My pantry overhaul plans have inspired me to rethink my kitchen too!
Now that we have lived in our kitchen a while, there are a few things that we could rearrange to make life a little easier. For example, I don't have a great place to keep serving pieces (platters, large bowls) that I don't use often. I am hoping that once we decide on some kind of buffet or sideboard for our dining room we can store some of those things in there, but for now I need to figure out a place to put them that they will be safe.
The other thing I've been having a hard time deciding on is what small appliances to keep out and which to keep away. Right now I have my coffee maker, espresso machine and coffee grinder out to make a kind of coffee bar area. The cabinet above them contain all of our coffee mugs, travel mugs, coffee, filters, scoop, etc. I like how this set up looks a lot, so I will be keeping this out even though we don't use it every day.
In addition to my coffee station, I have a toaster, crocpot, bread machine, and kitchen aid stand mixer out on my counters. I know this sounds like A LOT but I have kind of a ton of counter space. I have about 9 feet of uninterrupted counter space on one side of my kitchen, plus a couple feet here and there on two other sides.
I keep my mixer out because I use it more than once a month, and it's heavy and a pain to move around. I'm on the fence about storing it away.
I honestly don't know why I keep my crocpot out, I use it 1-2 times a month probably, but it's light weight, smallish and easy to move around. This might be going into hiding when not in use.
I use my bread machine at least once a week. But even this is pretty easy to move around, and could possible find a hiding place when not being used.
The toaster... I kind of feel like it's so small that putting it away would be more trouble than it's worth.
I would also kind of like to get a toaster oven. We used to have one, but it was round on top and had a really hard to clean door. We ended up donating that to Goodwill a little while before we moved. I miss having a toaster over though. It was nice for reheating pizza and toasting bread and melting cheese for a sandwich at the same time, I don't really know if those two reasons are really enough to warrant adding another appliance to my collection, but it is something I think about.
If you have any suggestions on my appliance situation please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.
Now that we have lived in our kitchen a while, there are a few things that we could rearrange to make life a little easier. For example, I don't have a great place to keep serving pieces (platters, large bowls) that I don't use often. I am hoping that once we decide on some kind of buffet or sideboard for our dining room we can store some of those things in there, but for now I need to figure out a place to put them that they will be safe.
The other thing I've been having a hard time deciding on is what small appliances to keep out and which to keep away. Right now I have my coffee maker, espresso machine and coffee grinder out to make a kind of coffee bar area. The cabinet above them contain all of our coffee mugs, travel mugs, coffee, filters, scoop, etc. I like how this set up looks a lot, so I will be keeping this out even though we don't use it every day.
I keep my mixer out because I use it more than once a month, and it's heavy and a pain to move around. I'm on the fence about storing it away.
I honestly don't know why I keep my crocpot out, I use it 1-2 times a month probably, but it's light weight, smallish and easy to move around. This might be going into hiding when not in use.
I use my bread machine at least once a week. But even this is pretty easy to move around, and could possible find a hiding place when not being used.
The toaster... I kind of feel like it's so small that putting it away would be more trouble than it's worth.
I would also kind of like to get a toaster oven. We used to have one, but it was round on top and had a really hard to clean door. We ended up donating that to Goodwill a little while before we moved. I miss having a toaster over though. It was nice for reheating pizza and toasting bread and melting cheese for a sandwich at the same time, I don't really know if those two reasons are really enough to warrant adding another appliance to my collection, but it is something I think about.
If you have any suggestions on my appliance situation please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.