| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| MrsRooster |
Posted - Nov 22 2011 : 4:54:20 PM
Help! I don't have a pantry and my storage is very limited. I can't open the frig and dryer at the same time. I live in a 1000sqft apartment. It is very nice and open. Except the kitchen. I only buy a weeks worth of groceries at a time and most of the things I need to get my hubby to get them down for me. Help!!
www.mrsrooster.blogspot.com
www.morganicinstitute.blogspot.com
Farmgirl #1259
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| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Room To Grow |
Posted - Nov 25 2011 : 5:35:48 PM
My house is 900 square ft. I made my hall closet into a pantry. I have a 3 large shelves and the bottom of the closet I use for my toilet paper and paper towels. And my canning supplies are in there too. I so understand what you are talking about. we have a queen size bed and my DH and i share a 6 drawer chester drawer and a VERY small closet. I have to store seasonal cloths in our shed in the back yard.
Deborah
we have moved to our farm...and love it |
| queenmushroom |
Posted - Nov 25 2011 : 3:48:52 PM
My kitchen is very small too. But I have plenty of cupboard space as well. If you have gaps between your cupboards (upper) place a board to bridge the two cupboards. put some shelf liner or even a stained table cloth on it, and place things on that. If you can, get a pot rack that hangs from your ceiling. If you know of anyone renovating a house, see if you can get the cut out from their coutertop where the sink will go and use that to extend your counter top by placing the cut out over your sink. Hope this helps some.
Patience is worth a bushel of brains...from a chinese fortune cookie |
| marlee |
Posted - Nov 25 2011 : 3:03:50 PM
Winona this is Marlee. My husband and I were also over the road truckers for awhile. We pulled tankers. There are some crazy drivers out there. They think that we can stop a semi and tanker on a dime , and just jump infront of us.As you know there is always a story over the next rise. All over the country, but my favorite place was Fishkill,NY. I will always remember that town.
Just wanted to say HI. Farmgirl Blessings.Marlee |
| goneriding |
Posted - Nov 25 2011 : 2:39:12 PM
Ihave a small kitchen and about the best thing I can tell you is to go UP. Hangign pots on a wall and things like that. Just have my favorite tried and true cookbooks at hand.
Also, those racks that slide out are really cool and helpful too.
For some 'venting'-type of entertainment, please read my blog, http://lostadventuresintrucking.blogspot.com . Now with pictures!!
Also, http://lostadventuresincooking.blogspot.com is back up and running! Please check it out! Puh-leeze...??
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| batznthebelfry |
Posted - Nov 24 2011 : 05:29:59 AM
Jonni I just got one of those hangers as well & put many of my old soup pots on it near the wood stove so they are out of the way but I can see them & get to them...love it...michele'
Chickens rule!
The Old Batz Farm
Hen #2622 |
| FebruaryViolet |
Posted - Nov 23 2011 : 06:26:09 AM
Tina and I sound like we have the same house! I know what you mean about small kitchens, though--and for the last 10 years I've been trying to make "storage" or streamline my space. I still don't have NEARLY enough counter space (nor do I have enough space for a small island!) but I make do. My Great Grandmother would have said about my kitchen, "there isn't enough room in here to cuss a cat!" and I concur...
1. I've minimized my collection of cooking/baking items I don't use. And that's hard, because I'm a thrifter and I'm a collector of all things old pyrex and crockware from the early 1900's through the 1950's. And I use MOST of them. What I don't, got sent away.
2. I bought a plate rack. I moved all my dinner plates, soup bowls, salad plates and mugs to a display that is both beautiful and practical, thereby freeing up one whole cabinet. Now, all that stuff that I wasn't sure about goes there--platters and rimmed large pasta bowls.
3. I bought a 1920's free standing chimney cabinet for my pantry goods--all my canned goods, rice, baking items (flour, sugars, shortening, etc...go in this. I have a true closet pantry, like most houses from the 1920's, but it's dark and dingy and I hate the smell. It's a work in progress. This free standing cabinet has 3 divided sections, and 3 separate doors. This one was made by the Sellers company, a contemporary to Hoosier and Boone Cabinets. After many years of searching for the "right one" I got it for a song at the Burlington Antique show ($65.00!!!) and it is my FAVORITE thing--I feel complete.
4. Look up. Your ceiling is your best friend. I bought a hanging pot rack that all my pots and pans go on. I also found this inexpensive wrought iron basket tree that hangs from the ceiling from Plow and Hearth because I also have a ton of baskets that I use--and no place to put them. My mother in law uses an old, small wooden ladder for this purpose, and bought metal hooks to hang whatever she wants on them. She has it suspended from her ceiling horizontally.
