Small houses... how do you function in the kitchen?

[CJ]

We're off shortly to look at a farm for sale. It's 115 acres, but the house is 1700 square feet, built in the 70's and never updated. When we look at it, I'm going to try my darndest to visualize it remodeled, and possibly remove a wall if the kitchen is (most likely) closed off and tiny.

But still, for those of you with small homes and tiny kitchens, how do deal with huge gardens and canning, not to mention regular cooking? And where do you store all your kitchen gadgets? We have lots of large appliances like a meat grinder, sausage stuffer, KA mixer, dehydrater, grain mill, etc. Where does one store that stuff in such a small home?

I don't think there is a garage either. No idea of the condtion of the outbuildings yet.

Anyway, I'm looking for creative ways to fit into a smaller home, mainly the kitchen. I'll have to build an addition for my sewing studio regardless.

[Belfrybat]

I don't class a house 1700 square feet as small, so the kitchen will probably be quite adequate.

The most efficient kitchen I had was 8 x 12 in a U shape. It had tons of cabinet and counter space. The pantry was off the kitchen in a utility room and was about 8 x8'. One wall was all 18" deep shelves and the other held the washer/ dryer with shelves above them.

The worst kitchen I've seen was in a larger house and it seemed to be an afterthought. It looked nice but was basically non-functional for anything except warming things up.

[Vosey]

Our house was built in 1972 and not updated yet. The bathrooms and kitchen are on my list but that list is long and the money's not there! The pea green stove did go immediately

But the 70's was a time of open floor plans. Our kitchen is an 8 x 10 U shape. Very efficient for one person. It is open onto the main living area. But there is no room in the kitchen for big stuff. The whole house is 1500 sq ft.

The key thing is my laundry room/storage closets/hallway downstairs. Our main living area is upstairs, the 1st floor is like a basement. All my canners, dehydrator, big stock pots, bread machine are down there. I spend a lot of time running up and down the stairs, I figure it's good for me. We do have a garage that's in the house. It is full of storage stuff as you might imagine.

[jassytoo]

My kitchen isn't small but I don't have big enough cupboards for all the big canners, grain mill and food storage I need. There is just the two of us so we just converted one of the bedrooms to storage. It's a one story house so it's not a big deal to go get things out.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Canning kitchen outside.

[Chief Cook]

To say I have a tiny kitchen is to say something. It was an after thought, I know it was. I can see it in my mind: Well, honey, the house is finally done! They smile as they look around at the rooms they have painstakingly built. And then it hits them! No kitchen!!! "No prob lemo, honey. I'll just tack one up over here." And that is the story I am sticking too. I am not sure how it all works, but it does. I have a dishwasher and upper and lower cabinets. And my late FIL said there was just no way I could have all that fancy stuff in here! As for my really big canners and roaster ovens, we have a storage shed that DH has sealed up very well. I can't wait for my very own building!!! Good luck and don't ever give up hope! These tiny houses give you the best memories to laugh about, in the years to come.

[Kasota]

I don't think of 1700 square feet as small. I would be swimming in room if I had that much space! My house I think about 600 square feet on the main level. Thereabouts. It has a living room, bathroom and kitchen. The second story is a 1/2 story and has two bedrooms. That's it. The kitchen is 16 x 9. The 9 foot side is the only wall that has a counter and part of that is given to the kitchen sink. There is a sliding glass door to the deck, so I could have more cupboards, but at the price of losing access to the deck. I prefer to have the sunshine. The other space is taken up by the stove, fridge, a door to the basement and a back door to the outside. Yeah, it's tiny. I do have a free standing cupboard kind of like an island but small that sits in front of the sliding glass door. I keep my pots and pans in there. Quite an improvement since I used to have to keep them in the oven. There is room on one side of that "island" to open the sliding glass door and scoot out on to the deck.


I do not keep a lot of appliances. There is no room in the kitchen for things that are not used on a regular basis. I do have a basement so I have several large floor to ceiling cupboards where I store things not used on a regular basis like canning supplies, the air popcorn maker, etc. I really don't need all that many utensils and gadgets for basic everyday cooking.

