Cookaholics Bulletin Board

How about some helpful tips for small kitchens?

My only good idea on this so far was to get a three tiered plate rack. It sits on an open bar and saves cupboard space. It holds dinner plates, large pasta bowls, and a fruit bowl on top.

Drawers! I fit so much more in than the shelves we had before. Also drawer dividers.

The other thing is less stuff in the kitchen. I keep my bigger Dutch ovens, pasta machine, mandolin and other stuff I don't use too often in the basement. I also keep extra food in the basement but have read about converting linen closets to pantries by keeping extra sheets between the box spring or something like that.

I also have big plastic boxes with lids for baking stuff, tea, nuts etc. That way I can stack them and am able to use the height in the closets.



The other thing we did (and this a remodel which isn't what you asked for) was to make the counters deeper. Just a little bit gives a lot more room.

I love the plate rack idea. I have one but it is too high for my counters and my bar is too tiny. I may try to find a shorter one for when we finally get a bigger book shelf for all the cookbooks that grew into the kitchen.

Mary

I have a small pantry that is maybe 3' x 3'. I have utilized all the wall space that I could by hanging all of my baking pans and cooling racks inside. I even have them hanging above the door. My mother wanted to make Banana bread last summer and she couldn't find the pans even though she saw all the other pans hanging on the wall. I pointed them out to her hanging above the door. Her comment was "Oh for Petes Sake".

Todd, you're tall enough that that space looks usable to you. To us normal people, it looks like the top of K-2.
If you have a few inches near the fridge, the rolling shelves that fit sideways and are about one can wide are great.

Pot rack.

And not a flimsy little W-S one. A heavy-duty welded one which can hold 20 pots & pans.

We wouldn't be able to live without ours. Picture's gone, unfortunately, or I'd show you it.

A friend had a very sturdy pot rack hanging over the peninsula in her kitchen. It was loaded with LeCreuset and cast iron. Unfortunately, the installation wasn't sturdy at all. During a bridge game, it all came crashing down. Made a hell of a racket. And it fell right onto the peninsula where sat a beautiful cake, china teapot and the dessert plates, cups & saucers of her wedding china. What a mess! For some reason we all thought this was hysterically funny. Took forever to clean up.
fitzie

EB,
I started working on this and hit upon a couple; the chaos was getting to me(H's way of getting out of dishwasher unloading!). I ordered all new glasses, but I made sure they were stackable, I got four sizes, and boy, did that clean up my glass cabinet. The glasses are Bormioli Rocco Rock Bar Stackable, on Amazon. Out went nonstacking bowls as well, from ramekins to pyrex. It did free up space. So, that's my new mantra..."its got to stack".

Don't know if you can see it but under the cupboard, hidden in the baseboard is a pull out step stool. It is the VERY best thing in my kitchen.



Mary

Fitzie,

Yeah, you need to attach it right. My pot rack hangs from four 12-gauge chains, which are attached to four quarter-inch-thick steel hooks driven 2" deep into the ceiling studs. The only way that's coming down is if the ceiling collapses.


Mary,

Wow, that's a pretty cool bit of efficiency.

European kitchen are almost all small and are pretty well engineered. I posted these on the other board but may as well do it here as well.









Mary