organization

Reply to: There's your problem. The plug behind the DW, and the contractor. The plug should be in the sink base. And the brackets absolutely DO allow it to be pushed back more.

Q

Reply to: The good ones in order of need Pull out trash and recycling centers (to one side of sink, dw on opposite side) Pull out drawers with upright dividers to hold mixing spoons Fixed vertical tray dividers Pull out shelves in deep pantries to chest level Double cutlery drawers Otherwise make sure all base cabinets are drawers Skip the spice drawers. They look great, but are you going to put all your spices in matching bottles? The worst are the spice drawer you pictured, to get to the bottom two sections you have to get down on your knees to read labels. Skip pantries where you pull the front and all the shelves pull out simultaneously

Q

Reply to: One of my favorite things in our new kitchen: pullouts above the fridge. I already had a narrow cabinet for cookie sheets, and a drawer for cake pans, so this made the most sense for us. We also love the pullout cutting board, and one of our few regrets is that we didn't put another one next to the fridge.

Q

Reply to: The tray storage drawer seems awesome. Curious why Hallet & Co says "fixed tray storage." I have fixed tray storage, and I'm frequently on my knees with a ruler retrieving the small cutting boards that got shoved to the back of the cabinet. A drawer seems great, and a pullout second best.

Q

Reply to: The major con of under sink trash is that whoever is using the sink is frequently asked to move by someone else who wants to dispose of trash. If you have under-sink trash, you need an obvious free-standing trash can somewhere else nearby that family members are trained to use whenever they aren't actually cooking.

Q

Reply to: Ooo - I am *so* happy to share what's working for me! This has been such a thorny problem for so long: What To Do With The Compost?? For me at least. I've tried all sorts of things but mostly, those beautiful and/or expensive bins just break and/or get smelly. I even was given one with a charcoal filter up top of the lid - hope I won't insult someone who thinks this is the next best thing since pulldown faucets, but for us, it just immediately molded. Ew ick. I love the idea of those buckets that set into the counter, but they seem a mess in the making - hard to pull out and clean and get back in and get the scraps into the right hole, clean the edges ... it all just seems a better idea than practicality for me at least. I think someone neater could make it work; we're pretty messy. So my solution is cheap food service square plastic buckets. I love them because: (i) they're cheap. Replacing them costs nothing and is easy. (ii) they're a great shape; they fit anywhere nicely, easy to grab. (iii) you can whack them against the side of the compost to get the nasty sticky stuff out and they won't break. (iv) they're easy to clean - big and square, your hand fits in no problem. (v) they're portable - grab them for wherever you're cutting or best wherever you need to sweep crumbs into, the table, prep surface, hither or yon - very portable. So I built in an open shelf for the thing next to my prep sink to set right into. I knew mostly it would sit on top of my counter because I'm too lazy and busy to ever put anything away. Though surprisingly it's actually found itself tucked back in very frequently - that's a testament to how easy the setup really is because believe me, the very slightest of annoyance and I'd just ignore anything having to do with putting-away. I have two, one for the cleanup sink as well. In that location I splurged for a ludicrously expensive revAShelf metal pullout 2-can garbage device. It was absolutely exactly what I wanted; I wanted trash, recycling and compost all in one place. The trash can is 10 qt and the recycling 20 and there's a shelf on top of the contraption. I place a smaller square food service bin right on top of that. I had been planning on rigging up a pull-out drawer on that shelf along the lines of what florantha describes, but I discovered it's super easy just to set the bucket on top of the shelf, and more portable that way too. I like that I can grab it out easily when I want to for all the aforementioned portability reasons. I am so excited to sing the praises of my system I even went and photographed it. Here's the larger bucket in its open shelf. There's also space there for the lettuce drier which is *always* wet yet always needing putting away: into the open shelf. And that shelf also holds a strainer that sets across the prep sink just perfectly. I've also been stashing potatoes and onions and cutting boards too large for my cutting board drawer in there. Very grand. My only sadness is that with so much wetness in there I've had to cover up the pretty wood with a clear plastic protector. ick. Here's the bucket just setting on the sink and also ready to have stuff swept into it. BTW, there was once a thread about farmhouse sinks and people liking not having the lip between you and the faucet... I'm finding or noticing how much I *like* having that lip there. I balance all sorts of stuff there: very handy: Here's my favorite part: holding the flat edge of the square bucket underneath a counter for sweeping: crumbs actually make it with a square bucket. a new experience for us: And here's the pullout, pulledout with the compost bucket set on top. In the front is the smaller, trash can and the larger recycling can is in the back. Even though this metal device was heinously overpriced, I am glad I splurged on it. It is really, really nice having metal trash cans: easy to wash out, easy to pull out, no smell, the handle makes it easy to carry everything out. This was definitely a luxury but one I am enjoying every single day immensely: And here's the compost bucket in use. The lid fits underneath the box when necessary. I measured a million times and was holding my breath this would all work underneath the sink. I was assured by the KD that it wouldn't, but I took responsibility and took a chance that paid off: it did. We divided a 36" cabinet into three sections, one for the pullout, 2 for door'ed cabinets. Works great: One of the great parts about this system is how ridiculously easy it is. I cannot convey how rococo some of our setups have gotten in the past, and it's all pretty unnecessary. This is cheap and easy as can be and by far the most functional plan we've ever had or really seen, IMO. Less is more. Though I guess it has to be said that stupid trash pullout was hardly less. Do those RevAShelf people have no shame to be charging that for a garbage can?? (I know, I'm the sucker who bought it and supported the shameful pricing). Note that you can get all that RevAShelf stuff way cheaper on the internet. Our cabinet guys get their $$$ by charging retail and justifying the differential as installation expense. I paid them for some of the trickier items to install this way but they were generous with this one in allowing me to buy it myself and install it myself: 6 screws is it. Even I can do that.

