What's the Hardest Part of Cooking In a Small Kitchen?

We like to focus on the positive, here at The Kitchn, and we feel that there are a lot of good things about small spaces and small kitchens. Personally, I love small kitchens because I like having many things within arm's reach. But there are drawbacks to small kitchens, too: lack of storage, zero counter space, ovens too small for a cookie sheet!

We're giving you a chance to gripe about the things that really bug you about living with a small kitchen. What are the drawbacks to cooking in a teeny space?

And of course, since we love the positive, please do share if you've found a way to overcome or mitigate some of the drawbacks in your kitchen!

It's Small Cool month, here at Apartment Therapy, and so we'll be talking about small kitchens a lot this month. Let's kick it off with some of the problems in small kitchens, and then hopefully we'll deal in solutions the rest of the month!

(Image: Flickr member wakingmagenta licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (32)

Hate the lack of counter and storage space. Love how quickly it all gets cleaned up.
We leave dutch ovens on the back burners, since there's nowhere else to put them. Very limited pantry, so we buy lots of fresh food!

The hardest part of cooking in a small kitchen is, by far, the lack of counter space. If I could change just one thing about my kitchen, that would be it. I don't ask for much - just another 4 square feet!

My new apartment has a really tiny kitchen, which has been hard to adjust to from my last place where I had ample counter space, a huge oven/fridge, etc.

I find the best way to adjust to a smaller space is to keep it as clutter free as possible. I haven't achieved my perfect balance just yet, but I know it's possible. Having shelves, a little kitchen cart, etc. are also helpful.

I did extend my counter space by flipping up the "breakfast bar" side of my portable kitchen island. it cuts down the floor space a little, but the counter is SO valuable.
Here is a picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maggiejane/3397431012/

The worst part is how quickly it gets cluttered when making a large meal. It can be really tricky to deal with raw chicken , cake batter, icing, and salad veggies all in one teeny space without cross contamination. It takes some planning - and is fine on a lazy weekend, but really tough for a weeknight meal.
The best part? Literally everything is within reach. I can toss utensils into the sink when standing at the stove watching steaks sear and grabbing a serving platter. This makes the multitasking required in cooking much simpler.

The biggest drawback of our tiny, hall-like kitchen is that it is a ONE person room in a three person family. My daughter is fascinated by the kitchen, but I have to carry bowls and whisks and ingredients out to the dining table in order to work with her. On the positive side, she's certainly absorbing the concept of mise-en-place!

My old house kitchen was tiny, but the biggest agony it caused me had nothing to do with the size of space. It had a standard double bowl sink, and washing 1/2 sheet pans, stock pots and large cutting boards in that stupid sink used to make me CRAZY beyond words. Dumb, because I know a lot of people have single bowl sinks and wish for a double.
When I was designing my new house kitchen I went for the biggest single bowl that I could find. It completely swallows even a full sheet pan. No more big stuff washing woe.

Really, there is a lot I love about small kitchens if one can find work arounds for the storage issues. Mostly I love that that the mess can only get so big.

Fridge space and party food is another downer for me, and that actually got worse when I moved because I got rid of my garage fridge out of energy wasting guilt.

love that cookie jar on the counter - where did you get it?

Where to start?
I hate that every surface becomes "counter space" when cooking a meal--the small kitchen table, the stove, etc--and then having to find a spot for the stuff one the stove in order to, I don't know, actually use the stove!
The 1 1/2 sink which makes washing dishes next to impossible, given that 1 of the sinks must be where the clean dishes go, as there is absolutely no room for a drying rack...unless the kitchen table gets used again.
Lack of storage--trying to find a necessary kitchen gadget in one of two stuffed drawers.

The tendency to compensate for a lack of storage space by building kitchen cabinets that go up to the ceiling. I know, I know, it sounds like a great idea.

But at 5'4", I can JUST reach just the first shelf of my cabinets, if I stand on tiptoe. I can't actually get to two thirds of my storage space without standing on a chair.

I fixed this by installing my own shelves, racks, pegboards, and hooks. on pretty much every available inch of wall space in there. Clutter-free minimalist is NOT how I'd describe the result, but it is highly functional now. All of the upper shelves of my cabinets are pretty much empty, although I'm beginning to think I might need to use it for my yarn stash soon.

1.) I have less than a foot of open/available counter space so baking and making pasta from scratch moves to the dinning room table. Same with cooling baked goods. 2.) I have precious little storage space and a lot of cookware and appliances so I have to stack things very carefully and the boyfriend gets annoyed trying to find things. I've gotten creative with where I store things in my apartment in general because I have a whopping 3 closets, 2 of which are in the bedrooms. 3.) I have no pantry or food storage area so I had to convert my only non-bedroom closet into a pantry. 4.) No matter what the size of the meal, you end up with a cluttered messy kitchen. The sink fills up faster than you can imagine and I have to clean up large meals almost immediately. I'm getting used to it after 3 years, but honestly I hate how small it is and would trade the dinning room for another 10 feet of kitchen space! I'm looking forward to a much bigger home in the future.

I can't cook WITH people!! My friends all enjoy being in the kitchen so they always offer to help when they come over but if I'm cooking and E is making tea and L is trying to do a couple dishes and A is just chatting (I love her but she has a knack for being in the WORST POSSIBLE spot) all in my narrow galley kitchen, well... I always end up banishing them to the breakfast area, where it's hard to talk to them.

The best part is that everything is in reach and I'm forced to be a neater cook. I love that I've gotten so much more efficient now.

