So you have a small kitchen. A tiny one. What are your options? You could spend hours coveting the cavernous kitchens profiled in Architectural Digest. You could whine and complain. Or you could rethink your space. How? A three-pronged approach will make you happier with your itsy bitsy cooking space.
1) Cook smarter. Clean as you cook. As a family friend and expert cook once told me, "you have to clean your area!" A smaller space can actually be a blessing because it forces you to be more controlled and efficient in your limited work area. New York Times food writer and cookbook guru Mark Bittman once said, "When it comes to kitchens, size and equipment don't count nearly as much as devotion, passion, common sense and, of course, experience."
2) Declutter and purge. Bittman wrote many of his cookbooks while living in an apartment with a very small and basic kitchen — a revelation that shocked many readers. But for this prolific food writer, all one really needs to be a cook is "a stove, a sink, a refrigerator, some pots and pans, a knife and some serving spoons. All else is optional." If he can be happy in a small space, so can you. Simplify your kitchen. Move or sell appliances you rarely use. Keep your utensils to a minimum. Buy only what you actually use, not what you want.
Because, as Bittman says, "To spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common... is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance." Buy nesting mixing bowls, collapsable colanders, and a decent knife or two. (Do you really need a paring knife? How many chefs knives do you really need?). Consider using a big Pyrex measuring cup as a mixing bowl. One wooden spoon will go a long way. Hand mixers and wand mixers are often sufficient unless you're a regular baker.
3) Reconfigure Your Space: If you have limited storage space and are working with an impossibly small amount of counter space, invest in some of these space-saving and space-building pieces, from over the sink dish drainers to foldable mini kitchen islands. Find ways to create extra, and temporary, countertop space by utilizing sink and stovetop space. And keep things off the countertops! Paper towel holders can be attached to the wall, as can pot racks. Use the insides of cabinets and the backs of doors for extra storage.
Smart Buys
Here are some nifty space-making purchases that can help you maximize your culinary workspace:
FIRST ROW
1 Jessica's Blue & Silver Flair. This small New York kitchen is one example of a cook who knows how to make the best of a small space.
2 Folding kitchen cart from http://www.walmart.com/ip/Folding-Kitchen-Cart/17622592, $269. This is a great solution for those with cramped workspace in the kitchen. Easily folds up to be stashed elsewhere if needed.
3 Another folding Island kitchen cart from QVC, $174.80.
4 Grudtal wall-mounted dish drainer from IKEA, $10.95. Get that dish dryer off the countertop! If you love having a drainer (I just use a dishtowel myself), why not consider a wall mounted one like this, which could hang over the sink.
5 Here are three good options for adding instant and temporary countertop space. Clockwise from top left: Lipper International wood chopping board that fits over the range. Amazon, $24.99. Progressive International cutting board. Place this over the sink to free up countertop space. Amazon, $26.57. Over the stove cutting board from More Counter Space on Amazon, $44.95.
SECOND ROW
6 Kitchen island space saver set with stools that tuck underneath. Walmart, $149.
7 An alternative to a knife block on the counter or using up a drawer for sharp knives. From Cholulared. This would free up an entire drawer! As for the knife blocks that sit on the countertop: unless you are a serious cook who cooks often, you probably do not need immediate access to all of your best knives. Free up that counter space!
8 Home Styles Cuisine Kitchen Cart from Walmart, $299.
9 Kitchen cart with butcher block from Walmart, $119.
10 Rogar half dome pot rack from Bed Bath and Beyond, $60.99. This is a nice alternative to big bulky pot racks. You can tuck it over against the wall for minimal visual clutter.
(Images: As credited above.)
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Great topic! Our kitchen is microscopic - we can't fit an island or even a table and have about 2 feet total of counterspace. Cleaning as you go and culling things are crucial to working in such an environment. Also, other problems have been solved by organizing frequently used items in ergonomic ways by putting up a magnetic knife strip and hanging pots and pans that are frequently used, while storing away appliances. We don't have enough counter space to really do anything much due to our microwave taking up a third of it. Does anyone out there have a way to handle this, e.g., is there a "fold down" counter option somewhere out there? A second problem is that only 1 person can really work in here at a time, but usually all three of us plus a dog are competing for space. This set up remains very stressful, although I guess I have become more efficient when I cook.
The set from #1 is an UDDEN from IKEA. Which of course is not available in Canada. Mumbling obscenities now...
@Sasha2, sounds like you need a wall-mounted fold-down table like this Ikea one. You can make your own to fit your specifications.
I have these pull out racks from IKEA (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30035908/) that let me access items at the back of the cabinet by pulling them out. They work great and I bought some wire mesh office supply organizers that I use to keep my spoons and spatulas right next to the stove inside the cabinet. I also have a metal shelf right above the stove to keep hot items off the counters. With only about 2 feet of surface space on the stove side, it's all about getting stuff out of the way!
All of these suggestions are good and they should help anyone who is working in a limited space, regardless of your skill level as a cook. My cooking space is 18" x 22". I prepare entertaining meals for 6 adults, 5 -6 courses, in that space. I've been cooking a long long time. I would like a larger kitchen and when we move in 2 months that is on the list of things as is a walkin shower.
I highly recommend Mark Bittman's advice and his recipes. He has a common sense approach to food and joie de vivre. The only thing I would add is you don't need the most expensive knife you can buy. All knifes are equal with they are sharp. Just learn to sharpen your knife everytime you cook.
Just an FYI, those Grundtal folding dish racks are great in theory, but fall apart in reality. I got maybe 1 year of incredibly light use before the metal dish support rails started to break off.
I've heard several professional cooks say that their kitchens are on the small side, functional and efficient. They don't want to waste time trekking back and forth across a huge room to get from cabinets, appliances, pantry, island, etc. Bittman makes some very good points.
I have a fairly big kitchen, and I still find these advices useful. I've noticed that the bigger the kitchen, the crowder it tends to get, because people keep thinking "I have to space to store that !". In the end, they don't and useless items are stored at the back of cabinets, never to see the light again until the owner moves.
I recently did a purge of the bulkier items in my kitchen, and I feel great ! So, I don't have the latest steam cooker anymore, but a kind of silicon sieve you put in a big pan: same job, same result, much, much, much smaller item. Bye bye rice cooker, useless time-saver if you cook rice twice a month like I do. I'm considering splurging on the latest Thermomix (the german KitchenAid), because it'll replace my own 20-years old one and two of my hand mixers, but I might end up exchanging my mixers for a single one and keeping my Thermomix another ten years (sometimes, I wish it would break, but this thing is indestructible).
@Sasha2 -- My kitchen is also very small. We can't really fit a table unless I buy something like that Walmart kitchen island (and even then, it would be tight). My counter top space is so limited that it would have been entirely taken up by a microwave. I happened to have room over top of my fridge, so that is where my microwave is stored. If you don't have room, I would suggest a rolling microwave cart, or something similar. I bought a rolling tupperware storage cart, put a large cutting board on the top to level it, and put my teapot, knife block, and a jar full of cooking utensils on the top. The drawers are perfect for storing tupperware containers, lids, and any other extras you need to store. And the whole thing is on wheels, which means you can roll it around as needed!
If it's really small learn to use a whisk. My husband does some fantastic baking without ever using the mixer. His father (a CIA grad) taught him something like 7 ways to hold the whisk so you can change off positions as your hands get tired.
Re: microwaves - in my tiny college apartment, we kept ours on the bottom shelf of a rolling shelf so we could use the top.