If I half the size of my kitchen, will I still be able to eat healthfully? That was one of my bigger fears, moving from a relatively spacious apartment to a less than 400 square foot studio earlier this month. With little cooking space, and pretty much no counter space, would dining in get too difficult — or even impossible?
Behold my tiny kitchen right after I moved in. Yes, I was eating peanut butter out of the jar!
To call it a kitchen may be pushing it a little — The space is better described as a wall portion with aspects reminiscent of a kitchen. But while the lilliputian cooking area frightened me a little, I have to say I did actually like some aspects of this new kitchenette of mine — like the mini fridge.
Why? Because I like shopping often for the freshest foods, I rarely had much food in the full fridge in my last apartment — so little food, in fact, that friends who came over would open it and gasp at the emptiness. And while electricity was included in the rent, I always felt the fridge sapped up way too much energy, when most of what it did was keep a jar of mustard and some condiment bottles cool.
Now, my mini-fridge is nicely fullish and I feel like I’m getting my electricity use’s worth — which is doubly helpful since I do get a separate electric bill in this new apartment.
Pretty much all other aspects of the kitchen, however, were a serious challenge. Because while I certainly did anticipate parting with some extra cups and dishes due to the downsize, I didn’t foresee that I’d have to rethink the ownership of standard kitchen stuff I’d just assumed as, you know, standard in any kitchen.
Like a dish rack.
There was simply nowhere to put the thing. Nor was there any room for a silverware tray, since my new kitchenette had no drawers, period.
Parting with the microwave was a little easier. I’ve actually got a lot of friends who don’t own microwaves — Some are eco-health zealots who believe microwaves to be dangerous and unhealthy; others are eco-foodies with a rather snooty attitude toward microwaved food. I’ve got nothing against microwaves — but I only used the thing for the occasional reheat — and decided I needed the room it took up for other kitchen things I used more often.
Add to the fact that my microwave had taken to beeping at random — a “feature” that reminded me to unplug the microwave while not in use to save vampire power leaching, but an annoying feature nonetheless that made the microwave impossible to give away, much less resell — and the boxy thing just had to go to the e-waste recycling facility. On the same day I made that trip, a friend of mine happened to be having a yard sale — so I added a whole bunch of silverware with its tray, a dish rack, and an odd collection of dishes and glasses to her yard. I hope she made some money off the stuff –
Here’s what my kitchen looks like now.
Notice how the pots and pans are on the stove? There’s no storage space for cookware, so now they get to hang out on the stove, whether in use or not.
I dealt with the silverware issue by just keeping four forks, knives, and spoons each — plus a couple pairs of chopsticks. After all, I’m not going to be having huge parties in my teeny apartment anyway. The silver now sits arranged in a metallic bouquet, sprouting out of a bamboo cup-like holder by the sink.
The dishrack I replaced with — myself. After washing dishes, I just wipe them with a dish towel (admittedly in an incomplete, half-ass manner that leaves them dampish) and put them straight back on the shelf.
Now that everything more or less has a spot, I’m in assessment mode — to see what else I can get rid of. I think I’d like to get rid of more dishes for example. Since the teensy kitchen basically forces me to wash the dishes as soon as I use them, I’ve used and reused a couple dishes and one set of utensils the whole time I’ve been here — so why own the rest?
I may also get rid of my toaster, and just toast bread on the stove — but since the latter seems a lot more time consuming, I’m going to see how often I use the toaster in the next month first.
There’s also a whole bunch of stuff in the area under the sink that needs to be dealt with. See how the doors aren’t quite closed? That’s not because the doors are faulty. Most of what’s under there are baking supplies — flours and sugars — plus a whole bunch of spices. I’d like to bake cookies for my new neighbors and get to know them — but the mess down there is more than I can face right now.
I also need to find some fixes for tiny cooking. As you can see from the photo, the top of the mini-fridge doubles as my fruit bowl stand — but also has to triple as my cooking area (this is why I want to get rid of more stuff; moving the fruit bowl all the time gets annoying, so I’d like to find the sweet produce a new perma-spot). Unfortunately, the top of the mini-fridge is not perfectly flat — so my Bambu cutting board rocks a bit in an admittedly dangerous manner when I’m cutting up heirloom tomatoes. How do I fix this situation?
