I am soon to be moving into a small condo by myself from a 3000 sq ft house. How small? IDK. The listing says 685 sq ft. Identical floor plans in the complex are listed as having anywhere from 650 to 850 sq ft. Very confusing. But let’s assume 685 for 1 adult and a yellow Lab.
I typically cook most of my food from scratch. I use my Instant Pot and Vitamix multiple times a week. I have a truly tiny kitchen. About the size of the kitchen in the last RV I lived in 8 years ago.
I think I’m saddest that I will have to give up my deep freeze!
Any suggestions from people who live in tiny kitchens about what to keep. I do have a dishwasher. I will live alone but watch my 4 yo grandson on a daily basis.
Right now I am accepting that I probably shouldn’t buy one of those fold flat measuring spoons, but I really want it!
I would cannibalize space from another room for kitchen gear/extra pantry, first off, especially if there’s anything open floor plan going on - you can easily extend the kitchen “space” with some kitchen furniture like a butcher block with shelves under it. Hall closets are great for food storage.
If you have superfluous gear you don’t use often, it gets packed up and either got rid of or put in storage if you have space (and then got rid of if/when you decide that nope, you really don’t need it).
I use the top of it for small kitchen appliances and the shelves as my pantry. It is not stored in the kitchen. It has substantially added to my useful kitchen space.
I have a larger kitchen now, at least by floor and counter space, but spent 8 years with tiny ones. One thing that helped us out (and this depends on layout…) was extending the kitchen to the dining room. Because… we are kitchen people. It’s living in line with our priorities.
One item I highly recommend is the IKEA Knoxhult cabinet collection. The sturdy counter (unlike a cart or wire storage) and closed tall storage for bake ware, cutting boards, and appliances? Very clutch.
TBH I would like to de-expand the rack and some of the crud on the Knoxhult extra counter (so it’s JUST a coffee bar and counter space). But I’m fighting both my own and Spouse’s pack rat tendencies
Do you have space to hang things on the wall? In my first solo apartment I had some utensils hanging on the wall and it actually looked really nice.
Or a pegboard, if you can go all in.
You can put a tablecloth on your deep freezer in the living room. At least try it before you give up on the freezer. We have a small stand up freezer that is the size of an apartment fridge in a corner.
Or put it in your bedroom or the 2nd bedroom (guestroom? office? storage? ) The rules are made up. and you can hide it behind other furniture. But maybe consider adding a leak proof layer underneath?
I recently learned the word berm
You could totally make one from a painting tarp, for household use, methinks.
In my 400 sq ft apartment (2 people, 2 dogs) we mounted the TV and storage boxes on the walls. Measured the sofa down to the inch. With 730 sq ft, it felt so luxurious and we had small versions of regular furniture.
Remember wall space is fair game, especially interior wall space. If this is a rental you’re a little limited in what you can do, but for example:
The left are cast iron pans with the hooks for them going straight into a wall stud (especially with the bigger cast iron I wouldn’t go anywhere except into a stud)…depending on pans and your height you can save cabinet space and use cloth behind them to protect the walls and look vaguely decorative, and with just hooks you should be able to fill/repaint before leaving a rental without causing issues.
The right only works if it’s your space, probably, but it’s a two-sided can cabinet that I built to slide in between studs (technically it’s two cabinets, one on each side of a stud), with shelves that are literally just one can/bottle deep. It holds a surprising amount and keeps cans from wasting space in the bigger cabinets, and while I built this one because whoever built my place failed measuring, I got the idea from a prefab set I saw that was just about 1/2 in too wide to fit.
when I had a tiny kitchen (the apartment itself was 400sq ft, the kitchen perhaps 7x7?) I wasted the whole back corner of the counter with a microwave, an instant pot would have been a better idea. We put up shelves for a toaster oven. The toaster also could have gone on the eating table (in the living room). I should have ditched the microwave for how often it was used.
We had 4 sets of dishes, that was a good idea. Keep the number of dishes small and clean them more often. I kept the stock pot and frying pan on the range at all times, there wasn’t anywhere to store them.
We didn’t keep much of a pantry or a stocked freezer, we lived very close to a grocery store and I just picked up things on the way home from the subway for the next 2-3 days. I only had as many spices as fit in the little built in shelving unit. These days, I value a pantry more (lockdown did a number on me on that front), so I’d have a sideboard or go under the table, or put stuff into the bedroom. (at one point we had a filing cabinet under a desk, that could be a fridge or freezer).
