House & Home
Space Exploration - Make the Most of Your New Retirement Kitchen

By Janet Groene

You had garage sales galore but too many pots and gadgets survived. To make your new compact kitchen work, you need to down-size further. Here are bright ideas for squeezing every inch of storage space out of your retirement kitchen.

• Shop specifically for this kitchen. You don’t need whole sets of pots, knives, canisters and nesting mixing bowls. Buy only sizes that suit your retirement cooking style.
• Look for items that do double duty. Stainless steel measuring cups double as tiny saucepans and soup ladles. Oven-proof, pitcher-style measuring cups can be used in oven, microwave and refrigerator. They pour, so they are great for watering plants. Need just a small batch of cheese grits or egg custard? Bake them in a Pyrex measuring cup.
• If you’re handy, screw runners under a tabletop to slide in a silverware tray. You’ve created a new drawer that puts silverware right where you need it.
• Home improvement stores sell units that turn panel(s) on the front of a sink into storage space. Remove the panel, attach hinges and add the 14 X 3 X 3-inch plastic tray that comes with the unit.
• Jelly roll pans store flat in no space at all. Keep several on hand to serve as work surfaces. Set one over a cold cooktop, another over the unused half of a double sink. Pull out a drawer, slip a pan across it, close enough to grip firmly and you have temporary counter space.
• Square canisters are more space-efficient than round. Better still, opt for stackable square containers.
• Many items found in “organizer” or “space saver” catalogs take up more room than they save. If it doesn’t work in your life, pitch it.
• Screw a memo board to the back of a cupboard door. Hang a spice rack or knife rack in an unused corner. Install a full-length storage rack on the back of a pantry door.
• Self-adhesive plastic towel holders are about an inch in diameter have a slit in the middle where you tuck in the corner of a tea towel or dish cloth. Stick them anywhere you find space.
• Do you really need a four-burner stove with oven? Gas, electric and ceramic cooktops are available in two- or three-burner versions. With a combination microwave-convection oven you can bake or microwave in a single cavity.
• Is it available in a collapsible or folding version? In specialty catalogs find folding dish drying racks,
  collapsible funnels and sieves, towel drying racks that fold flat against the wall and a big, dishwasher-safe colander/spaghetti strainer that stores flat in a slot less than 1/2 inch wide.
• Buy magnetic towel racks and paper towel holders to stick to steel surfaces such as the refrigerator, washer, dryer and filing cabinets. Shop in office supply stores to find magnetic bins in many sizes to hold pencils, recipe cards and the can opener. Is there an unused corner inside the refrigerator where a magnetic bin could be utilized? New from spacesavers.com are magnetic salt and pepper grinders that stick to the stove.
• Baskets make attractive catch-alls for fresh fruit, clipped recipes, rolled-up kitchen towels and much more.
• You don’t need a bulky spoon rest. Dampen a folded paper towel with a little water, rest spoons on it while you cook, then use it to wipe off the counter.
• Make or buy a wood fill-in piece for one of the dual sinks and use it as your cutting board or extra work space. Find unused space above or between drawers and install a slide-out cutting board.
• Is there enough floor space to create an island using a butcher block-topped cupboard on wheels?
• Could you suspend a pot rack from the ceiling or put a wine glass rack over the pass-through?
• Wall space available? A bathroom medicine cabinet can be installed between studs. If you don’t want a mirror on the front, face it with a piece of art or a cork board for memos.
• Visit home improvement, small appliance, and camping or boating supply stores to shop for space-savers such as a toaster oven, TV, radio/CD player, coffee maker, cookbook holder or spice rack that hangs up under cupboards, freeing counter space.
• Trash storage creates major space problems. Plan yours according to your community’s recycling requirements.
• Look up. There may be room between the top of a door frame and the ceiling for a shallow cupboard where you can store special-occasion items (the fondue pot, cake decorating supplies) used only a few times each year.
• Paper goods take up loads of space but they don’t need to be stored in the kitchen or even inside the house. Can you find room in the garage or yard shed?
• Is each storage space configured right for you? A broom closet could be fitted with shelves and turned into added pantry space. Or, you might remove shelves from a pantry to make room for mops and the
  vacuum cleaner.
• Could cookbooks be moved to bookshelves in another room, freeing up shelf space in your kitchen work area?
• Adapt for your changing body, perhaps turning in the heavy stoneware for Corelle and trading the six-quart crock cooker for a smaller one. Store heavy items lower, handier.
• Could a weatherproof cupboard be added to your patio, Florida room or balcony to hold supplies you use when dining al fresco?
• If you’re a woodworker, install a shelf that folds flat against the wall when not needed.
  Brackets are available from Rockler Woodworking and Hardware, 800-279-4441, www.rockler.com. The company offers many hard-to-find fittings for do-it-yourselfers.
• Does it have to be stored in the kitchen? Cookie sheets, extra place mats and table linens, the turkey platter and other large, flat items can slide under a mattress or sofa cushion , or stowed in a slide-out bin under the bed. A week’s emergency supply of food and water can be stored under a skirted lamp table in the living room.
• Buy large lazy susans to place in dead-end corner cupboards.
• Unused wall space inside a pantry? Install a large, heavy hook and hang up one of those bathroom organizers that hangs over the shower head.
• Use suction cup containers inside the sink to hold scrubbers and brushes.

Janet Groene learned about space utilization while living in boats and recreation vehicles. Her newest book is A Solo Woman’s Guide to RV’s (Duffie Books). Janet blogs at www.SoloWomanRV.blogspot.com.

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