All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Fellow small kitchen-havers: Hello! I am coming to you live from the room in my apartment where I spend all of my time, which has zero counter space, one single drawer, and not enough cabinets to house both my pantry ingredients and my dishes. Thanks to the prep table I bought online (and the fact that I'm okay with my “kitchen” spilling out far beyond its allotted footprint—see: stacks of bowls by the TV), I have managed to create a little more elbow room for all of my cooking and baking exploits, but I would be lying if I said it was easy. Maximizing space without limiting the kinds of projects I can tackle has required a lot of creative problem solving, investing in multi-purpose products, and prioritizing versatility over aesthetics. Having a small kitchen is a lifestyle, but with the right tools, it doesn't have to be a restrictive one.
Tight quarters demand you rein it in on kitchen appliances and tools, so every item you do bring into your space should be purposeful and specific. Below are seven things that can help you make the most of the room you're working with—even if you're used to keeping baking supplies behind the couch.
Quarter sheet pans and rack
If your oven is too small to fit a half sheet pan, you'll need to invest in some quarter sheets to make the most of your appliance. But even if you've got a full-sized oven at your disposal, it's worth it to keep a few of these bad boys around. First, they're small enough to fit, stacked, in a kitchen drawer, and have less surface area to clean, which makes them a weeknight cooking favorite of mine. They can tackle any scaled-down roasting or baking project, like a personal vegetable-and-chicken-thigh dinner, six chocolate chip cookies, Texas sheet cake for a small group, or bacon for two. And they double as helpful tools around the kitchen: Use one to create countertop flavor station, organize a fridge shelf, or help keep your workspace clean while you prep. Look for a pan that comes with a rack, or buy a rack to fit into the quarter sheet pans you already own, to ensure that your shrunken sheet can do everything its bigger brethren can.
Immersion blender with food chopper hook-up
An immersion blender is the kind of tool you don't think you need until you get one and find yourself reaching for it five times a week. Especially if you get a model with a few different attachments (I have the Cuisinart Smart Stick and love it), the compact tool can take the place of a number of bulkier kitchen gadgets. Use the main implement to purée soup or sauce right in the pot you cooked it in, or blend a smoothie in the tall vessel it comes with, which keeps everything neatly contained. The whisk attachment is ideal for making whipped cream on the fly or beating egg whites to fold into pancakes without getting a serious arm workout or using a bigger appliance. And my favorite add-on, the chopper, acts like a miniature food processor, pulverizing vegetables for soffritto or salsa, roughly breaking down beans for burgers, and more. Best of all, because the motorized handle easily separates from each of the attachments, cleanup is a breeze.
Wire mesh strainer
Multi-purpose tools are a small kitchen's best friend, and a wire mesh strainer is as versatile as it gets. I use mine to perform all sorts of culinary tasks, like rinsing canned beans, sifting powdered sugar over cakes, steaming bao, and poaching eggs. It's much more space-efficient than a giant colander, so I pull it out whenever I might have reached for that tool as well, like when I'm washing fresh produce or draining pasta. Stick yours in your stove-side utensil crock if you have room for one, or set the rounded part in a stack of bowls in a cabinet, with the handle pointed to the side for easy access—though if you're anything like me, your fine mesh strainer will spend most of its time on the dish drying rack, having always just been used and cleaned.
Pretty nesting mixing bowls
You need a set of mixing bowls in your kitchen no matter what, so opt for a set that's functional, space-saving, and good looking. These team favorite Bamboozle bowls are tall rather than wide and nest neatly, which means they take up less room in your cabinets. They also come in a variety of colors in a pleasant matte finish, which looks much nicer than hard plastic; they can easily double as serving vessels for salads and sides.
Cordless hand mixer
For baking aficionados, the biggest bummer of a small kitchen is usually the lack of storage to house a stand mixer. But you don't need to forgo homemade cookies and cakes just because you're wanting for counter space (or accessible electrical outlets). This cord-free hand mixer from KitchenAid is sleekly designed to stand up on its own, which mean you don't have to rest the whisk or beater attachments against a bowl. We love the a soft-start feature, which slowly ramps up to higher of the seven-speed options without splattering, and that a full charge lasts a long time—it can apparently make 200 cookies before you'll need to plug it in. And the fact that it's cordless means you can cream butter and sugar wherever makes the most sense in your kitchen, regardless of where the outlets are.
Nice, big (but not too big) cutting board
If outfitting a small kitchen with a big cutting board seems like a bad idea, you have yet to explore just how useful a hefty piece of wood can be. A high quality model is certainly great for chopping vegetables and slicing meat on your countertop, but I use my biggest, sturdiest cutting board to expand my useable work space. By placing it over the sink or on top of my stove (while turned off, of course!), I create an added square foot of work surface, for prepping ingredients or to stabilize an appliance. The only outlet in my kitchen is right by the stove, so I use my cutting board to create a level surface over the burners upon which to set my food processor. You could buy a specialty board that's built for this purpose, but I think any nice, solid wood cutting board does the trick. Just be sure to measure your space so you don't get a board too big to store—and treat it with mineral oil every once in a while.
