[Mommy&Will]

My dear, super organized, clean-a-holic friend is going to come over next week to help me overhaul my cluttered kitchen. Yay! I am so lucky!

I'm pumped up to really make the most of this opportunity and want to prepare ahead of time. What do you think I should do to get started with the revamp?

I'm so excited she is doing this for me, I can't even sleep tonight. :LOL

So tell me... what is it about your kitchen that "just works?" What could you not live without? What makes clean up easier for everyone? Is it a kid friendly kitchen? How?

Thanks!

 

[judybean]

I'm so excited for you!!!

But, I have NO tips to offer! My kitchen Is Not one that 'just works'.... but I think the layout is atrocious (not to mention that there are NO windows that open -- just a big square of like 16 glass blocks above the sink... so we get a bit of light, but not much.. and sometimes you just need to air out the kitchen!).

I hope somebody has a kitchen that works! Or maybe we *all* need the tips

 

[yeni]

Hi Julie, didn't realize you were on MDC too.

I really like my kitchen. Part of that is because the previous homeowners put in some nice things, but I also try to keep my kitchen tools streamlined. Kitchen gadgets can be really tempting, but make sure they're worth the space they take up. Take an orange peeler: I can easily use a knife instead to start peeling and the knife is much more multipurpose. My apple slicer/corer, on the other hand, earns its keep because I can take it with us instead of precutting apples or taking a knife and cutting surface. If you have drawers full of cool kitchen gadgets, look at which ones are really useful and which ones just get in the way of finding what you're looking for.

Do you have anything you don't use because it's a pain to clean? Get rid of it!

Think about how many of something (e.g. mixing bowls) you would ever use at a time, and if you have more than that, get rid of all but your favorites.

Two things we did to the kitchen that I love are my pull out trash and recycle bins on rails, and the chute for dropping dirty dish towels and rags to the laundry room.

I have a lazy susan for herbs and spices, but I like to have a zillion spices on hand and it can be hard to find the one I need. I used some clear plastic bowls to group together small spice containers that are often used together and just pull one of those out instead of having to hunt through all those little containers. As an example, I have ginger, cloves, and pumpkin pie spice together.

 

[Throkmorton]

I am just lurking because I was going to post the same question.

:

 

[yeni]

I thought of something else, which is probably obvious, but it helps so much. Try to put things where you'll be using them. If you don't have enough space there, put the things you most often use there. The most logical place for a soup ladle would be by the stove BUT I don't use mine that often and it takes up a lot of space, so I store it across the room and save that drawer space for the really important things like hot pads.

 

[g&a]

In our kitchen pantry we have some really high shelves so we built some round rolling things (lazy susans?? you can buy them too). basically a board that spins that you put stuff on. Now stuff doesn't get lost jammed at the back of the shelf. It's really the only thing in my kitchen that really "works".

good luck.
g.

 

[umbrella]

I have a rotating spice rack thing, but of course not all of my spices fit into it.

I used to keep the rest on a shelf in the cabinet; and obviously I was always moving them around looking for the right one.

When we moved, I decided to put those spices in a drawer. They're now in one "layer." I open the drawer, and with them all laying down, label up, I can see each one easily.

 

[eightyferrettoes]

Get rid of everything that you have not used in the last year.

I swear, DH looooves gadgets, like the sandwich press, the Foreman grill, the microwave popcorn thingee, the vacuum bag sealer,

But all that crap takes space away from things that we actually USE.

 

[kamilla626]

I agree with getting rid of gadgets and weird utensils that you never use.

But you could take it a step further. Do you have 11 plates? 23 forks? 17 mugs? Lots of baking pans? You could neaten up the cupboards by packing up half of them.

 

[shannon0218]

Someone beat me to it, but I'll second a drawer for your spices--this is the only thing that truly works in my poor kitchen--I went one above what the pp said though and I actually just bought small labels to place on the lids of my spice jars--so they can all stay standing up and I know what they are at a glance

(I like to have tons of spices--so I didn't have room to leave them all laying down:LOL)

The only other thing that works is we have a pot rack which I do love, it frees up some cupboard space (which is sorely lacking here) and it meant back before I had a dishwasher and still now for my cast iron pans-after I wash them--I just hang them up, out of sight out of mind (my pot rack is over my kitchen sink)

 

[its_our_family]

I'm a little late on this but:

Do you have a wall that is unuseable space? We have a galley kitchen. So the wall opposite th fridge is the "hallway". SOm what we did was got some 1X2 and a piece of lattice. It is about 7ft tall and 8ft wide. We use it to hang our pots and pans. It also has a paper towel holder, spoon holder, and a spice rack.

