I noticed there were lots of complaints on the original post for number 6 as to no price being listed to the folding island. There are plenty of other options and sources for these folding kitchen carts. Here is a quick google search http://tinyurl.com/yhcvl65

The Lap Counter is the perfect thing for my mother. However this seems to be a design concept than something that is actually purchasable. Which was disappointing to learn

Garbage bowl? why not just dump into the compost container? I finally found the perfect 2 gal pail takes up little space and has a tight tight lid so no more fruit flies for me.

And its free for SF residence they will deliver to your door step-
http://sfrecycling.com/contact.php?t=r

In my very first first apartment, I had a craptastic uber-tiny kitchen:
Sink on the left against a wall, turn to the right and there was the stove and immediately to it's right was the fridge - The whole space couldn't have been more than 6'x7: No drawers, the only counterspace was the 2' square corner between the sink and the stove where the dishrack needed to live, no storage other than the cabinet below the sink and the shallow upper cabinets over the sink and the stove - You practically had to step out of the kitchen to open the oven...
...but there was a small eating area to the right of the fridge that was @ 72"x80".

The inspiration for my solution was found in a then-current issue of Metropolitan Home where a featured kitchen used steel wire Restaurant shelving and custom butcherblock countertop as a kitchen island:

So I simply expanded the kitchen into the tiny eating area - I pushed the fridge to the far right wall (almost 7 feet away) and bought my own restaurant wire/steel shelving that was 6' long, 24" deep and 34" high from the local restaurant supply store and a 7' butcherblock countertop from the local home store which I cut to fit with a handsaw. (I still remember driving through town with that gigantic countertop hanging out the trunk of my ancient Volvo sedan!) I then found some aluminum track from the homestore which I attached to the underside of the wooden counter with shallow screws to hold a couple of Rubbermaid plastic cutlery drawer inserts to use as drawers:

Instant counterspace and tons of stylish open storage - and as a bonus, the gap beneath the counter between the shelves and the stove was the perfect size for the kitchen trashcan!

Number 3 reminds me of Driving Ms. Daisy with Ester Rolle spilling the peas all over the floor. :O)

I love the garbage bowl idea- an "into the trash" spot really seems to help keep counters clear.

Why don't I compost? Well, I have a tiny space with no porch and no private outdoor space. There's nowhere to PUT a 2 gallon compost bucket. The compost would then go on the plants that die as I walk into a room. Seriously- I walk into a nursery to buy tomatoes and you hear thousands of teeny voices screeching, "NO, NOT HER AGAIN!" I mean well, I really do. I just have a black thumb of doom. Sorry, composters. I'm still recovering from the Epic Garden Fail of 2009. I'm just not ready to trust dirt again.

Bee T I guess it depends on where you live San Francisco has a mandatory compost law and each resident or buildings have large compost bins outside their homes that get picked up on trash and recycle days. My kitchen compost gets dumped into the large outdoor bin every other day, not onto my three potted plants.

I think Boston is starting to do this as well.
It would be great if more cities had this program.

I now have very little trash each week not even enough to fill a kitchen trash bag full where I use to take out two full trash bags a week.

I put an overturned cookie sheet over two of my four burners. It's a useful surface because it's heatproof, so I can put dishes on it straight from the stove or oven, but I can also place a cutting board on there and use it as a countertop extension. The sheet is large enough to stop anything from getting spilled down the burner wells, so they stay clean and ready to use. Also, it's easily washable. It's an ideal solution for a kitchen with only about 18" of counterspace like mine.

Also: for extra kitchen storage, think about a used dresser rather than a small kitchen island. You can fit just as many pots and pans inside drawers as you can on shelves (unless they are very tall), the storage goes all the way to the floor, and less-used items stay clean. I use a narrow dresser in my kitchen for my huge spice collection: the jars lie on their sides, out of the light but easily browsed during cooking.

@honeyliving: I should add that I take the burner grates off and stow them under the sink, in order to make room for the cookie sheet. But yeah, it's a lifesaver. I'm only cooking for myself, so the only time I ever need more than 2 burners going is when I make jam.

angelala - love the dresser idea!

LoriSF - i don't think the garbage bowl idea and composting are mutually exclusive. the garbage bowl concept is to have a place immediately next to you to put your garbage scraps as you're prepping/cooking. they can then be transferred to the compost bin or trash. it sounds silly but i do find having that bowl right next to me to be super handy!

We once lived in a place with a tiny galley kitchen. It had almost no storage space, what there was was mostly too high for me to reach, and it had only one square of counter.

Tricks we used to make this more effective: prep on the stove. Sounds crazy, but we would use saucepans as prep bowls and lay them on the (cold) stove. Sometimes we used the cookie sheet trick, too.

Butcher block counter: we got a chunk of butcher block from the hardware store and laid it down across the tiny square of counter we'd been granted. Now the whole thing was a cutting surface. The butcher block was quite inexpensive especially considering it's been moving from house to house with us for over fifteen years.

Outside kitchen storage. There was a bit of spare wall just outside the kitchen, and we had some deep wicker bookcases. Ugly but functional pantry.

Rolling kitchen cart: we got one of these little butcher block topped wonders and kept it in the dining nook outside the galley. Now both of us could work at once, one on the cart and one in the kitchen, feeding into those saucepans on the stove.

I second the garbage bowl; when I'm doing a lot of veg prep, I take out my little compost bucket and my stock scrap container. Things go into one or the other immediately. Trash and recyclables also get their own bins, though I use them less so don't need to have them out for prep. If I'm peeling a lot of citrus I usually zest it first (if it's organic) and save the zest if I won't be using it immediately. Yesterday I was peeling a lot of citrus for a salad so I put all the peels in a pot with some cloves and five spice and simmered it to make the kitchen smell good.

Small portable cutting boards, especially with grooves, are nice for any prep that fits on them; you can then move them with the chopped vegetables and tip them right into the pan from the board. I've found I can do certain kinds of food prep in a chair, like paring, peeling, or topping. This takes a towel, tool, bowl, waste bowl and perhaps a cutting board. And a small cutting board is a multitasker, unlike the lap counter.

My mother-in-law just uses a plastic bag from the grocery store for a "garbage bowl." Yeah, she has reusable bags for the groceries, but I know that I often forget to bring in one when I drop in the grocery store unexpectedly.