With the holidays approaching, I anticipate spending lots more time in the kitchen in the next month or so. The problem is that I’m not so thrilled with my kitchen right now. In the first house we lived in when we moved to Wisconsin, I loved my kitchen (probably because we had the house built for us and I got exactly what I wanted in the kitchen). There was tons of counter space, double ovens, and a flat-top range. In the last house, our kitchen wasn’t quite so nice, but it was roomy and all the appliances were relatively new. Granted, I got the new range when the old one caught fire, but it was new nonetheless.
My current kitchen is the smallest of the three. I’ve got a new refrigerator, but it partly cuts off access to the pantry. I do have a new dishwasher that I love. We plan to replace the range, hopefully before anything catches fire, but it won’t be in the near future. I’m still having issues with burning things pretty frequently (temperature control issues – no open flame!). And counter space, and any other space for that matter, is at a premium. We have already moved a couple of other storage units into the kitchen area to help with storage.
I’m not crazy about the cabinet design, but I can live with it until we can remodel. The cabinet doors were getting in the way, so we took the top cabinet doors were off and it’s now just open shelving. The kitchen is all white with butcher block pattern Formica on the counters. The lazy susan in the corner shelving is stuck, so we can’t really open it all the way, but we’ve gotten used to that. There are a couple of walls painted a shade of yellow just slightly darker than lemon yellow – not remotely my favorite color.
What am I going to do to make myself happier in my kitchen? I’m not very sure right now. here are a few ideas to try out this week.
1. Fewer things on the counters. Generally, I like to have things like the crock pot and mixer (Kitchen Aid counter style) on the counter because they’re big and I don’t like to haul them out from their storage spots. But, clearing out counter space might be worth it. Of course, I have no idea where they might live . . .
2. Figure out a decorative way to deal with dish towels. This seems minor, but the dish towels that have holes to hang them don’t have big enough holes for the cabinet knobs and there’s no other place to easily hang them, so they end up strewn over the counter.
3. Deal with the hot mitts, maybe by hanging them on the wall behind the stove. These are another thing that just get strewn about.
4. Evaluate all the stuff on the counter that I don’t want to “live” there and decide where I want it to “live” and decide how to get the rest of the family to agree.
Hmmmmm. It appears that counters are my issue. Well, it looks like I’ll be dealing with counters tomorrow or Tuesday (depending on my headache status tomorrow).
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for living in a small kitchen with not enough counter space? Any input is welcome?
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