When I remodeled my house, I choose to lose a cabinet of drawers in order to add a dishwasher. I badly needed the space so I opted for a drawer dishwasher by Fisher & Paykel that fits into a microwave cabinet and allows a deep drawer underneath. I’ve been living with this remodel for two years now and have loved it.
Past Kitchen Layouts:
My previous kitchen had so many cabinets that it still required significant downsizing to fit into this kitchen. As it stands now, I have some large specialty kitchen items in the basement such as my KitchenAid mixer, a large wok, some of the smaller pots and skillets, and knives I don’t use often. Ultimately, I have not used them for a long time but I don’t cook enough to feel confident in my downsizing decisions.
I’ve lived with and cooked in an even smaller kitchen than this one. I had a one-wall kitchen that had the 3/4 fridge and half oven all on that one small wall. What this taught me is that very little space is actually required to eat at home regularly. Circumstances have changed in my life and the things that I ate regularly I can no longer eat. For example, I’ve discovered that nightshades are a significant MCAS trigger for me so I can no longer eat tomato sauces.
Since my diet has to change, my kitchen requirements are changed as well. Some of my indecision has been that I haven’t found a perfectly safe menu yet. I’m working on it. I do know that food sanitation is much more important for me. You can read more about what that means in my previous post regarding kitchen safety. Clear surfaces help significantly in this department. I also opted for high tolerance surfaces so I can put hot pans on any surface in my kitchen and I can use vinegar on all surfaces as well.
Step 1: Identify the Purpose of the Deep Drawer
I’ve shuffled things around a lot in this kitchen and have decluttered a bunch. I’ll show other spaces in other posts but this drawer is one of my easiest access storage spaces. It’s deep enough for large mixing bowls and shorter appliances such as a toaster or crockpot, but it would not fit a Dutch oven or Instantpot.
After many experiments, I’ve decided that this drawer is primarily for the items I use during meal preparation. At the moment this includes:
- Crockpot
- Seal-a-meal vacuum sealer
- Mixing bowl
- Strainer
- Rolling pin
- Spatulas/wisk
- Knife sharpener
- Meat fork
- Scale
Step 2: Current state
There are two stacked mixing bowls in the drawer. I decluttered the one with a lip which took up an extra inch of room on all sides. While I use both, I don’t need both. The two Tupperware Mix-n-Stor and small pitcher items I’ve moved to the small cabinet over the microwave because they stack and have handles that I can easily reach in that hard-to-reach spot.
The strainer I love because it holds itself over the middle of a double sink, it has feet, and it’s easy to clean.
STEP 3: Determine what isn’t working
The primary issue was the Seal-a-Meal was above the microwave and is awkward to move with one hand. Additionally, it has a chord that kept the door from shutting. It’s something that I would dig out maybe once a month so I didn’t access it a lot but it’s not easy to put away above the microwave.
So I moved the Tupperware up to the microwave cabinet and the Seal-a-Meal to the deep drawer as shown below. I also moved some microwave veggie bags that I forgot about into this cabinet so I would use them. Then, I decluttered the small black box which had chopsticks I bought in Japan.
I used the drawer for several months like this but things would shift every time I pulled something out, especially with the rolling pin down in the bottom of the drawer.
At this stage, I knew that the items that were in the drawer were what I wanted (minus the black box of chopsticks). The thing that would make this space work better for me would be to either create more space between items or to have containers that keep items from shifting when I removed the bowl or appliances.
STEP 4: Organize for function
I had these two freezer organizers from when I had a full-sized fridge. My current one is counter depth and these won’t fit, so I was using them in an upper cabinet sideways like I am in the drawer. I happen to know the better option would be two side-by-side containers that I already use in another cabinet. So I’m using these here to see if they would work better.
Sadly, I can’t find a method to store a full-sized rolling pin that wouldn’t keep me from storing the bowl. The knife sharpener was able to fit in these freezer bins, so that will help keep items from shifting. I can also pull the larger bin out and have all the components for the Seal-a-Meal.
I’ve also relocated baking pan wax sheets into this drawer and pop tabs that I collect for donation. I’m considering getting a smaller rolling pin. Doughs are not a large part of my life and the last time I used the rolling pin was for making homemade pizza dough.
For now, I will use the space like this. Future options would be to get a shorter rolling pin and put that and the spatulas in the bin with the plastic wrap and aluminum wrap. Instead, I’d put those where the rolling pin is.