Am I eating healthy meals? Surprisingly, yes, at least when I’m at home! I’ve been eating very simple salads (recipe here; yes I still make my own dressing and cook rice and beans at home) — or for breakfast, old-fashioned oatmeal and fruit. Once I finally catch up on email, I’ll need to figure out how to have a more varied diet — hopefully while also using up some spices under the sink!
At that point, I’ll have a better sense of what else I can get rid of. In the meantime, I’ve discovered something I dislike about my mini-fridge. Because it’s located like 5 feet from my bed, its hum sounds very loud when I’m trying to sleep! I’ve “solved” this problem by turning the thing off at night with the help of a Practecol switch — which I think is just fine, since all the food’s vegan (no meat to go rancid) and eaten quickly enough that the greens don’t get wilted –
Got other suggestions for making the most of my tiny kitchen? Share your tips in the comments! For now, I need to get to work on the rest of the apartment –
Related links:
>> Courtney of Be More with Less has step by step instructions for decluttering your kitchen.
>> Hillary of This Tiny House shows off the tiny kitchen pantry she put together.
>> Tammy of Rowdy Kittens downsized her kitchen — and may even get rid of her wedding china.
[crossposted on BlogHer]
You could try a small rolling art with a butcher block top if it fits. Or a larger cutting board that fits over the sink for food prep.
There is also room above the stove for a magnetic knife rack. Ikea has a wall system that has a hanging drying rack that can be used as storage too: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20022765
Cheers!
Comment by Hayley — October 17, 2010 @ 6:28 pm
Looks great! I also recommend the Grundtal from Ikea, or any kind of bar from anywhere. Hanging stuff is great for saving space, and it makes the stuff more accessible. This person used the Grundtal and its S-shaped hooks to organize scarves: http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2010/09/ultimate-scarf-organizer.html
I see you’ve got Seventh Generation dish soap. I used it and liked it, but I have to warn you that after a year (I went through it slowly), it started to smell like rotten vegetables. Maybe it was the natural ingredients decomposing, so I’d recommend keeping the top closed when not in use (or maybe I just got a bad bottle and you can experiment to see if it was just me).
Comment by Evan — October 17, 2010 @ 11:03 pm
Another way to preserve your food while minimizing the noise would be to buy a heavy-duty timer switch (make sure it is rated to handle the power used by your refrigerator. The rating should be clearly marked somewhere on the refrigerator, probably on the back). Then set it to be off during the first few hours of your sleep and then to turn on in the middle of the night for a few hours. Some timers come with multiple on/off inserts so you could set it to run from 1 AM to 2 AM and 4 AM to 5 AM, for example. You’d have to do some trial and error to get the timing right so you can sleep properly — I think our deepest sleep is the first few hours after falling asleep and sleep before waking is more fitful.
You could probably get another shelf that would hang under the shelf that holds your salad spinner. And don’t forget about the oven as a storage space — my parents have a storage-limited kitchen and the oven is always full of some kind of baking dish or other (cookie sheets, tea kettle, etc.).
Marc´s last blog ..Does the edible percentage of an avocado depend on its size
Comment by Marc — October 18, 2010 @ 8:26 am
I notice the toaster you have–if you have a gas stove, you can just use the flame to quickly toast bread. Also, you can get dishracks from IKEA that are made to sit over your sink. That should give some extra shelf space, if you just store your dishes in the dishrack.
I use a space-saving coffee mug from Planetary Design, too. It is a French press mug that lets me drink directly from the coffee pot, saving me a lot of room and pesky time, transferring coffee from my pot to my mug!
Comment by Maria — October 18, 2010 @ 9:21 am
You are obviously making some serious strides here. Looks fantastic! IKEA does have some great small living space options, but in general, hang as much as you can. Peg board with hooks & baskets is a good option, just make sure the material can stand up to heat and steam as above the stove or next to the sink look like your best bets. Have fun!!