I make use of every bit of space. My upper cupboards are not blocked in but open to the ceiling and I use that space for canisters that hold oatmeal, dried beans, rice, etc. I have hooks on the inside of the lower cupboard doors where I can hang a strainer, small colander, etc. It's amazing how much space you can find if you eliminate the things you really don't use. When I had a huge kitchen (and I mean enormous) I could have a 1/2 dozen different covered casserole dishes. The truth is that I generally only use one at a time, maybe two. I had room for all the gadgets and dishes...but I honestly found that I used certain favorites and the rest were taking up space. In my old place I had a huge drawer that had more dish towels than a person could ever use. It was like a dresser drawer size. Honestly? A 1/2 dozen is more than enough for me these days.

I am very careful about what I purchase to store things in. Square is better than round because there is not wasted space. They tuck right up flush next to each other. I love to cook and probably have more space given over to spices, herbs, teas, etc than I do dishes. I can only eat off of one plate at a time. A service for 4 in the kitchen is plenty and if I have guests I can go down the basement where I have another service for 4 stashed in a box. I also do not buy things that are bulky in their shape when it comes to dishes and serving pieces. Compact is good.

Some things can do double duty as a decoration. A large decorative pasta dish can have a hanger/shelf on the wall. Takes just a second to give it a wash if I'm making up a large pasta serving for guests. I use it often enough that it's earned a place and it's pretty.

A pull out bread board is a blessing in a small kitchen. The house you are looking at is of a age where it just might have one.

Best of luck to you in your search!

[Wolf mom]

One home I owned had a summer kitchen on the end of the garage overlooking the paddock. Lot of cabinets for canning supplies with an old stove I wish I had now. Just cold running water that emptied out to a fruit tree, and no dishwasher but there was room for a freezer. Really was a nice place for all the "stuff".

[ErinP]

I'm not really seeing 1700 as that small either, really...
That's how big the house I'm building is! Ie, I designed it to be that size and even feel a bit guilty for not squeezing it tighter. lol

Most people tell me it feels really spacious (of course part of that is the fact that it's still missing half of the interior walls. ). But, that is kind of a cue; eliminate walls wherever possible. It makes it feel so much more spacious.

[Ozarks Tom]

We have about that size, with pretty much everything you mentioned plus several other large items. Bakers racks take up little space, but hold a lot. It's just the 2 of us, so one bedroom is the "office", where I built a couple pantries with bi-fold doors. Large items like canners and stock pots that aren't used regularly go to the garage.

Easy modifications, like putting a dehydrator on a corner shelf in an out of the way area work well.

[Tabitha]

Originally Posted by CJ

We're off shortly to look at a farm for sale. It's 115 acres, but the house is 1700 square feet, built in the 70's and never updated. When we look at it, I'm going to try my darndest to visualize it remodeled, and possibly remove a wall if the kitchen is (most likely) closed off and tiny.

But still, for those of you with small homes and tiny kitchens, how do deal with huge gardens and canning, not to mention regular cooking? And where do you store all your kitchen gadgets? We have lots of large appliances like a meat grinder, sausage stuffer, KA mixer, dehydrater, grain mill, etc. Where does one store that stuff in such a small home?

I don't think there is a garage either. No idea of the condtion of the outbuildings yet.

Anyway, I'm looking for creative ways to fit into a smaller home, mainly the kitchen. I'll have to build an addition for my sewing studio regardless.

I could never do all my canning and processing in the kitchen, therefore I have a summer kitchen. It is a bit crude but effective.

[Ohio dreamer]

I grew up in a house about 1200 sq ft, so 1700 seem large to me (my house is 1800). My mom's kitchen is a small room about 10x8, or smaller. Cabinets on one wall, with the sink there - about 5' of counters - 2 1/2' on each side of the sink. One wall is the fridge and doorway to the living room. The next wall is the stove, boom closet and door to outside and basement. Last wall is a bay window. It's also an eat-in kitchen - bay window it too the floor....if it wasn't there would be NO way to put a table in there and there is no dinning room in the house!! Needless to say it's tight in there, but that's all we had. We took in foster kids, so it was my parents and 3 teens eating in there. Oh, and a hanging light int eh bay window.....shortest person in the house always had to sit in that seat.

