Sneak Peak Into My Home- The Kitchen

Ever since moving into my 575 square foot home, I'm sure many of you were wondering how we function in a place so small, and what our home might possibly look like. I'd wanted to show you pictures as soon as we got settled in, but as luck would have it, one thing after another happened and my home has not been perfect yet. My home is a work in progress and there are always projects going on.

I'd been embarrassed of the fact that my home is not up to my standards yet, and hence hadn't posted pictures yet.

Finally, I've come to terms with the fact that as a frugal person without much money, projects will remain on the back burner until there is money to fund them and time to do them, as we won't be hiring others to do these tasks for us.
I've chosen to give you a tour of my home, one room at a time, even if it is not yet perfect. You can be proud of your home even if it has not yet reached completion, even if your home is a work in progress. A smart and well taken care of home, filled with life and happiness is a home to share with others, even if it was furnished cheaply and simply. I'm pleased with my home and how it looks, and would like to invite you in for a cup of tea and a tour.




On the plans for today, a sneak peak into my kitchen.

The kitchen is but one part of the largest room in my home. My home is comprised of 1 large kitchen/dining room/living room, 1 large bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 hallway, 2 sets of stairs and 1 closet of a room.

It was a bit hard to take pictures of the kitchen as it contains a window which lets in an enormous amount of sunlight, making it a bit too bright for most pictures. Any fuzziness in pictures is because of the intense sunlight that we couldn't block out, even with our curtains. (And you wonder why I see no need for electric lights most of the time.)



Here is a picture of 90% of the kitchen area. To the right of this picture, there is my oven and refrigerator, but I wasn't really able to capture them in pictures. All the way to the left, you see our toy boxes made of re-purposed laundry hampers.



We felt that the kitchen didn't come with enough storage space, so we used this wicker shelf to give us some more room to keep things. To the right, we have an onion and potato vegetable rack, found free and in perfect condition in the dumpster.



On the top shelf of the unit, far out of reach of babies, we keep our jars filled with all sorts of goodies. Shown  above are glass jars filled with homemade pear vinegar (covered with a cloth), lacto-fermented sauerkraut, curried sauerkraut, popcorn kernels, baking soda, and cocoa. Not shown- jars of beans, oats, sugar, chickpeas and corn starch. Have you noticed I love jars?


On the shelf beneath, I keep all my bottles and jars of things that don't need refrigeration, like molasses, sesame oil, vinegar, olive oil, palm oil, nut oil, soy sauce, etc.



I originally tried to keep unbreakable containers and other non dangerous kitchen equipment on the bottom shelves that were in reach of the kids, but some little baby decided that his favorite game was to empty out the shelves at least 10 times a day. Eventually my husband got fed up and put grates on as doors. These grates swing open once you open the latch, but the kids aren't strong enough to do that, helping to keep the things on the shelf and the kitchen free of clutter. Oh, and the bottom shelf is now filled with toys.



Here you see the wicker shelf, onion shelf and a bit of my counter space. On it are some jars of lacto-fermented salsa and homemade pickles as well as some ceramic containers where we keep salt and citric acid.



Here's a frontal view of the counter space, with a glimpse of the oven and refrigerator to the right.
I love that I have such a big counter to work with. It makes making things from scratch so much easier.
Because space is at a premium, we do store some things on the counter like our wooden spoons and mugs and a dish rack.
The cabinets and drawers under the counter hold cooking equipment and spices. The upper right hand cupboard holds our food and the upper left cupboard holds our dishes. Anything else gets stored on top of the cupboards or on top of our fridge.

What do you think of our kitchen? Does it seem small or large compared to yours? I happen to think that for a small apartment, we got a pretty decently sized kitchen and that definitely makes my life more enjoyable!