This weekend, I hope to start the final assault on the front of the rig. I want to have the kitchen, entrance, library, and loft completely done except for perhaps minor decorative touches by the end of 2010. Ambitious, much?
The focus this week has been on fine-tuning my vision of the perfect kitchen. I started to go off on some pretty crazy tangents, coming up with storage ideas for every nook and cranny without even thinking about why I would need more storage or even if I needed it.
Finally, I decided that my biggest issue is with drawer space. Miranda has only three tiny and awkward kitchen drawers:
Over time, my use of them has changed and settled into:
- Top drawer for cutlery and everyday tools;
- Middle drawer for dish towels;
- Bottom drawer for occasionally used tools.
I have had it up to here with digging through that top drawer every time I want a knife, the pizza cutter, a teaspoon, etc. The drawer is too deep and narrow for separators, so everything just gets thrown in.
so sick of this jumble!
Tonight, while working on the final layout for the study, I had an epiphany. Remember my supply cubbies? I have used them for ten years to house all my office supplies. I haven’t been able to find a home for them in Miranda. Moreover, the new desk has drawers with more than enough room for all my supplies. Why not move it to the kitchen?
pizza cutter, tongs, can opener, all easily accessible
miscellaneous stuff in one layer, easy to go through
The top three cubbies aren’t quite the right size to hold the cutlery. I put forks and spoons in at a diagonal on that row, but butter knives had to go diagonally into a larger cubby on the second tier.
My favourite part of the setup is my new coffee centre:
the canister holds coffee, a measure, and powdered milk
I don’t even feel the footprint of the cubbies at all. The counter is very deep there, but not useful for anything other than holding stuff. I’ll be removing the blind and the valance, which will give me an extra inch of space.
Once the cubbies are on skid-proof material, I’ll just need to turn them around for travel.
The top kitchen drawer is now going to hold spices since I don’t like the magnetic spice holder. The middle drawer will now house dish cloths and the bottom drawer, dish towels. This will declutter the space under the sink that was holding dish cloths and give me more room to manoeuvre in there. Getting dizzy yet?
The final thing I need to work on in the kitchen is the pantry (which is actually three overhead cabinets and a cupboard). That has been the biggest work in progress since I moved into the rig, but I’m getting close. One of the things I need to do is reconsider my storage containers so that they stack better. I tend to shop every few days and rarely have a lot of food stored on board, but I want my staples to be more accessible to reduce the number of surprises I get when I go through the pantry once a month or so!
I have to say that my kitchen has turned out to be the biggest surprise about living in Miranda because it is so functional. I’ve always had big kitchens with lots of cabinets, so I’m a bit shocked that this tiny one works so well for me. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I know what tools I need and have pared myself down to just those essentials.
Now, I just need to organize those desk drawers in the study…