I have a tiny kitchen, with a full size stove and fridge. The main issue for us is certainly counter space and storage space.. the comment about using the stove as a counter space is dead on.. and I have to store all my pots right on top, too. One little space saving tip my roommate seems to have developed is having the drain board on top of the fridge, with a towel underneath. It's really the ONLY solution.

Our previous home was a 500 sq. ft. cottage and my 6'2" husband was always bumping into something in our tiny kitchen. He had no room to do anything in there and was frustrated with cooking. We also had to clean everything up real fast or else the mess could quickly overtake the space.

- Walking back and forth to the closet that holds all our staples.
- No dishwasher (well, besides the boyfriend).
- No counter space means no room for our kombucha and kefir to culture.
- Two cats always underfoot.
- Lack of counter space means appliances must always be put away, then taken out, then put away.

We have a tiny kitchen, and love it, although we are able to squeeze two people in. When cook at my mother's, whose kitchen area is bigger than our entire cottage, it's just too much - too much space, too many things. Small is cool!

Definitely the lack of counter space. It is fine when there is just one person, but two people and it gets frustrating. On the other hand, it encourages synchronicity between my husband and I. We have to learn to respect each other's needs in a very literal way that is probably good for the marriage.

One thing, even though our kitchen is tiny, the counters are relatively deep, maybe 3ft deep. This really helps a lot more than you'd think.

My kitchen isn't too tiny, but the stove is a scaled down model, and my biggest problem with it is that we always burn the two edges closest to the sides of the oven when we make pizza! Other than that I second everyone's gripe about not enough space to make any complex meals. We don't have a pantry, either, or cupboard space for food, but we fixed that with a series of corner shelves, some hanging baskets, and a wooden crate turned sideways on top of the fridge. Not the prettiest thing to have all the food out in the open, but it does help us remember what we have!

The biggest annoyance for me is that since I don't have any counter space, I am constantly moving things from one place to another and it makes it hard to just have ingredients out and focus on the recipe. I constantly have to stay a step ahead and get things put away as soon as I use it so that I have room for whatever comes next.

And since I have very limited storage, I have to keep a bunch of stuff in the stove that all has to come out and sit in the middle of the living room floor while the over is on.

Needless to say...a lot gets cook in the toaster oven for that reason alone!

My top 3:
-Small oven
-handwash or take up awkward space with portable dishwasher
-lack of electrical outlits

Paradoxically, I love how I am forced to live with less, but for the few gadgets I do have, I hate having to dig for them in the back by pulling everything out from the front and digging on my knees for the item and then having to put it all back. It always makes me wish for more storage - and easily accessible storage like on HGTV makeovers!

No countertop space to prep and the additional shelves seem to get cluttered right away. About once a month I have to clean them because they fill up with dust and grease. I don't mind and it's a quick cleanup job just wish i had additional countertop space 'least for a coffee maker! I've been having instant every morning for years.... But on the flip side as someone above mentioned it's so quick to clean up! And I've had so many delicious meals and happy moments all come from that lil walk through kitchen.

I'm with cmc--the biggest drawback is that my husband and I can't cook together because we'd just bang into each other.

He's kind of a sous chef when we cook together, so my solution is to have him take his cutting board to the table rather than using up counter space.

My kitchen is tiny. And the cupboards are too high. I ended up keeping my canning on the bottoms of all my little bookcases. I also have a row of jars in my bathroom on the ledge (basement). There are no counters against a wall...so my rice cooker and magic bullet live on the floor in the hall. I really hope my next place has a bit more room.

1a) By far, the biggest problem is the difficulty w/ fitting 2 people in the space. I'm cooking, my fiance is washing dishes (or helping or putting dishes away...), and I'm constantly bumping into her.

1b) To me, the kitchen should be a social place. In my apartment, it's a walled up box. Having friends over for dinner can be awkward, since I can't cook and interact with folk at the same time.

2) I want a stand mixer. It doesn't fit.

3) The thermal inertia is tiny. Just turning on a burner--much less the oven--means I have to open the window and turn on a fan.

1. My teeny kitchen is *definitely* a one-butt kitchen. No room for anyone else.

2. Also, there's no room for a dishwasher, so it's easy be just entirely overwhelmed with dirty dishes after a particularly vigorous day of cooking, or even just one fairly complex dish.

counter space. done.

Lack of counter space for prepping more than one dish is a drawback in small kitchens. Lack of storage is another. Good organisation is a must for small kitchen users. One is forced to clean up as we go along.

I think my biggest complaint is having to do alot of things one at a time, there just isn't enough room in my kitchen to prepare several things at once. This make me have to do as much as I can ahead of time when I am cooking for several people and keep it in the fridge or in bowls outside the kitchen until I'm really ready for it. It does force me to plan a lot more then I probably would otherwise which is kind of helpful.

I've gotten used to the tiny counter space in my small kitchen. I can't get used to the little sink. If I am cooking anything substantial (a meal for two, food for the week, baking, etc) I have to constantly juggle dishes. The little sink fills up too quickly with dirty dishes and if I let it get too full, here isn't enough room to wash them. If I wash a load of dishes (prep bowls and pans for example) and then need to wash more dishes (serving dishes and the like) I have to dry and put away the first bunch before there is room to do the second bunch. You'd think this wouldn't happen all that often but I tend to do a lot of cooking on the weekends and sometimes I feel like I am constantly washing and drying dishes!

Not enough electrical outlets.

I had a lot to say but everyone's pretty much said it.
1. Storage! I use my utility closit (meant for washer/dryer) as a pantry, but it's not very efficient.
2. Not a lot of counter space to knead/chop/mix; you can do one at a time.

The good news is, I've gotten into a good habit with cleaning things up right away. But it still never looks clean because of everything set out to soak/dry. Eh!