How To Cope With A Tiny Kitchen
How To Cope With A Tiny Kitchen. A small kitchen has its perks – having everything in arm’s reach can make cooking easier. However, you could find that multiple people can’t use the kitchen and that you’re constantly running out of space to store food and cooking apparatus.
Extending your kitchen might be an option if you own your home and have the available land. However, even those with the ability to do this may find it too expensive. Learning to make do with the space you’ve got may be the only option. Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can maximize the space in a tiny kitchen to make it more practical.
Sort through your shelves and cupboards
We all have stuff in our kitchen cupboards that we don’t need. Getting rid of this clutter could help to free up space for more genuine essentials. Sort through your food first – make it your mission to use any unopened cans of food (or take them to the food bank). Then consider selling or donating any appliances that you never use such as toasties machines or pasta makers.
After this clutter is gone, take the time to reorganize all your kitchen belongings. Try to find the most space-efficient ways to store things such as stacking cans.
Use space-saving appliances
You may be able to further free up space by choosing specific space-saving appliances.
For instance, a fridge-freezer could be a better option than having a separate refrigerator and freezer. Many slim but tall models can be great in a small kitchen.
A more radical option could be to do away with your oven and consider countertop appliances. An air fryer could be an option – you can cook everything from roast chicken to frozen fries in an air fryer. By removing your oven, you could free up a huge amount of extra space for storage.
Make use of empty walls
If you have any empty walls in your kitchen, consider ways in which you could convert these into extra storage.
You could try building shelves on empty walls for storing containers of food or utensils. Alternatively, if you have an empty wall above a sink, you could build metal racks for draining plates and cutlery, reducing the need for a draining board at the side of the sink.
You could also look into magnetic strips for hanging knives – this could eliminate the need for a wood block, which could be taking up countertop space. Hooks on walls for hanging utensils could be another option.
Buy kitchenware that stacks
Being able to stack things can save space. While most sets of bowls and plates are stackable, you may also be able to look into other kitchenware such as stackable pans. It’s even possible to buy stackable coffee mugs and even stackable wine glasses.