my pots. As you can see hanging on the wall are my frying pans. Down in the space between the washer and stove is where I keep my bucket of Vinegar water, that I told you about a few weeks ago.
Those are a few of my tips for coping with a small kitchen. Check out Rocks in My Dryer for more helpful hints.
Posted: January 22nd, 2008 under unlabled.
Comments
Comment from Britni
Time January 23, 2008 at 9:41 am
We’ve got a pretty small kitchen too and so much kitchen stuff it’s ridiculous. One of the things we’ve started doing is keeping the stuff we don’t use often (platters, serving dishes, appliances, etc.) in our guest bedroom closet and then just pulling them out when we actually need them. It’s definitely freed up room in our kitchen and keeps it looking much cleaner.
Comment from MIlehimama
Time January 23, 2008 at 10:29 am
We used to have a very small kitchen – so small only the washing machine fit in there, the dryer was in the living room!
I got a plastic dishpan and put it under the sink and put the dirty dishes in there. I didn’t keep cleaning stuff there because I had babies out and about. Also I got a folding dishrack. Otherwise I would have had 8″ if food prep space!
Comment from Jes
Time January 23, 2008 at 10:45 am
Britni, that’s a great idea, and trust me, if I had closets, or even a guest bedroom, my kitchen would be less cluttered. I have the joy of living in an apartment with only one closet. 
It’s great.
Mllehimama, That is a great idea to keep the dirty dishes under the sink, I’m not sure if I’d be able to make room under there, but I might try. Although, then I might think I don’t have any dirty dishes and never wash them! I’ve thought about getting a folding dishrack, that would help a lot. Thanks for the ideas!
Comment from ashley @ twentysixcats
Time January 23, 2008 at 11:02 am
Those are great ideas!! We had a really small kitchen in Peru. We had a china cabinet out in the foyer/dining room, and we kept all the dishes and appliances out there. My dad hung cabinets in our kitchen for our food. You should have seen it before we gave it a makeover! There was just a huge utility sink and a fridge and stove! We added counter space and a wall cabinet. The house was rented, but we stayed there 4 years so my parents felt justified spending the money making the kitchen usable. The landlords probably liked that we did that too! (Not saying you should; I was just explaining what my parents did.)
Comment from Nancy B
Time January 23, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I’ve seen wooden cutting boards that are large enough that you can lay them over the sink. This would create more food prep space for you. Small spaces force creativity, don’t they?
Comment from Beckie
Time January 23, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I remember the tiny kitchen days. At least you have a full size range. I had a two burner hotplate sitting on the dryer and a toaster oven on a shelf. To get to either you had to set the chair from he table over by the door to be able to cook properly. I had a wonderful mother in law that gave us more cooking space when we got a roaster oven for Christmas. Then we had to use the washer for the roaster oven to sit on.
And don’t you dare leave dirty dishes in the sink. Because when Grammie C came down to do her laundry she would just have to wash them up while waiting for her load to finish.
I sometimes miss the coziness.
Comment from Rain
Time January 23, 2008 at 10:02 pm
We are moving into a place with a smaller kitchen than I am used to so I am going to try your tips! Thanks!
Comment from Need A Nap2
Time January 24, 2008 at 2:06 am
I recognize that brand of laundry detergent! (Arm & Hammer)
You’ve got a great shelf above your washer. I know some families that buy a long wood board to lay over the washer and dryer providng extra space (like a long counter). It is amazing how creative you can be when you need to. I never realized how nice the kitchen was in our rental house, I miss it. 
Comment from Mommy Cracked
Time January 23, 2008 at 2:00 am
We used to have a super small kitchen, too. Definitely keeping counter clutter to a minimun was key.