Comment by Aysia Wright — October 18, 2010 @ 10:04 am
How about a piece of wood chopping block or countertop to lay on top of your mini-fridge? You could bring your mini fridge out a bit to make it flush with the sink and oven and secure the wood on the back wall with some L brackets.
Also, I second the peg board and hooks idea for the side of your oven. My in-laws hang all of their pans on the wall. You can also hang cups for silverware or spatulas etc. Here’s a tutorial on CHOW:
http://bit.ly/9iX97F
Over the sink cutting board:
http://amzn.to/cQ397K
Hanging fruit basket:
http://bit.ly/cqrqHU
Comment by simone — October 18, 2010 @ 11:13 am
I love those 3 tier hanging fruit and vegetable baskets… could be a solution to your fruit bowl problem.
Also, I have two of these shelves in antique white that have been sitting in storage forever. Good space savers… they’re yours if you want them.
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/crown-molding-shelf/
Comment by Summer — October 18, 2010 @ 11:36 am
Gorgeous — congrats!
Comment by Hillary @ ThisTinyHouse — October 18, 2010 @ 5:06 pm
You can add a lot of hooks and other holders to your walls. Since there is still a lot of the “track” from your shelving exposed, you can get hooks, etc, that just fit right in, so you don’t even have to drill any holes. Or you can move around the current shelving to maximize space, then add some more shelves (like for flour and sugar). I second the butcher block idea–you can use it for prepping, eating (esp if it is one of the longer ones), storage, etc. Also, why don’t you keep your fruit bowl on your coffee table?
yoel´s last blog ..Group FO- blanket
Comment by yoel — October 18, 2010 @ 8:37 pm
When we had our fairly small kitchen (tho not this tiny), my boyfriend bought us a cutting board that fits in the sink. It’s got little metal things on the side to sit nicely on the sink. I’m sure you can find it at someplace like Target. I should say that ours is plastic, but I bet they make bamboo ones. Or maybe you can get a big board that just fits over the sink in general. The cutting board really helped out for us to have enough space for cutting up stuff.
Leah´s last blog ..Research is for sissies
Comment by Leah — October 19, 2010 @ 6:11 am
When you made the comment about the fridge noise, I realized this “small living space” is somewhat reminiscent of college dorm living! I went to a school where ~95% of people live on campus the whole time they are there though (I get the impression that’s very odd). When I lived on campus during the summer, my kitchen was my tiny fridge, microwave, hot plate and one of those little electric pots to boil water. It definitely requires creativity and makes hosting other people more challenging, but that can be fun.
I second the idea to move the shelves a little. It looks like stuff could be reorganized differently to allow for another shelf or more wall space for hanging things. Another idea I like is mounting a sheet of metal on the wall and then use containers with magnets attached to hold stuff, like spices, in a more accessible location.
You could also custom make a table of some sort to stand over the fridge. It could even be made to allow for a little space between the table and fridge so you could have storage space beneath it (or even a shallow drawer to store stuff like silverware and other tools).
M´s last blog ..fall
Comment by M — October 20, 2010 @ 7:39 am
Looking good Siel! Love the downsizing. And I especially love that you have a vegan fridge. : )
Comment by Eco-Vegan Gal — October 21, 2010 @ 3:59 am
First, thank you everyone for your encouragement and advice!
Second — Let me address the hook issue. So you can’t see it really well in the photo above, but if you look closely at the biggified version of the after photo, you’ll see what look like a pair of fang marks on the right wall, just above the spice rack. No, Bill Compton did not glamor my kitchen wall — I tried to hammer in a couple nails — and failed!
The v. outer layer of the wall appears to be made of some unsturdy, crumbly material — I realize there’s a word for this, but I forget what it is — with a second, impenetrable (at least by me and my hammer) layer beneath the crumbly topping. On blogher a nice woman suggested these stick-on hooks made by 3M. Anyone else have an opinion on those?
Maria — quick bread toasting question — Do you mean just hold the bread over the open flame? Or are there other tools involved?
Comment by Siel — October 24, 2010 @ 3:27 pm