In my condo I had a small kitchen that was its own room, with two doors I never had reason to close. I hung wire shelves on the back of the doors to serve as my pantry. Then I “opened” the pantry by closing the door.
I lived in a sub-500 SF studio for over a decade. You need to ruthless about prioritizing what will be most important to you and streamline the rest. It’s the same concept as trying to save money to get to FIRE but applied to living spaces. And it has the bonus of also being so much less expensive that it helped me get to FIRE faster.
I had a very small selection of only my most important pots and pans, and I decided I needed counter space more than a microwave. But those choices are very personal so I can’t tell you what will be best for you.
I made excellent use of vertical space.
In my last couple of years there I remodeled the kitchen. I expanded the counter space slightly to add two counter seats. I designed the extra counter to store a vintage gateleg table underneath. So I could eat at the counter daily (even with one guest), but if I wanted to have people over for dinner, I could pull the gateleg table out into the middle of my living/bedroom. (I had folding chairs stored elsewhere)
I also had a Murphy bed that had integrated shelves so when I had those dinner parties, people didn’t always realize they were in my bedroom.
I am quite passionate about maximizing small living spaces enough that when I didn’t realize I had enough money not to work, I started a business to focus on this (I was fully FIRE but hadn’t realized and when I did, I closed the business). So if you want to share a floorplan or photos or similar, I could see if I have any creative ideas.
I’ve had a deep freezer in 400 sq fr studio! I used it as my side table for my couch and my dish drainer/expanded the kitchen counters. One of the smaller upright deep freezers. No regrets since I only had a mini fridge.
You guys are amazing! The best ideas! Very excited. This is a condo, so I’m buying it. I’m excited for many reasons, but especially bc I’m going to do what I want in it (divorce after 22 years). My thought is ‘small house, big life.’ Thankfully I will be paying cash for it - $65K. I want it to be adorable but bc of the price point I need to be careful not to spend much & over improve.
It’s a fresh remodel. I need to still get a fridge and washer & dryer.
I’ll send pictures by message, but I’m afraid if I put them on the main forum I will dox myself.
The mirror is actually separate from the plant stand. So I probably won’t bring that. Or maybe I will. Idk. I picked up a piece of 24”x 65” pegboard (from $General’s dumpster bc I’m a dumpster diver) and I’m thinking of painting it (tourquoise?) and putting it on either the back wall of the kitchen or on the 26” wall of the dining room.
My kitchen cabinets are new white laminate. The completely flat doors - the cheapest you can buy. I’m hoping they will fade into the background, but right now I really, really don’t like them.
you can spray them, or cover them with removable wallpaper? (if you like youtube, Alexandra Gator has some good small space redecorating things that might be good inspiration)
if they are standard ikea sizes, there could be local spots that sell just door replacements
Maybe I could get replacement doors. That would go a long way in making me happier with the cabinets. I’m not particularly handy, but I could handle cabinet doors, especially since there are only 16 plus 4 drawer fronts. They did the incredibly annoying open area above the shelves. Sure, I can put things up there in baskets, but they could have just done taller cabinets. Or, what we did the last kitchen we remodeled, we did a level of 12” cabinets above the regular cabinets. It looked amazing.
Anom - 1 mug? Can you die from that? I think I might die. I have 6 mugs I am attached to. This is going to be hard. 3 are photo mugs of Squish, my grandson. I might convince myself to go down to those 3. And anyone who visits will be stuck drinking from an “I Grandma” mug. I could probably go down to a place setting for 4, plus a pack of 10 plastic plates (disposables that we pull out for parties then wash and keep) that I could hide in a closet, just in case.
My plan with the Hoosier cabinet is to store my kitchen appliances in it. I haven’t lived without a microwave in the last 44 years. I also use my Keurig knock off and my electric kettle everyday. I think i won’t bring the Keurig. I either need a microwave or an electric kettle or a stovetop kettle. I’m going to try to keep a microwave. I think I would really hate having to constantly wash pans if I had to heat everything up on the stovetop or oven. I could handle heating my water in the microwave and using a pour over funnel for the coffee. I need to find one and try it out. Or - I could make cold brew concentrate. I made that for years and it makes great coffee.
Grandma” mug. I could probably go down to a place setting for 4, plus a pack of 10 plastic plates (disposables that we pull out for parties then wash and keep) that I could hide in a closet, just in case.