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Creating Kitchen Space & Clarity by Raederle Phoenix If your kitchen is cramped and cluttered, it's hard to prepare healthy meals. Your surroundings affect your attitude, subconsciously if not consciously. The following ten steps will guide you in cleaning up your kitchen, clearing some counter space, and creating some sanity in your meal preparation. Step One: Create More Cupboard/Shelf Space Many articles on "creating space" talk about building shelves. This is an excellent thing to do, but often building shelves doesn't match up with your schedule, comfort zone or available tools. Or, perhaps you already have lots of shelves, but have trouble utilizing them. A great solution is wire inserts that you put into your existing shelves. If a shelf is taller than necessary, you instantly create two shelves. Metal or wooden inserts are excellent for dry goods as well as produce. The air flow beneath a shallow layer of goods makes it less likely for pests to nest in your food unnoticed, and also makes fruit ripen more evenly. Step Two: Create Priorities If your counter is cluttered by a tea kettle, a juicer, a blender, a food processor, a microwave, a microwave oven, a knife block, a some dirty dishes besides, then creating priorities may be the most powerful shift you can make in your kitchen. Prioritize smoothies, juices, salads or salsas. You can choose a different priority for each week of the month. If you choose to prioritize smoothies, find a shelf or cupboard for your juicer, cutting boards, food processor, microwave, microwave oven, toaster, and so forth so that all that is left on your counter is your blender. During the work week when you're busy, make smoothies. Soak figs overnight and add them to make an extra-sweet smoothie with a dose of calcium, or add a teaspoon of chia seeds for time-release energy. If you want your smoothie to give you a 'pick-me-up' like a morning coffee, use cocoa powder or maca powder. During the weekend, use the toaster, tea kettle, and so on, as you like, but just keep putting them back away and leaving one appliance on your counter. At the end of Sunday, decide whether to keep the blender on the counter, or trade it out with a different appliance for the work week. If you choose to prioritize salsa, leave out your food processor and put everything else away. During the week, throw in tomatoes, avocados, garlic, onions, kale, and so forth, and enjoy salsas and sauces all week long. You can try guacamole on Monday, spicy salsa on Tuesday, an apple-oatmeal porridge pulsed in the food processor on Wednesday, a spicy guacamole on Thursday, and a bruschetta on Friday. If you choose to prioritize juices this week, then put away all appliances except your juicer. For breakfasts during the week you could have kale-pineapple juice Monday, lettuce-celery juice Tuesday, apple-broccoli juice Wednesday, parsley-lettuce-cucumber juice Thursday and orange-grapefruit-lemon juice on Friday.
If you choose to prioritize salads, leave your largest cutting board clean in the middle of your counter with a salad spinner beside it. With a clean counter, knives, cutting board and vegetables waiting on display on your counter, you'll feel more motivated to make salads. Try apple-walnut-kale salad, citrus fruits and spinach salad, cabbage and chia seeds salad, cauliflower and sprouts salad, and so forth. Get creative and make it a game to make a salad you've never made before each day. By choosing to prioritize juice, smoothies, salads or salsas, you automatically make your weekdays healthier. If you only pull out the toaster and microwave on weekends, you'll find yourself eating more fresh produce and less processed foods. If you're working toward raw foods, perhaps it's time to giveaway the toaster oven, microwave and crockpot. You can use your stove if you get a hankering for a bowl of quinoa or oatmeal. Step Three: Consider Trading Out Your Oven & Stove If you don't bake often, and often feel frustrated by cooking, perhaps you're interested in more raw food, and less cooked food. Or, if you're considering becoming a raw foodist, perhaps you rarely use your pots, microwave, toaster, oven, and so forth, at this time. If either of these is the case, take stock of how much space cooking devices take up in your kitchen. A small induction burner costs $60 to $100 a takes up hardly more space than cutting board. It heats up faster than a stove, is easier to clean, and can be put away to create more counter space. To create a massive addition to the space in your kitchen, you can replace your oven and stove with a single induction burner plate. If you occasionally want to bake a yam, potato or squash, you can still do so on the single burner. Simply use a large iron pot and put a wire grate in the bottom. Put water beneath the metal grate and put the yams, potatoes, squash or other item to bake on the grate inside the pot. Put on a lid and cook at 700 on the power setting. An induction burner can be put away and forgotten if you're aspiring to raw food, but then be taken out at a time when you want to cook something, either for yourself or someone else. Or, even if you cook daily and have no aspiration of being a raw foodist, it still has many advantages over using the typical stove top and oven. On the few occasions when I've wanted to cook two things at once, I've been able to cook something half way, keep the lid on and move it to a hot pad and then cook something else halfway and switch back. The induction burner is faster because of the way the heat transfer works, so even cooking two dishes on one burner in a short period of time isn't an issue. Whether you decide to ditch your oven and stove or not, you may want to consider the pots, skillets or pans you rarely use. Think hard about the meals that you prepare in them. Are these still meals you love to prepare that make you feel healthy and happy? If the answer is "no" then consider making a "gift pot" (like a gift basket, but in a pot).
Place other items from your kitchen that you no longer use in tissue paper within the pan or pot and gift to a friend who is short on kitchen items. If you don't have a friend who is short on kitchen items, consider donating to a church or a local "food not bombs" group. Step Four: Consider Other Possible Gifts Do you own an extra set of dishes you never use? Perhaps a holiday mug set, or decorative dishes you like but never have an occasion for? Get those dishes out that you never use and put them in prominent places for a week or two. If you still don't use them, consider who else might like them. Gift them or donate them. If you're not using them, then they're using your space to nobody's benefit. If you have "nice plates" you use for special occasions, and "dull plates" for ordinary use, consider the possibility of donating your dull plates and always using your nice plates. For some, this may make occasions seem less special, but you may find that it makes your ordinary day brighter. When you clear out some excess from your cupboards, you'll create a place for those appliances that you're not prioritizing this week. Step Five: Be Present When you're making food while stressing about work, school or family, you're likely to leave your kitchen a mess and make mistakes that are bad for your health and peace of mind. Try to think about preparing food, creating a clean kitchen, and being healthy while you're in your kitchen. Clean the dishes with an intention to be fast, efficient, and unperturbed. Chop produce with the intention to slice evenly, safely and without spilling anything onto the floor. Prepare and eat with the intention to the enjoy the food and be nourished by the food. Keeping these thoughts in mind will help prevent mindless slips of the hand that create extra work and more clutter. Step Six: Examine Bulk Purchases Are you benefiting financially from your bulk purchases? If you buy an item in bulk, but don't get a discount, consider buying less at one time to save space. However, if you get 20% off when you buy produce in bulk, consider creative ways to store it: Fruits may be frozen and dehydrated. The dehydrator may be used for storage of dry goods in containers while not in use. Metal bread pans may be used to store sliced fruit in the freezer; an excellent option if you're buying bananas by the case or picking your own berries in the summer time. Many items last for a long time on the counter, such as apples and bananas. If stacked carefully, you can make massive fruit purchases decorative as well as out-of-the-way.
Step Seven: Keep The Dishes Clean & Orderly Avoid leaving dirty dishes around your kitchen, especially if space is limited. A dirty kitchen disinclines you from making a healthy meal because it means cleaning up a big mess before you even get started. Try to 'clean as you go' as you prepare meals. For example, if you're going to chop up a bunch of produce for a salsa, you might currently leave a cutting board, a couple knives, lemon peels, the hand juicer, food processor and so forth, all dirty to be cleaned up after the meal. Instead, try this: – Ensure that your drying rack and sink are clear and clean. Wash your produce. Chop your produce. Put produce into the food processor. – Wash your cutting board and knife(s). Set out your serving dish or eating dishes. Pulse your ingredients into a sauce or chunky salsa. Put salsa into a serving dish or directly into the dishes that are being eaten from. – Wash the food processor. – Wipe down the counters and table. Eat your meal and enjoy it. – Wash the plate(s)/bowl(s) and utensils used for eating. In the above example, the washing is spread out. This means nothing sits around getting sticky and difficult to wash. This also means nothing gets forgotten. Also, it feels much less overwhelming to wash a couple items than it does to wash an entire sink full. If drying rack space is limited, wire frames can be used to somewhat extend the space. This is especially helpful if you often don't have room to dry your large appliances. If on Saturday you make a smoothie for breakfast, juice for brunch, and use your food processor to make a grated salad for lunch, you'll quickly run out of places to put appliances to dry. As shown to the right, a small wire extension can make a large difference. The blender in the photograph would otherwise be entirely unable to fit. Shown in the third photo, the simple addition also gives a few more inches off the edge of the sink, covering up a worrisome gap between sink basin and wall. If your drying space can not be extended, you can place kitchen clothes on the counter or within shelves so that appliances can be put directly into their place without creating pools beneath them.
