When we first moved into our tiny house, it was a blank slate. Our house layout was designed primarily around our budget to suppress the total cost as much as possible. But when you make compromises like that, there’s nothing you can do about certain shortcomings in the space.
(Below is a link to the corresponding Youtube video for this post if you don’t feel like reading!)
At the time of buying our house, we weren’t big “foodies” and did not feel the need to have a large kitchen space, so we didn’t put much thought into that section of the house. What has happened throughout our journey into the world of minimalism is the process of slowly eliminating many things from our lives that we didn’t need. Those things were not limited to just physical things and items, but also foods that didn’t positively impact our mind and body. Fast-forward 3 years later, and we have completely changed the way we eat by adopting a plant-based diet.
The plant-based diet is fantastic for a number of reasons, but not so great for a small kitchen space! It is not always easy to cook plant-based as it requires some creativity and space to prepare meals. There is nothing we can do to make our space larger, so within the confines of our tiny space, we’re forced to be a little creative and find a solution that makes everything more efficient.
My solution involved utilizing as much vertical space as possible, without having so many shelves! We realized having too many shelving units sticking out crowded our limited wall space and made our tiny space feel even smaller.
We have a galley style kitchen with our designated cooking space a measly 3.5 feet long and 2 feet deep. That’s just seven square feet!
We started out using an electric stainless steel double burner stovetop.
This burner worked extremely well for our needs, but over time we realized that we really didn’t need two burners as we only ever used one single burner when cooking. So we upgraded to this induction cooktop!
The induction cooktop has been incredible for a number of reasons. It is much more efficient in the way it is powered so it ends up using less electricity and heats up our meals quicker and more evenly than the electric burner ever did.
Changing to an induction cooktop also forced us to get rid of a number of pots and pans that weren’t compatible with it. Induction cooktops generate heat by producing electric currents from the burner directly into the pan, and it requires either an iron or stainless steel bottom to the pan to work. I love how this change unintentionally helped to downsize more of our things and declutter the space!
We also added these magnetic spice shakers that stick to our fridge.
This works great for us since the side of our fridge is basically a bookend to our cooking space, giving us easy access to the spices we need while cooking.
We still needed some extra storage in this area for much of our cooking oils and other items. I discovered this small bamboo spice rack on Amazon that was only 4 inches deep and therefore wouldn’t take up too much space on our already small counter space.
It fits perfectly in front of our window on the counter and has been a great addition to our tiny kitchen and makes it much easier to cook in our tiny space!
The other side of our kitchen had grown into a cluttered mess. It went from this,
to this…
We were constantly playing catch up trying to keep up with the endless pile of dirty dishes, and even when we’d finally cleaned them all, they simply sat on the other side of our sink drying and still made the space feel small and cluttered.
We also had several shelves for storage, which ended up being full of many items we never used, encroaching our already tiny space. We needed to give this space some direction and purpose!
I found a solution to help simplify this side of the kitchen, but in order to do this, we needed to get our hands dirty. We ended up tearing down all of the shelving and gave the walls a fresh coat of paint.
We got this stainless steel dish drying rack from Amazon to go over our sink, which fit perfectly. Now the walls are clear of clutter and shelving, and the sinks are no longer full of dirty dishes or clean dishes as they dry.
Everything has a place in the dish rack above the sink – silverware, plates, cups, bowls, knives, and anything that didn’t fit, we purged! It’s such a good feeling to simplify!
The last thing we did was add this live edge floating shelf for our microwave. I know I was just criticizing all of the shelves we used to have, but I really wanted to keep our microwave off of the counter space and I really wanted to add some unique live edge wood to our space! This solution helped accomplish both of those things and looks pretty nice if I don’t say so myself!
I’m very happy with the recent changes we’ve made to our kitchen space and while I’m sure they won’t be the last changes we ever make, they have definitely helped us to downsize even more and eliminate the clutter that didn’t benefit our space. A clutter-free space is a happy, stress-free space!
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