Q

Reply to: In a pots and pans drawer beside the stove I placed two spring tension rods at right angles to the cabinet face. This gave me two long slots to put lids for pots and pans lids stored on their edges. It takes up surprisingly little space and fits all the lids for a complete set of pots and pans in the same drawer. Of course if I needed more lid space ( which I cant imagine), I can just add another tension rod to make a third slot etc. The rods can move closer to the bottom of the drawer or higher up, depending on the dimensions of the lids a person wants to store, keeping the lids always in place . Its the $5 solution to a space problem that drove me crazy for years

Q

Reply to: I have this hanging on the wall in my pantry. Love it! It holds onions, potatoes, etc. The canvas slings come off and can be washed in the washing machine. Made by Winsome Wood and can be found on Amazon.

Q

Reply to: I had two sets of these wire bins in my old kitchen in a base cabinet. They worked well for onions and potatoes. https://www.woodworkerexpress.com/14-Vegetable-Bin-3-Shelf-Pull-Outs-KV-Series-White-Wire-14-W-x-21-1-4-D-x-19-3-4-H.html Now I use the Risatorp baskets from IKEA. They reside in a tall pantry cabinet. I go through garlic quickly so I keep it handy in a small glass bowl in a drawer next to my prep sink. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90281618/

Q

Reply to: Actually that's a good question Isaac. Clearly, we are related : ) DH and I seem to create an enormous amount of trash, and on occasion, it can smell, particularly in the summer. We had a rather large kitchen trash can in the old kitchen, but we've since remodeled, and now have a cabinet trash bin like Cheryl Hewitt shows in the pic above - it holds 2 smaller bins. We empty them far more often, and it rarely smells, unless I clean fish scales or something along those lines, in which case I remove the bin that day. I use the first bin for anything that might cause odors, filling it faster, and the back bin for paper goods. We also compost, but that's neither here nor there as I don't compost meat trimmings, which can smell. Having 2 smaller bins I find is actually better. We love the undercounter too, finding that also neater and easier. So, like you, I worried about making messes or smells in the cabinet, but we are finding that it is no longer an issue with smaller bins and a little common sense. There are also no lids that get messy. Cheryl mentioned the Ikea Utrusta push opener, whereas we installed a Blum servo drive on ours, and it's fantastic if you've got messy hands. A slight nudge of the leg or knee and it pops open easily. If someone leans against it, not realizing it's there, the drive motor shuts off so it won't burn out. You can adjust it to open to the first bin only, or to the 2nd bin.