Large appliance are kept in the basement. So are any of the baking and cooking items that are not used daily. With only one upper and lower cabinet on each side of the sink, there isn't much storage in there. There is a glassed in porch right off the kitchen, mom often used that to run the roaster. She would can in that (water bath canning in pints). During apple season she would put up 100's of qts of applesauce. Kitchen would be COVERED in canning supplies, apples and sticky. We just lived with it.

[Danaus29]

My current house is 1008 sq ft. Kitchen is smaller than most bathrooms (6 x 9 IIRC). Storage for large items like the canner and canned goods is in the basement. The only good thing I an say about it is the stove is one step from the fridge on one side, sink on the other.

In the farm house where I grew up the kitchen was about 20 x 20 feet. We had enough room to rebuild a car in it. But still, most of the supplies and all the canned goods were stored in the basement.

[Callieslamb]

The most functional kitchen I had was a 6'x6' "L" shape with the stove on one leg and the fridge on the other and the sink inbetween. There was only one space to do anything and it was right between the sink and stove- perfect. It was a bit crowded for storing stuff. We had to build a pantry just outside the kitchen area. I used the table for a lot of baking - such as when the cookies came out of the oven. But it was very, very efficient as far as how many steps I had to take to get the meals fixed.

Now I have a nice 12x12 kitchen and all I do is walk from one appliance to another. The sink is across the room from the stove- the fridge off to the side. The drawers are inconvenient.

From my experience, you really just need a great working triangle and then a counter or table or island near by for when you need more space. A large pantry with lots of shelves is an easier place to store small appliances and extra dishes than anything else I've used. Cupboards are not that convenient for finding things.

[Maura]

The lay out of the kitchen is just as important as the square footage. I’m not concerned with the holy working triangle, people don’t really cook that way anymore. I think you are concerned about counter space. You can deal with too little counter space by being very efficient and cleaning up as you go. Not my cup of tea.

You can also do work outside during the summer. I do some cooking outside in the summer to keep from heating up the house.

[CJ]

Well there's no basement in this house, and no garage. What it did have was what used to be the back porch, now enclosed. I forgot to check if it was heated and cooled back there! Regardless, there was room out there to store all of our kitchen gadgets.

The kitchen was only about 8 x 10. There's simply no way I could function in a kitchen that small... if I want to make croissants for example, there simply isn't enough counter space to roll out a dough block that size.

We did decide it would be doable to completely remove the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room, and just remodel that into one big kitchen, with an island/eating bar separating it from the living room.

The rooms off the kitchen and dining were a family room and formal living room, divided by the same wall that split the kitchen from the dining room. If we simply eliminated that wall, it would really open it up and make it seem more spacious. There is a fireplace with a wood insert on that wall, so it would still be there, but that might just give it some character.

The shop was 40 x 60, with 40 x 40 being a shop (non insulated) and the other 20 x 40 was like an enclosed shed. If we insulated the whole thing, hubby could use the larger part as his shop and if we finished out the inside of the 20 x 40 shed, I could use it as a sewing studio, and the tax assessor would never know it was like a house inside

Lots to think about with this place, they haven't had it surveyed or appraised yet, so we don't even know what the price is yet.

[calliemoonbeam]

I have a small kitchen that measures about 9 x 12. It has an L-shaped set of cabinets. The long side is only 6' long, and the short side is 3' (not counting the corner space) and holds the sink. It only has a set of upper cabinets over the 6' section. It does have a small bar/counter over the sink section and enough space for a small dinette, but I used the dinette space to put my freezer and a baker's rack, with a pot rack hanging over that.

I have my dehydrator permanently situated on the bar area back against the wall edge. I also have a small roll out cart that sits between the fridge and freezer until I need it, then it rolls out and shelves on both sides raise up and lock into place. I keep my mixer/food processor and food saver on it. It's really the only place I have for rolling out stuff, and I'm not real happy with it, but it works for now. It's about 7' long with the shelves up, but it's not as sturdy as I'd like.

