If, like me, you have a terribly small kitchen you’ll know what a nightmare it can be to prepare a meal for a family if your prep area has cats despondent at the lack of jiving opportunities and you bang your elbow on the wall behind you as you try to chop a carrot.
There are a few things you can do which can help you adapt your space, make the best use of it and make it as efficient a space as possible in which to create.
1) Overhead space: If you have space on your walls use it to put up shelves. If you’re of the short persuasion invest in some steps so you can reach up there. Another way of using overhead space if you have a high enough ceiling is to get a Sheila Maid. It’s not just good for hanging laundry on but also, if you have some butchers’ hooks you can use it to hang all of your pans, colanders, strings of garlic and baskets full of towels meaning you can free up acres of space at a usable level.
2) Horizontal space: Get a cover for your sink, you can then push the trimmings straight down the garbage disposal, a cover for your cooker does much the same job, just make sure it’s flame proof. Getting a smaller sink to maximise surface space is a bad idea, you don’t achieve much more room but you do now have a sink that’s too small to use. If you’re putting in a new hob, how about a ceramic? Lots of extra space up until you need to start cooking.
3) Foldaway and portable furniture: Butchers blocks on wheels, much easier to move about than a normal kitchen table with storage underneath. A table with leaves can be used as a snack bar in the mornings and folded out to create a full size dining table in the evening or when you have guests.
4) Lights, Camembert, Action: If your light is central then every time you start to prep’ you’ll be standing in your own light. A few spots dotted about the corners of the kitchen and a light directly above the area where you do most of your chopping means that not only will your kitchen seem bigger you’ll be able to use every inch of your horizontal space.
5) Smaller kitchen appliances: Slimline dishwashers, smaller capacity washing machines and fridges might suit you if you have a small kitchen and a small family. You may have to shop more often but you’ll also find that you’re eating more healthily as your food is fresher.
6) Box clever: If you have space under things, get storage boxes or portable drawers which you can slide under there. Keep things tidy too, putting like things together and keeping them straight (known as Kerning) will mean you’ll always know exactly where to look for something and your bits and bobs take up the least possible space.
7) Kicking it live: Over door shoe organisers can be used for shoes, they also make perfect holders for bottles that don’t need to be chilled, put bleach and cleaning products way up high to keep them out of the reach of children, use the lower ones for herbs and spices, coffee and ketchup.
8) Outsource: Your kitchen isn’t the only room in the house to have its own source of water, this being so, could your put your washing machine in the bathroom, utility area or garage? A fridge or freezer could equally be placed somewhere not normally associated with food storage like a large cupboard, conservatory or shed if you have one.
Dan Cash is a “handy man” to have around. Living in Brighton, food delivery can be a handy way of buying groceries if you have to buy more frequently. As a student in Cardiff takeaway food was a staple as his flat didn’t have a kitchen of its own.
Image: Flickr.com/ooh_food
Authors bio is coming up shortly.
