The Best Cookware and Tools for Small Kitchens (2024): Storage, Cookware, and Other Tips

You’ve received a dilemma. You like to prepare dinner, and you like to eat, however your kitchen has no room to arrange meals. Seriously, it is like gerbil furnishings. You may simply declare all hope misplaced and rationalize consuming out evening and day. But you and I each know it is so much more healthy and cheaper to prepare dinner for your self.

As somebody who lives in New York City, I do know a factor or two about small kitchens. Over the years, my colleagues and I’ve examined numerous items of furnishings and different kitchen gear to assist make cooking in a small house simpler (and saner). Don’t overlook to take a look at our different buying guides, together with the Best Cookbooks, Best Chef Knives, and Best Pots and Pans.

Updated March 2024: We’ve added the Umbra Tug paper towel holder, Oxo spatula set, Le Creuset Revolution scraping spoon, and PUR faucet water filter.

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Maximize Storage Space

Magnets are hidden beneath this wooden, wall-mounted bar that may home your knives. That means they will not chip or uninteresting your knife blades like an all-metal bar. Skip the countertop knife block—not solely does it take up counter house, however it additionally dulls the knife blades extra rapidly.

Getting these pots and pans onto the wall will liberate treasured drawer and cupboard house. This bamboo and aluminum rack holds as much as 30 kilos, however mine has been rock-solid and sturdy even with a full set of stainless-steel cookware and cast-iron skillets. If you are mounting into drywall and not studs, decide up some E-Z Anchors. If you do not have room for a shelf, a hanging bar will nonetheless get skillets, saucepans, and woks out of your manner.

Store your cooking utensils in a ceramic container when you’re low on drawer house. This has sufficient room to carry all of your spoons, spatulas, and tongs and is out there in a number of colours. You may get the 1-quart version for $35.

WIRED opinions editor Julian Chokkattu lives in New York City and has seen his fair proportion of tiny kitchens. He’s used this Simplehuman wall-mounted paper towel holder for years with zero issues. You can use a couple of easy screws to mount it into drywall (it is easy to patch the holes with some spackle when you’re renting). Replacing a roll is lifeless easy too. Why take up treasured counter house with a paper towel holder when you’ll be able to mount it as a substitute? If you like a countertop resolution, I’ve used this Umbra Tug holder ($17) for years, and its weighted base and rubber-coated stem make it straightforward to tear a small quantity with one hand.

Tight on fridge house? Swap from a pitcher filter to a faucet-mounted filter to liberate various house in your fridge cabinets. The gross sales literature says it will filter 100 gallons, which ought to imply about three months of utilization earlier than it wants a alternative filter. You can purchase a PUR Filter Replacement two-pack for $25. I prepare dinner so much at house and make so much of espresso, so my filters are inclined to final about half that, however figuring out that it is eradicating potential contaminants from my meals and ingesting water makes the common filter replacements effectively value it. A color-coded mild prompts everytime you run the filter, so you may know when to exchange the filter. My earlier mannequin lasted greater than seven years, and the alternative I purchased final month appears to be like almost similar.

WIRED opinions editor Julian Chokkattu has been utilizing the StoveShelf for greater than a yr and loves it. It’s a sensible manner to avoid wasting counter house, and it is easy to scrub. This is only a sheet of metallic with magnets on the base, and it sticks to the highest of a range, making it tremendous straightforward to put in. You’ll want to verify this a part of your range is metallic and not plastic, and that there aren’t any buttons or switches that could be blocked (like an oven mild). The rear guard ensures that nothing falls into that hole between your range and the wall. I’d be certain to keep away from placing any cooking oil there.

You needn’t use treasured counter house to retailer recent fruit and greens. Leave your tomatoes, potatoes, and stone fruit out of the fridge and regain some prep house for knife dealing with and mixing bowls.

Here’s one other one which WIRED opinions editor Julian Chokkattu purchased in 2022. This pantry storage system will take up some ground house, however when you can swing it, it can save you a lot counter house, and it is particularly nice for anybody with restricted cupboards. It’s daunting at first as a result of it is available in what looks as if 1,000,000 items; it took Julian round 4 hours to finish with no points. But within the yr he is had it, it is labored completely and has been a boon to preserving his kitchen much less chaotic. The doorways shut magnetically. Just measure the peak of the cabinets to make sure your spices and different pantry gadgets will match.

