Very small kitchen - storage and planning ideas needed

[DuelingFanjo]

Hi there

I am going to be adding about 1m by 3m space to the back of my kitchen by knocking through into the outside toilet and outhouse. It's a long thin galley kitchen but we are hoping to move all the storage and utilities to the right hand wall and have space on the left for a table.

Just wondering what tips people have for storage ideas and space saving in a small kitchen? I want to use the space to the best advantage.

any tips or advice will be gratefully received.

I have a long thin kitchen and have had to find ways of using the limited storage effectively. Ikea do little shelf/step things that can use all the space in a cupboard where there's a lot of wasted space. You can get this size or a narrower one, which fits on top, in case you have very tall shelves!
The main problem is limited worktop space, so I'm having to get rid of my lovely but large coffee machine. If you think of boats and how they maximise the limited space available, you should be ok.

Have you got space for a 300m larder unit? Great for shelving out (or have a pull out doobrie) and putting all your non perishables in there like tins, cereals, condiments, pasta, sauces, jars etc. Frees up all the other cupboards normally used.

Oh yes, definitely a larder unit if you have room. I bought a cupboard that goes almost up to the ceiling and it holds tons of stuff, but sits unobtrusively at one end of the room.

look at the IKEA kitchens - they have some genius storage ideas.

our kitchen is 2x3 m and entirely IKEA, and we have managed to fit a lot into it!

if you are getting a new fridge/freezer btw, we opted for a beko one which is narrower than most, and tall - so I think it is 55cm by 2 metres high - it makes the most use of a small space!

Also, depending on height ikea often feature kitchens that have 2 sets of wall cupboards up to ceiling, would cram a lot in I think- look at their catalogue for ideas.

You'll know this if you studied the thread "What do you like best about your home?" but I highly recommend shelving one of the short walls in a narrow kitchen with lots and lots of tiny narrow shelves, if you have some a few inches high and some a bit bigger you will have all the space you need for tins, bottles, packets, jars etc and nothing can get lost behind anything else. Because the shelves are so narrow you can use a wall that's in "traffic space" where you wouldn't be able to fit a cupboard.

In a previous house where we had a small kitchen, we used wall units are base units along one part of the wall - same width (600mm from memory) but they weren't as deep (so couldn't fit dinner plates etc in them but v useful for glasses / mugs etc).

Columbia999 - that step thing looks brilliant.
I am most irritated by the space things like Microwaves use up and also not having anywhere at the moment for Brooms, Ironing board and mop bucket and so on, so I want a tall thin cupboard for all that.

We were hoping to get a larder unit for above the washing machine to store all the cleaning products and spare tins etc. Might be better from floor to ceiling?

I have an Ikea Kitchen all stored away which I have had for about 10 years (I moved house when I split with my ex, before we had put it in). All the doors are ok but the units are a bit damp so I might have to buy more and will hopefully be able to use some of it.

Do you think that All cupboards on one side will be too oppressive?

I live in a flat, so storage of any kind is at a premium. I had to ditch my little cylinder vacuum cleaner due to having nowhere to put it away, and then bought a stick vacuum from Bissell for 24 quid, which does the job, and also turns into a hand held cleaner. No bags, you just open it up and empty it, and it only takes up the space of a broom. I store it with the broom and mop in a little space in between the tall cupboard and the fridge freezer.

We have put hooks under wall cupboard shelves for mugs, so that's freed up space in the cupboards. I also utilise stackable boxes to use all the height in the cupboards. DD's bibs are on a hook on the back of a cupboard door too. We're about to put a (very lovely) key cabinet on the wall rather than having a dish on the counter, just to save a bit of worktop space. We've also put loads of stuff in the attic and make do with a smaller number of plates/dishes etc.

We're also about to buy some nice colour co-ordinated boxes to put on the top of our kitchen cabinets (can't afford to re-do the kitchen with tall wall units), at least it'll look neat and tidy.

Finally, I've bought some more shelf brackets for kitchen cabinets (found them on eBay) and am about to buy some more shelves. That way we can use more of the space especially in our under sink cupboard.

Also, look at other spaces in your house. We put some shelves in our small under stairs cupboard and have a very handy Expedit Ikea unit in our lounge, and both hold a variety of things you need that you'd usually have in the 'random' drawer in your kitchen (which we need for cutlery!)

My microwave lives on top of the fridge-freezer. It's head height and absolutely fine if everyone using it is average adult height.

I have a small oven which is also a microwave. Very handy in a small kitchen.

In my kitchen in Slovenia we had drawers in the kickboards, excellent use of otherwise wasted space except when mice get in there and eat everything you store

I was going to suggest drawers in kick boards as well - brilliant to store things like baking sheets.

Our cupboards were all built to fit up to the ceiling, so extra space (and nowhere to accumulate dust!). We have a folding step stool fitted into a kickboard drawer so we can easily reach into the top cupboards.

I have a tiny kitchen in my flat and am just about to get a couple of these to maximise storage space in the cupboards. I plan to get a wire spice rack that can be screwed in to the back of cupboard doors to store all my spice jars neatly - they're currently on the counter top because all our cupboards are so full and untidy.

I would love to have drawers in the kick boards - sounds like a brilliant idea and great place to store baking trays etc.

My parents have just got a new kitchen and had a pull-out larder fitted which seems to hold a massive amount of stuff. They also had slide-out shelves fitted in base corner cupboards to get the most out of awkward corners. I am seriously envious of these - I hate having to root around in the back of my corner cupboards.