Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Little Kitchen That Could

My first house was a small, two-bedroom bungalow that had something in spades that this house does not: storage. I find this most ironic because bigger is supposed to mean "more" as far as storing stuff, or so I thought.

My kitchen has been a source of woe for me since we moved into this house almost 3 years ago. The SIZE of the kitchen is wonderful.
And I love the flow.
But the storage in the cabinets is not conducive to anything that is smaller than a sheet pan.

I've coveted a new kitchen. I've barked at my cabinets to work for me. But in the end, the Great Budget Talk of 2010 lead my husband and me to believe that a car for my hubs is more necessary than a new kitchen.

*Serenity*

So, I've taken to doing a few updates of my own to make this kitchen work for me.

This is the peninsula in my kitchen.


And this is a close-up of the far left cabinet. I've precariously towered multiple bowls and all manner of glassware in this far back space. Finally I gave up and just installed this wire rack. I put my "leftovers" containers in these two racks and I LOVE the space they provide. The space BEYOND the racks are relatively empty, but I've made my peace with that.

Because my kitchen is so low on usable storage space, I use another closet as my make-do kitchen closet for now.


I use the modular track systems so I can adjust my shelves to whatever height I want.
And I keep the unbreakable things on the bottom because...


... I have a curious little Eve.


My spices were often MIA until I bought some storage solutions.
Here is one of my spice racks:

And here is another one. I've placed the spices in alphabetical-ish order because the hubs and I kept losing spices (or so we thought) and we kept buying more.


Lands, I love this pull out trash can. Made my Simple Human.


None of my drawers fit my foil and plastic wrap and such.
I love this door-mounted model.


These solutions aren't always pretty, but they keep my kitchen functioning and keep me' Irish anger from flaring up--make me smile for the time being.