5 Essential Rules for Surviving in a Small Kitchen

 I like to joke that I'll know I've made it in Lagos when I can stretch out my arms in my kitchen and not be able to touch both walls at once! In other words, I know my way around a small kitchen. Here's how I survive it.

Hang everything

Why wouldn't you use your wall space? There are so many ways to hang up your bulky and space-sucking stuff — pot racks, magnets and, our personal favorite, pegboards — that there's no excuse to waste that wall. Bonus, it also keeps everything you need accessible all the time!

Use the oven as storage

It was good enough for Carrie Bradshaw and it works for me (although I use it for pots and pans, not shoes). The oven is a huge cavern of storage space. It adds a few extra minutes of emptying to any baking project, but the space it saves in my cupboards is well worth the hassle.

Burner covers are your friends

Try this: make yourself some additional counter space with butcher block. I have an electric stove so I just wait for it too cool and use a large wooden cutting board over the top. If you have gas, try this tutorial from the Kitchn to make yourself an elevated version.

Cabinet shelves, cabinet shelves, cabinet shelves

These little workhorses are easy to find, cheap and they can double the amount of storage in your cabinets. What's not to like? Get some right now.

Ditch your single-use appliances

The rule around my house is that if it doesn't do at lease two things, it doesn't stay (even my espresso machine also has a milk frother!). It's fun to have kitchen gadgets, but it's more fun to be able to close the cabinets.

Okay fellow small spacers, chime in. How do you make it work with a tiny kitchen?