My Kitchen: A Tour

I have been writing this blog since 2008 and sometimes you'll see some of my kitchen layout in the photos. We are currently in our fourth house since I started blogging.

One tip I have is to make sure that you arrange your kitchen in a way that works for your household. Mostly that would mean how you organize within your cabinets and drawers, etc. Many times we overlook how to use wall space effectively and don't think about what else goes on in the kitchen, beside food prep and eating. I recently realized that how I keep my kitchen will ultimately help or hinder my progress to eating healthy and keeping my family together to eat meals. Keeping it in order will help to make sure we eat more in our home than away. Staying on top of your current food inventory means you'll always have what you need to prepare good food.

We recently made some changes in our kitchen to make it more user friendly. Since we rent, all the wall changes were approved by our landlady before we did them. She allowed us to take down the wallpaper that was up on the wall by the sink and over the counter. We painted the wall instead and removed and painted where there had been wall border about halfway around the kitchen.

I finally have some photos of my kitchen for you. Our kitchen is about 13' x 10', not including the pantry.

Over the sink are hooks for towels. I intend to get something for putting next to it (empty wall right now), which will be right in front of the person washing dishes (maybe a mirror in a "window" type frame?). My son gave me some plants for my "clock" shelf. I put misc. decorations/unused kitchen items on top of my cabinets.

My husband made and  installed a "nail board" for utensils and measuring cups/spoons under the upper cabinets! You see my knife block and cutting boards in the corner. When I have beans cooking in a slow cooker, they are on the counter to the right. We have a cut-out under the counter, next to the sink, which is where we keep our trash can. The lower cabinet under the sink houses my slow juicer, Vitamix, food processor, and water purifier. I like putting things away to have a clear counter to work on (you can never have enough counter space, right?). There is a window to the right.

Here's how my spice cabinet is currently arranged. I also store my mortar and pestle, honey, coconut oil, etc. here. This is in the 3rd upper cabinet from the sink.

This is a new shelf I use for fruits and vegetables. In the boxes on the bottom shelf, there are nuts (in the shell) and dried beans that I picked up on sale. My stove is to the left.

My (closed) pantry off in its own little "closet" type room. The upper cabinets hold food and food containers. The bottom cabinets hold my stainless steel stove top cookware, misc. gadgets and gallon jugs of vinegar. I have two drawers between the upper and lower cabinets which hold other misc. lesser used hand held gadgets, chopsticks, silpat mat, etc. in the left and storage bags, parchment paper to the right. You can see our coats and hats hanging up on the right. There is a window to the left that looks out onto the back porch. I also have a wooden bench under the window. In the foreground, you can just see my stove and food dehydrator to the right. The back door is to the left.

Pantry opened! This is how it looks at the moment. Top shelf: mostly empty jars, extra lazy susans (turntables), extra slow cooker, extra canning lids/rims. Second shelf from the top: (gifted!) home canned food, more nuts and dried beans, rolled oats, oil and vinegar, misc. bottled foods. Second shelf from the bottom: canning jars in 1/2, 1, 2, and 2 1/2 cup sizes, freezer containers, vegetable spirooli (a raw noodle maker/slicer), misc. containers. Bottom shelf: nuts (shelled), nori and other seaweed, kelp noodles, quinoa, oil, carob powder, glass containers, extra herbs and spices in bulk, coconut oil, herbal tea bags.

This is our 30" x 30" (36" high) table that we use for a true eat-in kitchen. I love that it enables us to eat right in the kitchen. During non-meal times, it's used much like an island. It sits 2 1/2 inches higher than our kitchen counter. The fridge is behind, in the corner. To the left of the photo is a window which brings us back to the counter (second photo in this post).