Get a Bigger Kitchen Without Remodeling
(Page 2 of 3)
September/October 2008
By Mary Collette Rogers
Make a plan. Rearranging your kitchen to create optimal placements for each food and tool grouping is a lot like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. Consider several options for each grouping and then create a “conceptual design plan” that identifies where each will go.
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Grab a chair, sit down in the middle of the kitchen and think through each step: If sautéing onions would be easier if your cooking pans were stored under the stove, where would you put the baking dishes and pizza pans that live there now? If those items would be more logically housed by the detached oven, where could you move the canned goods that are now by the oven?
Sketch out your ideas for rearranging, starting with the part of the kitchen that is most aggravating. Does that huge juicer always get in the way, or would you use your food proc-essor more often if it weren’t buried in a hard-to-reach spot? Do you need space for a large sauté pan?
As you work through all the variations, keep in mind that a perfect arrangement is unlikely. But with a little time and patience, a highly satisfactory arrangement is quite likely. If you get stuck, professional organizers skilled in creating workable organizational schemes are available.
Step 3: Re-create
Still need more usable space? There are plenty of ways to create it. Scour your kitchen for unused or underused spaces: A bit of wall, the inside or back of a cupboard door, the side of a microwave or a linen closet in the hallway all offer opportunities to add more space and functionality with organizational add-ons.
Walls and ceilings can vastly increase storage capacity with plenty of style. Hang serving plates on walls, a colorful colander by the sink, or pans from a rack on the ceiling.
Wall files keep meal plans, recipe notebooks, coupon holders and shopping lists off the counters and keep them from getting lost.
Undercabinet storage is perfect for vitamins or mugs.
Baskets and racks that attach to the inside of cupboard and pantry doors make room for pot lids, storage-container lids and canned goods.
Extra shelves can be added to pantries and cupboards with adjustable hardware.
Do you really need it?
Never-used sandwich grillers, snow cone makers and olive pitters waste space in cupboards in every nook and cranny in America. Do you really need this stuff? You can resist the pressure to keep accumulating by keeping a few rules in mind.
Ask the obvious questions. Will you really use Gadget X? Be specific. If it’s a miniature slow cooker you’re contemplating, what two or three dishes would make good use of it, how often would you make them and is there something already in your tool inventory that could be adapted for those recipe ideas?
Be a devil’s advocate. Considering a food chopper? Probe deep. Will it really save time? Or will its time savings be frittered away by the extra setup and cleaning it requires? Will it do a better job cutting vegetables than a chef’s knife? Is it easy to use or will you have to fumble with several parts and attachments?