Cooking in a Small House/Kitchen--Saving Appliance Space

The apartment I had when I was single, before my husband came along, had a teeny tiny kitchen by West Coast standards (I'm sure by NYC standards it's spacious and could feed a family of eight). It was roughly four feet by five feet. Here's me making some pie (to impress said husband-to-be):

I made everything in that kitchen that a normal cook would make, including bread, soups, roasted chickens, etc. And I learned economy of stuff: each and every item in the kitchen had to have some use and be used on a regular basis. It was extremely easy to clean, too! And I liked the 3/4 size fridge, as I could easily see and access everything on top. Did I mention that I'm not very tall at 5'2"? 

So enter our house, with its huge kitchen of approximately 8x14 feet, which includes a full-size washer and dryer. We started without a dish washer, but thankfully my husband put one in. At first, I was disoriented by having to walk a few steps each way to retrieve items for cooking. In my old kitchen, all I had to do was reach out my arms. 

I value fresh, homemade meals and I'm cheap, so I cook most of our food. Before we had kids, I used to make things a little more interesting.  We haven't stooped to frozen chicken nuggets (yet), but simple and quick has become the name of the game. 

Every so often I tinker with the set-up, but here's the current "appliance bar" as I like to call it. These are the appliances that are used at least weekly if not more. Hauling them in and out of the cupboards is a pain, so they live on the counter top. 

Toaster oven, electric pressure cooker, stand mixer, food processor, griddle, and you can't see it but the stick blender is in there too: 

Space saving appliance tip #1: This, my friends, is the most AWESOME appliance ever!!! One day I happened upon a kitchen catalog that contained an electric pressure cooker that also works as a rice cooker AND a slow cooker!!! I have used stove-top pressure cookers before, especially for making beans, but my old one was of the dangerous vintage era so I had tossed it out. Plus, I burned stuff in it all the time. This has a timer. It cooks things, then stops cooking and just keeps them warm. It cooks brown rice in 20 minutes, start to finish. It cooks dry beans in 40 minutes. And if my kids cry and whine or bleed, I can leave it. I push some buttons, and leave it. It even has a saute function so I can brown meat or cook onions first before closing it up. I adore it. Sometimes, I've been known to hug and kiss it. It wasn't cheap, about $120, but I use it almost every day. Frozen chicken boobs, rock hard to cooked in 15 minutes, with no drying out. Mine is an Instant Pot, but there are several brands out there. 

This part of the counter-top bothers me. It's full of junk. I have one large glass pitcher I use for cooking utensils. They all have to fit in there (except the pizza cutter, which I could probably get rid of anyway). Vitamins/medicine are stacked up by the sink too, so we don't forget to take them. Messy messy messy! 

Small kitchen tip #2: don't get utensils with big fat handles, even if they are supposedly "ergonomic". Whisks kind of have to have fat handles, but all the black utensils below could be replaced by thinner-handled utensils. The bamboo ones are fine. If you have a drawer you keep utensils in, thinner handles will help with that as well.

Anyone have any good tips for storing the griddle? I thought about hanging it on a hook on the wall, but I having my short little t-rex arms, I wouldn't be able to reach it without climbing on the counter. Hm. 

Oh and back to the fact that my laundry room is also my kitchen (I just keep telling myself that I'm so continental...), the washer and dryer used to be bare on top, like this: 

Of course, being a flat surface, we just piled stuff up on both of them, even chopping veggies up there sometimes. After a few years, I finally asked my dad to come make a counter top to go over it. There was leftover Formica from the kitchen counters when the house was remodeled before we bought it, so luckily everything matches quite nicely. Here's the after:

Amazing, isn't it? It even makes the washer and dryer look like they match! Now, if only it was always that clean and clear. Yeah right. Here it is now: 

It's become the snack storage area, cookbook storage area, and stuff-that-needs-to-go-out-to-the-garage storage area. Blech. I've heard that the relative clutter of your fridge also equals the relative messiness of your house. I'm afraid that's true. Especially since it's the little one who puts all her art work on the fridge and plays with the magnets that is also messing up the rest of the house!