A tour of my itty bitty apartment kitchen...

A couple of other bloggers have done this in the past, and I've always enjoyed the posts. Maybe it's because I'm nosey, but I love seeing other people's kitchens! So, here's mine. I live in a one bedroom apartment in the Ghent section of Norfolk where the buildings are very old and creaky, so you can imagine the antiquated kitchens. But I love them because they almost always have gas stoves (a must for me).

This is a step up from my last apartment kitchen, which had no counter - I swear.


ABOVE: This first photo was taken from the doorway to my kitchen. The kitchen of a little apartment is usually always busy and it's no different for me. Little sugar's food and water bowl are here, we keep brown paper bags full of recyclables, the back door (which we use most often - that leads to our parking lot) is here. So yeah - it's busy. This is a great stove, because it's a full-size one (not an efficiency stove). I also just got around to nailing my skillets to the wall. This is also where I keep my strainer (I use it ALL the time). At the top left is a shelf that was there when we moved in and I use it to dry my dishes. To the left of the sink is really the only counter space. I made a little more with a cart that I bought at target. It works well and covers up an awkward space with peeling linoleum (ew). I keep my pepper grinder, cooking utensils and Vitamix here.

BELOW: A shot of my "counter space" if you can call it that. I keep my knives and cutting boards over here because it's where I do most of my prep work. I've got a window that looks out onto an iron fire escape, parking lot and more buildings, haha...so I don't open the blinds often.


BELOW: This is a shot of the right side of my kitchen, or the cramped/awkward part. I love the shelving unit, though. It goes all the way to the ceiling and I use it to store dishes, my utensils (because my organizer doesn't fit into one of the two drawers), and small appliences like my immersion blender and mini Cuisinart. I store cookware in the bottom cabinets, cooking utensils and measuring stuff in the left drawer and foil/parchment paper/Ziplocs in the right drawer. I guess you could also call this counter space, but it's too awkward for some things. I usually just get dry ingredients together here from the pantry and store my oils, vinegars and vitamins/meds.


BELOW: My behemoth, antique refrigerator and "recycling center." I secretly hope this fridge breaks down so they will get me something better - something more energy efficient since I am paying the power bill. Plus it gives off a ton of heat, which sucks in the summer. The door leads to my pantry - my favorite part of the kitchen!


The pantry - It goes deep behind both walls and has wrap around shelves. You can't tell from the photo, but the pantry is so big I could lay down in the floor and still have room. I keep my step stool here (I'm short!), paper bags and everything else. I also have a butcher block cart - like the one next to the stove - that my aunt gave me one year for Christmas and I use it to store cooking dishes, like pyrex stuff. The place also came with the nifty paper towel holder.


BELOW: Here's the last shot of a strange wall in the kitchen. These two shelves came with the place, too (lazy landlords=lots of cool shelving left over). They're kind of shaky, but useful sometimes. I place all my produce that doesn't need to be refrigerated here. I also keep the trashcan in the corner and Sugar's water bowl and food are also on the floor. That cord snaking around leads to my microwave cart where I also keep wine and margarita glasses, and more pots and pans in the bottom cabinet.


So there you have it! That's my itty bitty kitchen that somehow works - in an organized, but slightly chaotic way. I'd love to see all of your kitchens, so if you have some extra blog time, bring it on!