#10 Cheap, Renter-Friendly Improvements for Small Kitchens

From the Archives: Greatest Hits

All the small space goodness from last month inspired me to make some tweaks and additions to make my small Brooklyn kitchen more serviceable and user-friendly (especially since I am its primary user). The changes are affordable, renter-friendly and, hopefully, helpful to some of you simmering and sautéing away in your own small kitchens.

1. Over-the-Stove Cutting Board: small kitchens are a challenge not just for storing things but for actually cooking. To gain a bit more usable counter space I purchased this bamboo cutting board that fits across two burners. If you don't use your stove much you could leave it there most of them time. Or, of course, you can just bring it out when you need more surface area to work on. I used it for an easier quesadilla assembly line recently and it was a great improvement. If you're curious, the one I have is by Lipper International and available through Amazon. Wayfair. Bed Bath Beyond and more for around $23.

2. Vertical, Affordable Recycling Holder: Do you recognize this piece? It's from the kids' section of IKEA and is mainly marketed as a toy bin. I use it to hold recycling and it's just big enough to hold nearly a week's worth for my family of four. It's a TROFAST frame ($29.99) with two TROFAST storage boxes ($5/each).

3. Mini Dust Pan Brush Secured to Fridge: Tired of getting the broom out of the closet every time there was something small to sweep up in the kitchen (like a bit of flour, coffee grinds, etc.) I had the idea to get a very small dust pan and stick it on the fridge. See below for an adhesive method that did not work - what did work was Scotch brand fasteners (adhesive on one side, Velcro-esque on the other). The mini dust pan is by Oxo ($6) and they also make a similarly small, but differently shaped one for a buck more.

Public Service Announcement: I first tried to hang the dust pan on the fridge with glued-on magnets. I don't know if the glue I was using wasn't up to the task (Gorilla Glue Super Glue) or if the plastic surface wasn't porous enough, but this method only lasted a few tries before the magnets came off and stuck to the fridge instead of the dust pan. Maybe you can make this method work, but I recommend skipping the frustration.

9. Simple pot lid container: This tip isn't just for small kitchens. My uncontained pot lids were making me batty and taking up much more space than they needed to. I researched, I pinned, I plotted, I planned. And found many terrific ideas and products. And then I just happened to see this simple plastic tub that was the right size and shape and solved my problem in perhaps not the most elegant way, but in a quick, cheap ($9), efficient way. It is actually intended to be a pull-out container but there is a lip (not pictured) on the bottom of this cabinet which would make that tricky so I decided, for once, to make things easier on myself and just forgo that functionality and simply use the bin to contain my pot lids. Nothing fancy, but it does the job just fine.