The Space-Saving Tools and Tricks That Made My Tiny Kitchen Usable

Last year, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to renovate my apartment and transform it into a cleaner, cozier, more organized, and more efficient space. Knowing that a messy space can negatively impact your productivity and overall mental health, I thought this would actually serve to make Me a more efficient and peaceful person, so I took it seriously. A major problem quickly emerged: my kitchen is small, which makes it disorganized and more or less useless in terms of its primary function, which is to facilitate my cooking. It took a little creativity (and money), but I figured out what to do and now I’m learning to cook better and cook better for one of This resolutions for the year.

Improvements I made to the kitchen

My kitchen is just over three feet wide and five feet long. (I live in New York, where this is the norm.) There are no counters; on one side there is only a sink and an oven. The first thing I had to do was make counter space, which I did by adding cube storage shelves. (I did this years ago, but only really organized the cubes last year. We’re getting there.) It looks like this:

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

The main things I thought about, besides organizing the storage into cubes, were how I could better utilize the space I had, which is why anything and everything possible is now hanging vertically on under cabinet wine glass racks, utensil holders or a towel rack, plus hooks everywhere. What I’m most excited about is the imminent delivery of this large pegboard, which will allow me to hang more utensils and cookware on the wall.

Other, smaller improvements became more obvious to me as I organized the larger jobs. Once I cleared and designated a suitable location for my Nespresso, I realized I needed a vertical adhesive holder for the pods, as there wasn’t enough room in the cubes to hold them in their retail boxes. I finally bought a large ladder so I could to use my cupboards. I then started organizing the closets with acrylic risers, the same way I organized my perfume and makeup. For the space under the sink, I purchased a pull-out shelf to give me easy access to cleaning supplies. The boxes containing my various cereals and oats were too bulky to store in my cupboards, which led me to a rotating rice dispenser. It continued like this for a while, I would pay homage to the Amazonian gods every few days, but that was only because I had a bigger plan.

The organizational rules that guided me (and which can help you too)

You may not want a giant pegboard or need to hang all your spatulas upside down. Maybe you have a lot of drawers. It’s great. You always need a plan for organizing everything you have and a plan for determining what you specifically need.

Throughout the organizing process, I kept one key principle in mind. It’s called the Organizational Triangle and it’s a set of three rules: everything needs a place, similar items must be stored together, and for every new thing that comes in, one has to come out. I ignored the last rule, for the most part, because what I brought was meant to better store what was already there, but these first two were crucial. Before using the OT, not everything had its place. A few bowls and cups lived in the sink. Not everything was stored together either, making it difficult to attempt to cook. By grouping similar items together and designating a location for each, I was able to assess the volume of each category, get rid of what I didn’t need, and organize everything better. By organizing smaller batches of objects that fit in a cube or on a hanging rack, I ended up organizing everything, like a large picture.

Other cleaning and organizing techniques, like SIMPLE and Core 4, also played a key role. These two tips indicate that you need containers for your belongings. Again, this helps you gauge the actual volume and make more accurate decluttering choices, but it also helps keep everything clean. I went a little abstract in my interpretation, considering my hanging organizers as “containers”, but I also used boxes and the aforementioned cereal dispenser to meet these requirements.

By following strict, pre-identified rules for cleaning and organizing, I was able to more efficiently transform the space into something usable. The guidelines helped me come up with a plan, even though I was redoing and correcting it as I went along, so as not to leave myself out to dry. Now when I need a spatula or whatever you call that special tool that breaks up ground beef, I know where they are, they’re easy to reach, and I feel good about how everything looks before, during, and after a cooking session.