My countertop is pretty much taken up with the coffee pot, toaster, canisters, bread box, Berkey filter, etc. I have things like cast iron, a magnetic knife rack, measuring spoons/cups and utensil racks hanging on the walls, along with a swing-away can opener and towel rack. I have some hanging baskets and baskets on top of the fridge and freezer.

The dining/living area are open next to the kitchen, so I use the dining table for any lengthy sit-down work such as chopping, peeling, etc. I have oilcloth tablecloths that I use so it doesn't mar the finish, and I can just wipe them clean when I'm finished. I also took over the smallest bedroom, which just happened to be the closest to the kitchen, and made a pantry out of it with built-in shelves, which is where I keep the canners, crockpots, roaster, grain mill, stock pots, and other big items, as well as my canned goods and food storage.

I always had a huge kitchen before too, and it's been hard to adjust but I've managed, lol. I still bake, roll out cookies, pastry and pasta and can tons of stuff. It just takes a lot of organization and planning, lol! I also don't have a dishwasher, but I don't like them for most stuff like my stainless pans, knives, silver, and glassware anyway, so it's not a huge loss to me.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to manage all this in a tiny house, ROFL! I want one really bad, but can't figure out how to still cook like I like to and do my crafts in one, eek! At least you have outbuildings, I don't have a single one. I tried making an outdoor kitchen, but had to fight off just about every critter for a 5-mile radius, not to mention all the flies and other bugs. I don't know how other people do it!

[Bellyman]

I live in an rv... less than 400 square feet, total.

I can do most anything I need to do. I just have to do it in smaller bites.

Where I am staying right now, I have access to a larger kitchen (staying near family) and do take advantage of it. Last year, my wife and I packed a chest freezer (we have one of those in the rv instead of a sofa) with fresh fruit and veggies mostly and it was almost all done right here in the rv.

We do the best we can with what we have to work with. Ideal, not even close. Functional, absolutely. And you can do it, too.

[arnie]

I built a summer kitchen. like a big porch with a stove, freezer ,big sink table., the heavy unfinished wood table can be clamped or chopped on , no worrys about clogging the sink .there are shelves to hold big canners, strainers ,grinders ,empty jars tools not needed in every day cooking ;stuff that .'and the stove won't heat up the house , a small house dosent cost as much to heat or cool ,and .
the tax man may not be as likely to bill you as much .seems the county sees dollar signs in big houses ,. a picnic pavilion shed is another thing we have on the farm ;along with a root cellar and smoke house ;remember with plenty of room you can think out side for cooking and eating . my parents have and I grew up in a huge old victorain home 10 foot cealings big kitchen diningroom our biggest expence then and now was heating , cooling ,and TAXES . there are advantages to a small well insulated house .and living on a farm without strict building codes

[CJ]

We spent 4 years living full-time in our RV... I'm well versed in cooking in a midget kitchen! No thank you! I did most of the cooking outside. But you cannot roll out pasta dough without a large work surface, or can (not to mention store canned goods). There's no way we could make sausage in a kitchen that size, there wouldn't be room for the grinder and still be able to walk around it.

These things are really important to me as I practically live in my kitchen.

A root cellar would definitely be needed.

There are some great suggestions here for dealing with the small space, thank you all. If we buy the place, I think I'd sacrifice the dining room for more kitchen, and just put a large island with seating in instead. But we'll see.

Originally Posted by Bellyman

I live in an rv... less than 400 square feet, total.

I can do most anything I need to do. I just have to do it in smaller bites.

Where I am staying right now, I have access to a larger kitchen (staying near family) and do take advantage of it. Last year, my wife and I packed a chest freezer (we have one of those in the rv instead of a sofa) with fresh fruit and veggies mostly and it was almost all done right here in the rv.

We do the best we can with what we have to work with. Ideal, not even close. Functional, absolutely. And you can do it, too.