Creating Kitchen Counter Space

Our new home that we are moving to this week will be the first time that I will have more than enough counter space for all the cooking and baking I love to do. Before I was married I had a very small apartment kitchen. Once we were married we lived in a slightly larger apartment with a slightly larger kitchen, but still small, and as much as I loved our town home, it's kitchen is on the small side too.

Through this experience I learned to be creative with maximizing the space I had - all dishes go immediately into the sink or dishwasher once I am done with them, ingredients are used and immediately put away, and only one project at a time as much as possible!

But even these steps were not enough sometimes. So I found five things that have worked well to create extra counter space.

First, I tried very hard to keep our cupboards clutter-free and as clear as possible.

When I was baking I would put cooling racks, or items that needed to rise on top of our breakfast hutch and table, rather than taking up valuable space on the counters I was still using!

I would use the table like a staging area when I needed the extra space.

I would put my slow cooker across two stove elements as it was level enough, and when I was using the slow cooker I was not using those elements, but still needed my counters!

In dire circumstances, like when I made large batches of stuffed chicken for the freezer, I would put a large plastic cutting board over my sink so that I would have one long work station!