Step Eight: Filling Hollow Spaces If you've got a microwave, an oven, a dehydrator, a cooler, a rice-cooker, a large cooking pot, etc, then you've got a lot of hollow spaces in your kitchen. You can store dry goods, pots and pans, cutting boards, knives, tea boxes, etc, in these hollow spaces to create more free space for preparing food. For example, if you own a rice cooker, you can store the bags of rice inside the actual cooker. When not currently drying food in your dehydrator, you can store dry foods in sealed bags within. When not using your oven, you can keep it full of pots, pans and baking trays. A cooler may be filled with napkins, disposable cups and plates and other items you may have around specifically for when you go on a trip. You may even use your cooler to store your reusable grocery bags (as long as it is easily accessible). Step Nine: Square Containers If you're using circular containers, consider switching to square. The more square they are (not tapered down to a smaller size at the bottom) the better. Circular containers leave a lot of empty space between them. When you store your nuts, seeds, powders, spices, teas leaves, sprouting seeds, grains, dry beans, dried fruits, etc, in square containers instead, you get the most out of your space. Another option is to use bags with a clip, rubber-band or tie. Bags will fit into whatever space you put them in. This is especially advisable if you're using the drawer of a fridge to store your dry goods. If you're prone to in-fridge spills, consider double-bagging dry goods within the fridge. When traveling, carrying square/rectangular containers in a square/rectangular bag is very convenient. Instead of containers sliding around and turning over in the bag, they sit snugly together without wasting any space. One standard-sized rectangular reusable bag with a reinforced bottom can be filled with an entire set of rectangular glass-lock containers. You'd be able to take enough food for an entire day for two people in just one bag. (I know, I've done it over and over again.) The largest rectangular container may be used for a large salad (drizzled with fresh lemon juice for freshness), the other two rectangular containers for salsa-type dishes, the large square containers for fruit salads, the small square containers for trail-mix-type snacks, and the smallest rectangular containers that come in one set of glass-lock containers may be used for hummus, seed cheese, or some other dip or spread. Insulated reusable bags are a great alternative to coolers. The bags fold up and vanish from sight, whereas the coolers take up a lot of space in the kitchen.
Step Ten: Look Deep Into Your Fridge/Freezer Do you have a large fridge or a tiny one? If your fridge is large and spacious, and usually sporting excess space, then relocate dry grains, nuts, dried fruit, vinegar, condiments and spices to the fridge until your fridge is periodically full. A full fridge is more electricity efficient. If your freezer is spacious, you may put fruits, nuts and seeds that you intend to cook or blend in your freezer. Frozen bananas make an excellent base for a vegan and raw ice cream. I usually have ten bananas in my freezer. A tiny freezer can be frustrating, but because frozen items don't really get “squished” you don't have to stress about a small freezer. You can fill metal bread pans will fruit, cover with parchment paper, and then throw bags of frozen produce on top, or a bowl of leftover ice cream. The tiny freezer to the right can hold six small bags of frozen berries, two bread pans filled with approximately twenty five frozen bananas, and three to four pounds of nuts in the door. In a small fridge, consider rotating condiments. For example, this week use horseradish, next week ketchup, the week after sauerkraut, vinegar the week after that, and so forth. With some creativity and the help of the internet, you can use one condiment twenty different ways throughout the week until it's gone and then replace it with something different. Also, consider what you may be keeping in your fridge that would do just as well on the counter. A citrus bowl of grapefruits, lemons, limes and oranges on your dining table is festive and practical. Another festive addition to your table can be greens put into vases. Instead of tossing kale, chard or celery into the fridge, cut a very thin layer of the bottoms of the chosen green and then put it into a decorative vase on the table or counter. This will remind you of the beauty and health that greens have to offer while leaving more room in your fridge for tubs of pre-washed spinach or jars of kim chi. Using seasonal food as decoration as well as eating the food gives you a perpetual small creative “chore” that provides a continually changing atmosphere. I find this not only helpful with limited space, but with finding peace in the home.