Good luck! I've been there--I AM there, but a little fine-tuning makes for a better, more usable space.
"Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile..."
The Only Living Boy in New York, Paul Simon |
| batznthebelfry |
Posted - Nov 23 2011 : 02:08:22 AM
From my small apts/houses days I did what was meantioned above...raised the bed or used the underside for storage.....its amazing how much space there is under there....even in this house built in the 1920's there is no closet space so I took our bed & made it in to platform bed so I could store sheets,pillowcases, blankets, summer of winter clothes in bags...I also have a truck that is a side table in the living room that holds blankets....all my stuff like breadmaker, toater,rice cooker ect are onto of the frig...where I can get to them but aren't in the way....I also have boxes/crates that I put all of one item in like nuts/baking stuff that I can stack on top of each other & are labeled in front.....When my son was small I claimed part of his closet as a pantry with things I knew he won't get into ...I stacked crates & tied them down in there but never put any glass stuff in there cause I never wanted him to think to climb up on it & have it fall with him.....I have also used the trunk of my car for storage...I would keep a section clean for things like paper items. cereal ect...sounds strange to have to go out to the car to get a new box of cereal but it sure worked at that time...even though I now have a larger place I still do alot of these things...I have bags of cereal in the car right now & some paper stuff that maybe will make its way into the house & stored....My little sister who has now room in her apt got a tall bookcase & is using that for her pantry with a pretty fabric curtain covering it....Michele'
Chickens rule!
The Old Batz Farm
Hen #2622 |
| prariehawk |
Posted - Nov 22 2011 : 6:08:04 PM
I once had a teensy, tiny apartment with a very small kitchen. I put the microwave on top of the fridge, kept dishes in a plastic storage tub and there was just enough room for one person to eat at the table/counter so I put a little tv there as well. I had a bookcase in the bathroom and a loveseat/sleeper as well as a guinea pig and three birds. Yes, it was cozy. I saved a fortune on utility bills.
Cindy
"Vast floods can't quench love, no matter what love did/ Rivers can't drown love, no matter where love's hid"--Sinead O'Connor
"In many ways, you don't just live in the country, it lives inside you"--Ellen Eilers
Visit my blog at http://www.farmerinthebelle.blogspot.com/ |
| oldbittyhen |
Posted - Nov 22 2011 : 5:37:40 PM
LOL, sorry, had to laugh...I have a 970 sq ft house, 2 small bedrooms and 1 really small bedroom, 1 bath, that is also my laundryroom, mudroom with a backdoor in it. My kitchen is also very small, counters and storage are almost non-existint. I raised 4 kids and a husband in here, along with various animals, not all pets. I got very creative, used round, endtable height trashcans for storage for everything from blankets to kitchen gadgets, put a round peice of wood on top, with a tablecloth that reached the floor...all the bedframes were raised up several inches, and used tubs, dresser drawers that didn't have a dresser anymore, packed with whatever and slid under the beds, shelves everywhere I could put them, along with bookcases, and I made curtains for the fronts to hide what you didn't want anyone to see. Winter clothes were stored in tubs in the summer, and visa/versa...when my kids were small, toys were hung from nets in the corners of their bedrooms, as they got older, toys became livestock, so we didn't usally have them in the house, unless of course they needed around the clock care, like bottle babies. Get one of those folds flat metal step stools that will fit next to the stove/frig, etc...This is just a few ideas, I'm sure some of the other gals will have some good ideas also, have fun useing your imaginastion to create storage...
"Knowlege is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad" |
| farmmilkmama |
Posted - Nov 22 2011 : 5:36:28 PM
A small kitchen is rough! Hopefully the gals here who have smaller kitchens can help with organizational things. Our problem here is that we have too many people in the kitchen at one time! Hope you get some good ideas...
--* FarmMilkMama *--
Farmgirl Sister #1086
Be yourself.
Everyone else is already taken.
-Oscar Wilde
www.farmfoodmama.blogspot.com
www.thehmmmschoolingmom.blogspot.com |
| woolgirl |
Posted - Nov 22 2011 : 5:34:35 PM
I can sympathize with you. I have found that the wire racks you can put inside kitchen cupboards help a ton so I can stack things. I like to go to the Container Store to look for organization ideas, then go somewhere and find them for cheaper, lol.
Liz
Farmgirl #1947
www.militaryfarmgirl.blogspot.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MilitaryFarmGirl |
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