Non useable place is now usable! And it looks good too

I can post a link to a pic so you can see what I'm talking about.

 

[Mommy&Will]

Quote:

Originally Posted by its_our_family I'm a little late on this but: Do you have a wall that is unuseable space? We have a galley kitchen. So the wall opposite th fridge is the "hallway". SOm what we did was got some 1X2 and a piece of lattice. It is about 7ft tall and 8ft wide. We use it to hang our pots and pans. It also has a paper towel holder, spoon holder, and a spice rack. Non useable place is now usable! And it looks good too I can post a link to a pic so you can see what I'm talking about.

I would LOVE to see a picture. We also have a galley kitchen and one end is the kitchenette area - but we turned it into a play area for the kids. We have two completely empty walls in the kitchenette! I though about getting a couple steel storage cabinets to put there for appliances. But dh is a design snob and wouldn't go for it. I would love a place to hang the pots and pans... as long as they don't fall down and bonk a kid in the head. :LOL

 

[its_our_family]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mommy&Will I would LOVE to see a picture. We also have a galley kitchen and one end is the kitchenette area - but we turned it into a play area for the kids. We have two completely empty walls in the kitchenette! I though about getting a couple steel storage cabinets to put there for appliances. But dh is a design snob and wouldn't go for it. I would love a place to hang the pots and pans... as long as they don't fall down and bonk a kid in the head. :LOL

So is my dh

The last house we were at had lattice around the water heater, that is where we got the idea. We've used it for almost 3 years now and have never had anything fall.

 

[its_our_family]

This is the rack
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...y/IMG_1711.jpg

This is the whole wall
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...y/IMG_1710.jpg

Ignore the seperated laundry in the background :LOL

 

[Potty Diva]

Meg~ That is REALLY cool! We have a galley kitchen as well. It is so small. I have really nice Wolfgang Puck pots and pans that I would love to hang up and it would free up shelf space. I think I'll show DH that. You rock (as usual).

 

[its_our_family]

I bought the rack thingy at Home depot and the pots are hanging on s-hooks. I love it and it works so well. Our kitchen is small without a lot of cabinet space.

We are talking about adding small lighting to the back to light up the lattice. I don't kow if you can tell from the pic but the lattice is white and the wall is dark grey.

Oh, and you can buy plastic lattice that is already white. It is a tad bit more than wooden lattice but there are advantages, It wipes off easily, no splinters, you don't have to paint it, and it is easy to put up.

 

[Lucky]

I'm getting some helpful ideas from this thread.

A great tip that a friend shared with me is to only have kitchen stuff in your kitchen. Get rid of the junk drawer, etc... It's definately a must for smaller kitchen.

 

[Potty Diva]

LOL! My kitchen is too small for even a junk draw.

Here is another Galley kitchen needing some help. How I wish I had counters! I need to find a space for the microwave, yk?

If you don't mind me adding....
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL982/.../103825320.jpg
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL982/.../103824967.jpg
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL982/.../103824929.jpg
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL982/.../103824701.jpg
Julie do you have photos of your kitchen, that would help me give you ideas.

 

[alsoSarah]

If you can't spare the drawer (or counter)space, funky old wooden-doored medicine cabinets make nice wall-hanging spice racks, and the solid doors keep your spices from deteriorating fron light exposure, which happens with open racks. Just paint 'em up.

We have a long, narrow, galley-ish kitchen, and I'm looking for a very old, distressed wooden ladder (to mount on the kitchen ceiling) from which to hang pots and pans and drying herbs and chiles.....

I would love to have those slide-out cupboard thingies in all of my cupboards!
(This basic idea:
http://www.shelvesthatslide.com/
http://www.kitchenshelves.com/sliding_shelves.htm

A wall-mounted fold-down work table (the one-legged kind)would be nice, too. Sigh. alsoSarah

 

[its_our_family]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alsoSarah A wall-mounted fold-down work table (the one-legged kind)would be nice, too. Sigh. alsoSarah

I wanted one of those too but dh said no

We have about 3 ft of wasted space behind the back door.

PD-- What is above your stove??