The kitchen is one room in the house that will no doubt be high up the list of importance for potential buyers. After all, it is the heart of the home. 

If you’re selling you might like to consider the follow options before staging your home for market. If you are buying, you can always add these things into your new home, making the small kitchen not such a big deal after all.

Design’s to consider

Although stripes vs spots is a good debate, I’m talking more along the lines of hidden items, draws and appliances. Small kitchens are everywhere and as such, companies have developed just the thing to help you make the most of yours.

You can add more counter space into your small kitchen for when you need it by hiding it. Pull out counter tops are amazing! Giving you more room in your kitchen to prepare meals when you need it and giving you more space to move around your small kitchen when you don’t. You can even have them so they look like draws and no one will ever know. You can also get chopping boards to fit over your sink when you are not using it, a great way to make the most of all those nooks and crannies.

Having a magnet strip attached to wall is a great way to store your knives, preferably up high where our little ones cannot get them. This saves room from having that big bulky knife block taking up valuable bench space in your small kitchen.

Chances are if you have a small kitchen you will have smaller appliances, so we need to be creative with space. If you have a smaller fridge to fit then you can consider little draws that clip onto the bottom of shelf of the fridge, you can have three in a row for small prepared items, small fruit items or pop your left overs in there. Having containers that are stackable is a great idea to utilize space. One article talked about adding strong magnets to the roof of your fridge so you could pop your metal lidded jars there and keep them off the shelf or fridge door rack to clear some more room.

Hanging is a great option

What a wonderful way to use up all that spare space above us in the kitchen and there are so many items you can use this for.

Pots and pans are an obvious one, they even have little hook holes in the end of the handle ready for you to hang. Most home wares stores such as Bunnings and Mitre 10 have many options for you to choose from. Depending on the size and amount you have, this might even eliminate the need to have a pots and pans cupboard at all!

Commonly used kitchen utensils are another item. You can buy racks that fit vertically on the wall rather than hanging and fit a huge amount on them. A small one might be useful for your stirring spoons, spatulas and tongs you use most often. 

You might like to also add some hanging options on the inside of your cupboard doors and pantry. There are so many places out of sight you can use. This idea is also useful for your spice racks instead of the large bench storage options.

What to bring with you and what to replace

If you have bought the home and you’re ready to move in you might like to consider replacing a few items to make more space for your small kitchen.

If your pot cupboard is like most homes you will have an array of mixed and matched ones you have added to your collection along the way. Replacing these with a set can save you space as they will be designed to all fit inside each other for easy stacking. Think how much cupboard room this one thing will save you.

The same can go for your dinner set, it may be chipped and missing a few bits and pieces anyway. Choose something where the bowls will all fit together nicely and not be super high. This will also save you valuable space in the dishwasher later, win win.

It can also be a good time to upgrade the toaster to something a little more streamline, same goes for the jug. With some great models out there to choose from you might find something funky or a colour that will complement your new small kitchen.


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Brent Palmer – Professional Real Estate Consultant

About the Author: The above article on Making the most of a small kitchen was written and provided by Brent Palmer, a local leader in the field of Richmond and Nelson Real Estate sales, marketing, advanced technology for home selling, and social media. You can contact Brent Palmer here, or at 027 544 9921.

He has helped many people buy and sell homes in the Nelson, Stoke and Richmond areas for years, and would love the opportunity to help you as well.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a real passion for helping people sell their homes in our Nelson and Tasman Region, as well as the marketing, social media & advanced technology for home selling that goes along with it. I’d love to have the opportunity to sit down with you discuss how we can work together to get you the best price.

I help people buy and sell real estate in the following Nelson and Tasman  towns  & neighbourhoods: Wakefield, Brightwater, Hope, Appleby, Redwood Valley, Mapua, Stoke, Tahunanui, Atawhai and of course, Richmond and Nelson City. Connect with Brent on Facebook and pretty much everywhere else.

Know someone who needs help with real estate? Be rewarded and REFER them here