Small kitchens can be the bane of a cook, especially if someone wants to help. My daughter calls the tiny work spaces ‘one-butt kitchens’ and she is right.
How, oh how, do we get more space, at least on counters? After all, we have those lovely canister sets, toasters, cookbooks, cookie jars and a thousand other things we really, really need when we cook, right?
Check out picture Number One and then look at picture Number Two. Would you believe they are the same workspace? What is the secret to taking back much needed areas from things and turning it into usable, workable, breathable space?
Remove and Store. Those are the secrets and they are the only secrets we need to pull a crowded area into the dream kitchen we all want.
I had three areas for spices on my counter – THREE. Who uses that many spices in any one meal? Who needs more than three or four at any given time in the normal course of cooking a dish? Nobody. Okay, maybe the mavens of the kitchen, the gourmet cooks, such as my daughter-in-law needs a world of spices, but the average cook, not so much. And unless we run a dish washing service, why must the dish rack stay on the counter day in and day out?
If you have not used a spice in four years, get rid of it. Spices and herbs tend to lose their potency after just so long. Here is a chart to help remember when to switch them out:
- Ground spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric): 2 to 3 years
- Herbs (basil, oregano, parsley): 1 to 3 years
- Seasoning blends: 1 to 2 years
- Whole spices (cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon sticks): 4 years
- Seeds: 4 years (except for poppy and sesame seeds, which should be discarded after 2 years)
- Extracts: 4 years (except for vanilla, which will last forever)
To keep up with them, make a list of spices and the dates bought. Tape it to the inside of your cabinet door as an easy reference.
Do you really use that Panini press every day? How about the food processor and the blender taking up room on your counters? Or, even the toaster? If you do not use any small appliance every day of the week, take it out to the garage, put it on a shelf and get it out of the kitchen! The only one I use every morning is the coffee pot. In fact, I have two of them, one that can make a pot and another for single cups. One is in the kitchen while the other resides as a decorative piece in the dining room.
Is the cookie jar pretty enough to keep out? Wonderful, but if it is a plain Jane cheap piece of crockery, put it out of sight! No, the top of the refrigerator is not out of sight. Who knows? It might even keep the kiddies (and adults) from snacking half the day away.
The roll of paper towels is used on a regular basis in my home, however, that is about to move to a spot under the cabinets on a vertical roll instead of a horizontal one. It looks neater and gives back valuable room on the counter.
We all like decorations to some degree. I prefer to use pretty bottles for my most used items like olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It keeps them close to the area where they are used and provides the soft décor as well.
How about those fabulous cookbooks with all the recipes you will surely cook one day? Seriously? How often do any of us decide we must have a brilliant dinner every night? Let’s see, tonight we had steaks cooked on the grill, rice steamed in the bag inside the microwave and zucchini baked on a griddle. The night before, how delicious was that frozen lasagna, thawed and cooked in the oven, complete with a salad? The night before that, we dined lavishly on sandwich and soup.
Let’s face it, most of us are either too busy or too lazy to play recipe of the day, or week, or even month, for that matter.
Find a shelf in a handy closet, store those books or, how about taking the few recipes we do use, type them up on 3″ x 5″ cards. Get a small photo notebook; slide the recipe into the slots and Velcro the book to the inside of your cabinet door. That cabinet door comes in so handy and, yet, it keeps so much hidden.
Another possibility is a movable kitchen island, used to store small appliances, cookbooks and a dozen other things, while providing seating for informal meals.
Tune in to the next article to discover the things you already have in your home that make buying expensive cleaners outdated.