Q

Reply to: I have a trash and recycling pull-out in the island, across of the sink and a small lidded bin for food waste in the sink pull-out. I empty this bin twice a week during cool weather and at least every other day during hot weather, preferably before any unpleasant odors develop. Both pullouts open at a touch of the knee with Ikea Utrusta (Blum) electric push-openers. I've tricked out the food waste bin under the sink so that the lid opens when the pullout opens, and closes when the pull-out is pushed closed. The open lid also prevents waste from falling behind the bin. Works like a charm! And no hands needed! Somebody on the forum called this the "Holy Grail" of trash pull-outs. :-) I agree! It's one of the best, most practical things in my kitchen. It's difficult to photograph, see the approximate drawings below.

Q

Reply to: Nice picture! Pantries certainly had built-in cabinets, back much earlier than this. Soapstone is certainly an appropriate counter material, lots of soapstone or slate sinks and drainboards here in New England. In butler's pantries I've seen nickel silver countertops and sinks (allegedly to avoid chipping the fine china), Monel came just a little later. On the walls a lot of the "great houses" had tile, usually white or cream, especially if they were built in the "sanitary era" that followed the germ theory of disease. Lots of beadboard, as noted, in more modest structures. I think perhaps the main thing to not having a kitchen in an old house look anachronistic is the use of natural materials-- stone, marble, wood, glass, metal in a relatively unprocessed state. Kitchens were a working space 100+ years ago, not someplace you took your guests-- or if you were even modestly wealthy you probably never went there yourself. That's not realistic now, but I think you capture the feeling by using cabinets, surfaces etc that look functional and meant to be used. Kitchens very often had a diversity of materials for work surfaces, depending on the intended use rather than the same surface everywhere-- soapstone or slate for the sink and drainboard, marble for the pastry table, wood or metal for general working surfaces. There's generally not much in old kitchens that's only there for decoration, though many of the functional objects can be very beautiful, as your picture above illustrates.

Q

Reply to: This was a few days after the kitchen was finished, which is why it looks so bare! You can just see the outlets on the left side. The ice cream pail holds dog food (we needed a place for that too!) The drawer below was for pens, scissors, stapler, etc. There were 2 file drawers below that - this area was essentially my desk, but since the table was a few steps away, I didn't need a place to sit. After a few years (who am I kidding, a few months), it became a bit of a jumble, but that jumble had previously been on the kitchen table, so I was grateful to have it out of sight. And I really, really loved not having phones, Kindles, etc charging on the kitchen counter. Progress photo showing the file drawers. Initially the drawer fronts were slabs, like the drawers to the right of the sink, but I wanted uniformity, so they cabinetmaker re-made the fronts to match the rest of the doors, and the pulls were placed the same as the doors (never had a problem opening them with the off-center pulls).

Q

Reply to: Instead of a charging drawer, I built a "command center" cabinet. Inside were shelves for notebooks, envelopes, in and out baskets. There was a calendar on the inside of one door, and a magnetic white board on the inside of the other. There were 2 outlets in the cabinet, on the side, with enough space between them to allow for phone chargers and battery chargers.

Q

Reply to: I also think a spice drawer is the best thing since sliced bread. Having done my spices in every imaginable configuration the only one that's arguably better is a spice cupboard, and the only place I ever had that was in a 1920's apartment that had a ton of cool built-ins. Modern day kitchens tend not to have the wall space for spice cupboards. My mom used lazy susans and a graduated spice shelf and that set up drove me absolutely nuts, so YMMV. I decant my spices into 4 oz mason jars and store them in a drawer. Best ever, plus space for almost 50 spices in a fairly small drawer. Vertical spice PULL-OUTS would be an expensive useless cabinet for me. Second the divided cupboard for cutting boards & sheet pans. Having that be a pullout would be a huge bonus. I don't think I'd want that in a drawer though. Having it accessible from top & side would be best. Pullout shelves are a pain (I have them - they're better than fixed shelves but still don't love them). Just get drawers. You can get after-market drawer dividers for a lot less than built-ins that are adjustable.

Q