Getting the total image of what you’re coping with would require pulling every part out into the open a la Marie Kondo. So put together a big space in your counter or desk and lay out all your cookware, devices, dishes, cookbooks, and the rest that lives within the kitchen. When you’ve got numerous stuff, you might have to do that class by class, and that’s high quality.
As you unearth meals storage containers you don’t recall shopping for (plus that juicer you ordered from the infomercial a decade in the past) you’ll possible come throughout multiples of a couple of factor. Be ruthless about eliminating duplicate objects and something you haven’t touched in years. For instance: Should you can’t keep in mind the final time you made muffins, you definitely don’t want three muffin tins. You most likely don’t even want one—particularly if it wasn’t even on the record you simply made.
Put aside (however don’t pack) the keepers
If you come throughout the objects you’d prefer to take with you, put them in a chosen place—however don’t pack them for the transfer simply but. As a substitute, wait till you’ve gone by way of every part (cookware, dishes, cutlery, flatware, glassware, devices, utensils, cookbooks, kitchen towels, and so on.) as a result of there’s an excellent likelihood that while you see all the “keepers” collectively, it should nonetheless really feel like an excessive amount of.
From right here, you’ll be able to proceed reducing down your gear and make a couple of space-saving swaps that can assist you cook dinner comfortably in your new kitchen.
Make sensible swaps on your smaller kitchen
Consolidate your cookware
Much less is extra, particularly while you’re downsizing, and it can save you fairly a little bit of kitchen space for storing by swapping a big cookware set for a couple of tremendous versatile items. In reality, most house cooks can get by with solely a saucepan, a skillet (chrome steel, forged iron, carbon metal, or nonstick, relying in your choice), and a high-quality enameled forged iron Dutch oven.
A Dutch oven is maybe essentially the most versatile piece of cookware you should buy as a result of you should use it for simmering, sautéeing, slow-cooking, boiling, browning, braising, deep-frying, and even baking.
In case your present kitchen appears like a small equipment showroom, it’s most likely time to ditch your assortment of countertop cookers and change them with a compact convection oven that may do the work of your toaster, sluggish cooker, dehydrator, and air fryer. Some fashions, just like the Anova Precision Oven and Breville’s Joule Oven Air Fryer Professional even have steam and/or sous vide features—and the perfect multi-ovens are extra exact and environment friendly than normal residential ranges too. I’m so in love with my countertop convection oven, I now use my full-size oven completely for storage.
Years earlier than I formally downsized resulting from my divorce, I took greater than 60% of my then-family-of-four’s on a regular basis tableware out of rotation and caught it in a field within the basement. Residing with solely the items we wanted was life-changing—largely as a result of there was now not a relentless pile of dirties on the counter. And if I wanted a plate earlier than I used to be able to run the dishwasher, I’d simply hand-wash it.
