OT kitchen re-model

White is definitely the way to go! It's "dateless" -- stainless is now so "90s" and it is a pain to take care of. Is that an LG French door fridge? It looks exactly like mine, which is a 30" fridge (the only size that will fit) and I love, love, love it! I also have a "file holder" on the end of a cabinet where I keep the trays that I use almost daily. You are very clever! ;-)

Love what you have done with the kitchen. It's so well organized.\I also hate Stainless steel. It looks very industrial or like a hospital utility room to me. There is no warmth to it. I love a kitchen that looks like you can relax. Juno

I love the additional cupboard space.

--Betsy

I love your 'new' kitchen, Chris. It has everything.

Emily

Yes, that is the 30" LG French door. It fit in the footprint of our old one and we also love it. Glad to see I'm not the only one who uses 'office supplies' in other ways.

The issue is problem solving, and since my kitchen is tiny -- was considered "modern" in 1927 -- it's important to be open to unusual solutions. A recent one around here is the wheeled basket, which is a smaller version of the kind found in laundromats which I use to take wet laundry from the washing machine in the kitchen to the dryer on the back porch. Now, we also use it when I get home with the shopping. Everything that goes into the refrigerator or freezer goes into the basket, then the filled basket is wheeled to the fridge where it is unloaded. It's not that far away from the counter where we unload the bags, but taking two or three things at a time means lots of steps to the fridge and back, and lots of jockeying for position since there's just enough room to get by another person. I knew it was a success when DH asked me to wheel it over to him. ;-)

Another discovery, which you probably don't need, is a knife block that attaches to the bottom of a wall cabinet, and swings on a pivot plate so that my knives are handy, but stored safely. I don't have enough drawer space to have a dedicated knife drawer and jumbling them together doesn't do the blades any good.

When I had my kitchen remodeled, I asked the contractor to place vertical *full depth of the refrigerator* tray storage, about 3" apart, (behind cabinet doors) over the refrigerator. I used to have to get a step-stool to get whatever I used to store up there in tiny 12" deep cabinets (booze, mostly), but Pyrex baking dishes, trays, cooling racks, cookie sheets, etc. remain fully accessible. I also keep the mostly unused third rack for the oven up there. I love it.

Beverly, making progress on the bathroom remodel: they installed the re-located door today. I still don't have a toilet upstairs, so I'm still running up and down a lot, but getting there...

Another possibility, which I have used for a number of years now, is a magnetic tool rack screwed to the wall above the counter. First time I had one, I found it in dh's tool catalogue. Last time we moved, I found them in the hardware store, so I must not have been the only one who thought it was a good idea. My knives stay up there, out of the way, but easily acessible and they do not lose their edge from being jostled.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

I actually tried that, but it didn't work very well in my kitchen. This is what I got.

Very clever, I hadn't seen that one before.

It wouldn't work for me, but this is why we need a variety, right?

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

The more variety, the better. I like choices, though some are forced on me because of dimensions, but it's good to have alternatives.