Rather than use a wall-mounted spice rack, WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe sticks magnetic spice jars to her fridge. She likes Gneiss Spice, which is available in a number of ready-made kits. You may specify the spices you want.

Consolidate (and Downsize) Your Cookware

A Dutch oven can change a number of single-use pots or machines. I’ve used mine to steam oysters, slow-cook stews, and make barbecue, and the sturdy, nonstick enameled floor requires much less care and consideration than naked forged iron, though I want a non-enamel one for baking bread.

Forget the Keurig or Mr. Coffee that hogs up counter house even when it is idle. An AeroPress makes better-tasting espresso, and it may be rinsed and stowed away in a drawer afterward. We additionally just like the Hario Pour-Over Coffee Dripper for $28 and the Frieling 23-Fluid-Ounce Stainless Steel French Press for $120. I’ve used each for years. They’ll by no means put on out, and they make great coffee.

How typically do you utilize that quesadilla maker or steaming basket? One multicooker can change a number of specialised machines. Aside from being a strain cooker, steamer, sauté pan, rice cooker, yogurt maker, meals hotter, and sluggish cooker, it has 13 customizable settings for pressure-cooking every part from beans to soup to poultry. Read our Best Multicookers information for extra suggestions.

These silicone Oxo spatulas are available in three totally different sizes. All are nonstick and gave me no problem with clinging to even the stickiest doughs. Not as soon as did one slip out of my fingers—little doubt due to the terribly grippy floor.

Plenty of recipes ask you to scrape the underside of the pan or Dutch oven to dislodge all of the scrumptious bits of components that caramelize and keep on with it, however your choices for what to dislodge it with are considerably restricted. Metal spoons can scratch the end off cast-iron or nonstick pans. Plastic is just too slick for the job. Enter the beechwood Revolution, which is agency sufficient for scraping however will not hurt delicate pots and pans. Sure, it is costly, however its ergonomic deal with is comfy for lengthy cooking periods, and the flat edge meant that I did not as soon as come up in opposition to a sticky layer that I could not break freed from the skillet backside.

A stand mixer on the countertop is a robust kitchen device, however it takes up lots of helpful house. Consider a hand mixer you’ll be able to stash inside a cupboard or drawer as a substitute. It’s not fairly as capable of energy by way of the thickest of doughs, however I’ve had no bother mixing up chocolate chip cookie dough and Irish soda bread dough with this KitchenHelp hand mixer, and it spins quick sufficient for me to make whipped cream.

You do not want that many knives. Ditch the 10-inch knife set: An 8- or 9-inch chef’s knife, a smaller paring knife, a bread knife, and perhaps a few specialty blades will suffice. This general-purpose chef’s knife is advisable as our best choice for most individuals in our chef’s knife buying guide, due to its means to carry an edge and its near-nonstick floor.

WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe makes most of her meals on this cross between a skillet, a frying pan, and a sauté pan. “It doesn’t shine in one area over any other,” she says, “but it’s sturdy, it heats up evenly, and the stainless-steel surface cleans up easily in the dishwasher.”

If you do not have sufficient prep house to deal with a knife safely, a meals processor can slice and cube as much as three cups of components at a time. WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano loves utilizing hers to make recent pasta sauce.

Add Prep Surfaces

Cutting boards take up a ton of room throughout meal preparation. Buy one which’s made to suit over your sink, like this stable maple slicing board. Hardwood is simpler in your knife blades than bamboo, too.

Mounting a drop-leaf desk to a close-by wall can liberate house in the course of your kitchen and make it simpler to stroll round. Aside from providing a spot to eat, it is 20 by 36 inches of further counter house that swings down and away when not in use.

Burner covers add house to your cooktop by making a spot to set down an additional slicing board or utensils. This bamboo workstation can cowl half your stovetop. Get two for a steady flat floor over all 4 burners.

For a tiny kitchen, follow a rolling kitchen cart that measures 36 inches (91 centimeters) vast or much less, reminiscent of this one which measures slightly below 30 inches (76 centimeters). It has a stable butcher-block prime, three hooks for oven mitts and hanging utensils, and locking wheels. You can tuck it right into a nook of your kitchen and wheel it out once you want extra counter house.

How to Move within the Kitchen

Here are some ideas from WIRED senior author Scott Gilbertson, who labored within the restaurant trade for six years and is aware of his manner round tight cooking areas: