Thursday, February 9, 2012

Friday’s Favs…Surviving and thriving with an itty, bitty kitchen

In blogland we tend to show only the best parts of ourselves and our homes.

I’ve told you before that my house is small and that I have a small kitchen.

It’s true, and here’s proof!

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{The counter space to the left side of my stove is only 14” wide}

I have a small galley style kitchen. 

The floor space is only 8 feet by 4 1/4 feet.

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{The counter between the stove and the refrigerator is 15” wide.}

In my kitchen, I only have 6 drawers, 4 single width cupboards and two double width cupboards.

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{On the sink side of the room, this counter is 30” wide.}

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{The counter to the right of the sink is about 34” wide.}

Yet, even with my itty, bitty kitchen, I love to cook and to entertain.

Here are some ways I make it work.

A place for everything, and everything in it’s place.

I’m a stickler for keeping everything in a place that makes sense for how I use my kitchen,

and for keeping my cupboards and drawers neat.

For example, the single cupboard above the coffee maker holds all of our mugs.

I also use all possible storage place.

The drawer that my stove has beneath the oven holds all baking sheets, cake and muffin tins.

Utilize pantry space to the maximum and keep it organized.

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Looking from the dining room into the kitchen you see my pantry door.

In this post you can see how I organized my pantry.

Utilizing even the wall space, I was able to neatly store my pots and pans in a convenient way.

Don’t keep things you use only in once in a while in the kitchen.

In the dining room I have a cabinet that stores all my “not everyday” dishes.

In the garage I have one set of metal shelves with doors.

There I keep extra canned goods, as well as things I use only infrequently such as my turkey roasting pans, my large crock pot, and special occasion serving pieces.

Use your table.

With such a small amount of counter space I used to struggle when I wanted to roll out dough for pies, cookies, etc.

Finally, I got smart and began to use my dining table.

It’s right there, just two or three steps from my kitchen.

It’s six feet of gorgeous wood work space.

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{In this photo from Christmas you can see my dining table as well as my dish cabinet where all of my “not everyday” dishes are kept.}

It’s all too easy to wish for what we don’t have as we ooh and ahh over what we see on other’s blogs or pinterest.

Sure, I’d love a big, farmhouse style kitchen,

but,

I hope this post encourages you to be thankful for what you do have and use it to the fullest!

 

Happy, Happy Friday, and Have a Blessed Weekend!

Elizabeth



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17 comments:

  1. I like how you have red accents in your kitchen and decorating. Lovely thoughts and pictures. Thanks, Elizabeth.

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  2. Hi Elizabeth! As always, it was so lovely to hear from you today! I so enjoyed this post! Your kitchen is charming and cozy and I love how you have embraced it's small size and made it work for you! I so agree with you...as much fun as it is to drool over Pinterest photos and dream, it is so very important to be thankful for what we do have! Thank you for that reminder! When we stop to look around at what we have, rather than compare our homes to everyone elses, we realize how truly blessed we are! One of these days, we are going to have to meet up! I would sure love to give you a hug!
    Best Wishes and Blessings,
    Amanda

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  3. I love how neat your kitchen is even with the small spaces. I should be able to do that in my galley style kitchen, too. Mine is really long and wide with lots of cabinets, but I find I stuff them full of things I only use once in a while. Thanks for the inspiration.

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  4. Your kitchen may be small, but it's so cute and I love how you decorate it too! Using your table is a great idea. I have a little kitchen too but I love it.
    Be a sweetie,
    Shelia ;)

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  5. Size definitely does NOT matter! I love galley kitchens and I love how you dressed yours up!

    Jeanine

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  6. Great advice. Even if your kitchen is small it can still be efficient and pretty. ;) Love all your accents. :)

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  7. Your kitchen is very similar in size to ours. We don't have a pantry but do have a pantry cupboard next to the kitchen. We often use our dining table for preparing food too. There are many items and appliances I don't own due to lack of space, yet we manage very well for our family of 10. Thankfully we have a ceramic top stove which acts as added bench space when not in use.

    When I'm tempted to become discontent I remember photos of Indian missionaries cooking on a mud floor over an open fire, certainly puts thing back into perspective and encourages me to be very grateful for what I have. Drinkable running water and electricity are amazing utilities for a start. I have so much to be grateful for.

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  8. Your creative use of space is helpful. I was mentally making a few adjustments to my OWN. Thanks for such a fine perspective--transferable to ANY situation :)

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  9. Hi Elizabeth,
    I am Audra from http://onceamomalwaysacook.blogspot.com/
    and I too have a very small kitchen, but I have learned to survive! I try only to buy what I need and not to pick up extra little things that I may only use once. I love your kitchen and especially the magnetic knife strip! One of those would work well in my kitchen. I am now following your cute blog! Would love for you to stop by mine! Have a wonderful, blessed weekend :)

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  10. Love your kitchen! Thanks for sharing all your secrets. I'm off to clean and organize my kitchen! And give thanks for my small kitchen that now seems to have a lot of space!
    ~Adrienne~

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  11. I big kitchen is nice, but it's more too clean too. It looks like you use what you do have to it's fullest. Have you ever read any of the architect, Sarah Susanka's books, like the Not So Big House? She advocates for building smaller homes where rooms have multiple purposes and are used each day...I love the way she thinks and designs.

    By the way, I love all your red kitchen accents :)

    xo

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  12. As I read your post I went to measure my kitchen because it sure sounded a lot like mine. It is very close to the same except I do not have a pantry. I use a cabinet in the garage for that like you do for can goods and large crockpots etc..
    The reason for my small kitchen was intentional because I had a huge kitchen in the last house and it wore me out running from one end to the other. I built this house wanting everything to be within reach just a step or two away. Ok, I went to far, I need more space, but I will use some of your suggestions they were great, thanks.

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  13. I like your kitchen. Our kitchen in our first home was small. There wasn't even a space for a table. When we bought this house, I wanted a kitchen large enough to eat in, and we can fit two seating areas in it if I wanted to. (I don't) Still... I think the things you learn in a small kitchen work just as well in a large one because you learn not to misuse space. I love your tips.

    Now, I'm clicking that link to how you organize the pantry.

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  14. Your kitchen is small and sweet. We remodeled our kitchen 3 years ago. I gave my kitchen aid mixer its on cabinet. I gotta say, it was an extravagance, but so worth it. You have such taste. thanks for the pics.

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  15. Hi Elizabeth. I just had to come over and tell you that I'm laughing about your chicken feeder comment! By the way, make sure it's water tight. I ran a little bead of caulking on the inside edges of mine. I should've said something about that in my post. What are you going to plant in yours? My flowers are pretty faded now so I'm going to redo mine. Hope you have a good weekend :)

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  16. I really like to see how other people organize things in their homes. Some very useful tips here, thank you. I love your red and white kitchen - it's so clean and fresh looking.

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