If you love cooking or baking, you might have dreamt about a massive kitchen that can hold all the appliances and gadgets you’ll ever need and more. However, with most modern houses and apartments, the kitchens are getting smaller and smaller every day. Nowadays, hardly anyone has the time or the energy to cook after a hard day at work, and the kitchens are barely large enough for two people to stand side by side.
Just because you have a small kitchen, it doesn’t mean that you can’t have everything you need in it. All you need is a little organizational skill and the right storage units, and even the smallest kitchens can become extremely functional. Compact kitchens can be a little annoying when you first move into a new home, but if you follow the right tips, you can use every single inch of your small kitchen.
Here are some practical tips that can help you make the most of your compact kitchen, even if they might require extra planning and cost.
- Install Drawers Instead of Doors
Drawers are not just practical and aesthetically pleasing, they also save your time and effort. Small and large drawers can hold everything from spoons and knives to pots and pans, and they make it easier to find anything you are looking for. With doors, you might have to rummage through everything and still not find something small but important. You can use the same space to install several drawers, and each of them can be used for different types of kitchen utensils and appliances.
Drawers also look much more sophisticated than doors or open shelves, and you can hide just about everything inside. If you have a kitchen island or a lengthy cabinet space, you can have as many drawers as you need.
- Choose the Right Sink
The area under the sink is usually wasted, and there’s practically nothing you can put under the sink. At the same time, a wide sink takes away a large portion of the kitchen counters that you can’t use for anything else.
A practical solution is to choose a sink that’s deep instead of wide; an under-mount sink can save a lot of countertop space, and you can even install a draining area beside the sink. A deep sink will also make it much easier for you to pile your dirty dishes inside it, without anyone knowing they are resting inside. Besides, if you have a tiny kitchen, it is better that you stick to a deep and compact single-inset sink.
- Go Easy on the Appliances
For a tiny kitchen, you’ll to especially hand-pick small appliances; anything massive and unnecessary will only waste space. It is always possible to find smaller versions of the appliances you need in your kitchen, as most companies make both large and small versions of their appliances. The smaller versions of blenders, mixers and coffee makers work just as well as the larger versions, even if you have to make everything in multiple batches.
Smaller appliances can also be hidden away inside cabinets and drawers when you are not using them, keeping your kitchen counters free.
- Use Your Walls
Large or small, every single inch of your kitchen should be properly utilized, even the walls. Kitchen walls are used practically most of the time, just as the floor space and the counters. You can use the walls to hang up everything from coffee mugs to the smaller pans, by installing rods, shelves, and even pegboards.
Since most kitchen utensils and crockeries come with a holed handle, they can be hung on pegs and hooks. Simply by installing rods or a pegboard on your unused walls, you can free up your countertops and cabinets by changing everything.
- Use the Cabinet Doors
It’s not just inside the kitchen cabinets that you can use for storage, but the inside of the doors as well. Anything that’s long and slim can be hung from the cabinet doors: measuring cups, ladles, rubber gloves, napkins, and spoons. Even the cabinet doors under the sink can be used for storing your cleaning supplies, brushes, and gloves.
All you need to do is to attach a few hooks or a rod to the cabinet doors, and you can hang up anything that comes with a hole or a handle.
- Hang Your Pots and Pans from the Ceiling
If you have a kitchen island, you can use the space above to hang all your large pots and pans from the ceiling. These are quite expensive, but worth the money because these over-the-head storage units can be extremely useful.
It’s mostly the larger pots and pans that are hung from the ceiling because they take up too much space in your cabinets. Over your head, they can be out of the way when you don’t need them, but always just a pull away. However, these pans and pots would always be on the show, so you might have to invest in some really good ones, and keep them clean at all times.
- Get a Rolling Kitchen Cart
Kitchen carts can be quite handy for keeping everything you need regularly but have no specific place to put them. If you bake regularly, you can keep all your baking supplies in the kitchen cart; it can be tucked away to any corner of the kitchen or even inside any of the large cabinets. You can put it away, ready will all the supplies, beaters and mixers, and even your mixing bowls and decorations, and pull it out when you are in the mood for baking.
A kitchen cart can be also used as a temporary bar for when you have guests to entertain, or for any particular type of cooking and food preparation, i.e. exotic spices for cooking, salad dressings, decoration for cakes and cookies, etc. They are available in both slim and large designs, and can be even tucked away beside refrigerators and behind doors.
- Install a Fold Down Table
Fold-down tables don’t take up any space in your kitchen until you need to use it. They are usually installed against the walls, and are folded up when not needed; anyone can unfold it to sit down for a meal, or even use the table as an extended kitchen counter. If you have guests coming over, you can use the fold-down table to keep your cooked dishes on, ready to serve for later.
- Put Everything in Jars
It might be more expensive, but you can buy similar-looking jars and containers to store all the food you buy for yourself and for your family. Your kitchen will look more organized if everything in inside similar containers, even when you put them on the counters. Everything from pasta to flour and cereal to rice can be fit into large containers, but you’ll need smaller jars for spices and herbs.
The larger ones can be stored inside the cabinets or kept on the counters, but the smaller ones can be put inside drawers or stored along with the cabinet doors.
- Buy Shelves for your Cabinets
You can use your cabinets more efficiently if you use shelves inside your cabinets. This way, you won’t have to rummage through the pots and pans inside the cabinets, or even the herbs and spices you have stored inside. Smaller containers can also be attached to these shelves with the help of magnets, which will make it easier for you to find and use.
A tiny kitchen doesn’t have to mean the end of the world, even when you love to cook and do so regularly. If you can organize all your utensils and appliances and find a place for everything in your kitchen, you won’t have to move around frantically.
There are actually a few advantages to a small kitchen; you won’t have to move around too much to find everything, because whatever you need will be right at hand. The organization is a great skill when it comes to managing a compact kitchen, and you might end up with a great one eventually.
