The kitchen is the heart of the home – it’s the room that family and friends seem to congregate in, the place where you have a gossip while cooking dinner, catch over a cup of tea or a glass of wine and discuss your day while enjoying home cooked food.
But, unfortunately, for some, this space is barely big enough to cook in, let alone congregate in. In fact, the average size of kitchens has reduced by a third since the 1960s.
Does this sound familiar? If so, why not try a few of these hacks to make the most of your small kitchen.
Use your oven for storage
When your oven isn’t on it is the perfect space for storage. You don’t want to store just anything here though – it’s best reserved for baking trays, muffin tins, cooling racks and so on. Just make sure you take these out and place them on the side, before you cook your dinner!
Hang hooks where you can
Hooks are perfect for making the most of what would otherwise be dead space. Hung on the back of kitchen doors they would be perfect for tea towels, while on the back of cupboard doors they can be used for utensils and at the end of counters for oven gloves.
Use magnetic boards
Magnetic boards can be placed in wasted space – on walls or in cupboards – and be used for all your kitchen knives and any other kitchen utensils you own that will stick to it.
Grab some magazine racks
Magazine racks can be easily hung at the end of counters or to the back of cupboard doors with the use of command strips – then they are the perfect spot for your kitchen foil, cling film and so on.
Look up
If there is plenty of space between the top of cupboards and the ceiling use this to store all of your pots and pans. If this is full, why not add a shelf above the doorway and use this for the rest?
Fold away furniture
Your kitchen table takes up a huge amount of floor space – but you need it. So, rather than getting rid of this, why not go for one that folds down? Then, when you aren’t using this, it can be pushed into the corner to give you back some floor space.
Have a regular clear out
There is no point having, say, a popcorn machine taking up your limited cupboard space if you never use it. Collect together all these things that you don’t use on a regular basis – and if it’s unlikely you will ever use it again why not sell it and earn yourself a few pounds? If you do intend on using it again, why not take advantage of a local storage unit and keep it here until you need it. You can choose a space as small as a postbox if you wish, it will just help to make your kitchen feel that little bit bigger.
Having a regular clear out will also enable you to keep the space tidy and organised – you will be surprised how quickly it can become cluttered and this will make the space feel even smaller that it is.
Finally, remember to always clean as you go – leave the pots and pans to pile up on the counters and the space will just disappear underneath it all.
