Improvements in the kitchen

The kitchen is slowly coming to life again and I'm really enjoying working there. I'm still getting used to baking in an electric oven, I burnt my first loaf of bread in the new oven = : O , but it's just a matter of slowly working with the new and getting used to the settings.

I took advantage of the upheaval to scrutinise how I work in my kitchen and thought carefully about changes. For the past few years, every six months or so, I look at how I do my chores and how we use our indoor and outdoor spaces, and then, if they need it, modify them to improve what I do or how we use particular areas. By doing these mini audits I've slowly improved how I work and made changes that make working easier. It's a good habit to get into because I weed out what doesn't work and replace it with something more functional.

But I never did that in the kitchen because it always felt like too much of a task. I knew there were areas that needed changing and I could improve the flow of my work, but I didn't want to change it. I knew that doing one cupboard would lead to another and I'd have the entire kitchen upside-down. So I just ignored it.

Until now.

And now I wish I'd done it years ago because the changes are so good. I swapped the plates with the saucepans, so now the plates that we use all the time are in a slide out drawer and the pots that are used maybe once a day are in a lower cupboard. We also had the cat food tins in with the good glasses. Why! They've been moved to the stockpile cupboard and now when I need something in that cupboard I won't we moving a carton of cat food. Some things are so familiar they are only obvious in retrospect.

I modified the shelves in the pantry to make things more accessible and slightly tweaked other areas. I've tried to place things close to where they will be used. I don't care if they might look out of place because I want the kitchen to be easy to work in and I believe a functional kitchen is beautiful. So as you can see in the photo below, the dishcloths are in an old metal container on the window sill close to the sink.

The dishcloth on the top here was sent to me with some Christmas decorations and herbs by my good and kind friend, Niki. Thank you Niki. They will be lovely reminders of you to use in the coming year.

We still tweaking the windows. I haven't yet sewn the top valance for the curtains but the lower curtains are hanging. Hanno attached them too low at first, now they're too high but I'll live with them happily until he feels like lowering them again. LOL

And most of the things on the window sill won't stay there but haven't quite made it into a cupboard yet. We'll get there eventually.

I'm happy with what we and the workmen have done. I'm very happy with the quality of their workmanship and in some areas they've significantly improved what was there. We hope these improvements and modifications will serve us well in the coming years as we don't want to change it again anytime in the foreseeable future.

Hmmmm, I must get that kettle down from the top of the cupboards, it, like the cat food, has been sitting there for donkey's years (and I'm not really sure why). : )

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