How does space get smaller?

[K'Ehleyr]

Boring cupboard related question

I've just totally re-arranged kitchen cupboards. Taken everything out and chucked at least a third of stuff away.

Had to get Men with Wet Vac out because of an unrelated 'Bacon fat down drain' issue and am trying to put the stuff back in.

There was a shelf in the under sink cupboard, cunningly fixed. I managed perfectly to remove said shelf but could I bloody get it back in I have frightened the neighbours with my explicit reasoning to the shelf to just "get back where you belong"

And yet still my kitchen is scattered with cleaning products (2 of each ~ must have been buy one get one free day ), varnish (can't remember varnishing a thing in my life) and 4 days worth of washing up, to which Son gladly contributed by cleaning out his room and saying "Oh great, the sink's fixed" and roaming off

Now I have no room for the plastic bag collection, of which I have lovingly accumulated, so they have to go into the 'cupboard of Doom' which is full of cardboard boxes which 'will come in handy someday'.

Please tell me other people live in chaos like this.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I blame the reverse Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric.

 

[WillsBabe]

I can relate to the take-it-out-put-it-all-back-in scenario. Yesterday I had it with my handbag. In the morning, as I left the house at 6 am on to way to the conference I was attending everything fitted into my bag perfectly. On the way home, sitting on the station at 6 pm, my bag was overflowing and nothing fitted, so much so that I ended up carrying my note book and phone in my hand. The only things extra in my bag were a couple of business cards.

 

[C.E. Evans]

In my experience, in order to clean something up I have to make it a bigger mess than it was before. And in the process of rearranging things, I'll establish new specific places to put specific stuff, which will eat up the space I had before--resulting in more stuff again than space, even if I've tossed out quite a bit of stuff...

 

[Holdfast]

Holdfast's Handy Household Hints:

Had to get Men with Wet Vac out because of an unrelated 'Bacon fat down drain' issue and am trying to put the stuff back in.

Tip One: do not put the bacon fat back down the drain. There a reason they took it out.

I have frightened the neighbours with my explicit reasoning to the shelf to just "get back where you belong"

Tip Two: when someone could mentally caption the image of you talking to the shelf as "two short planks", it's time to leave the housework behind and open the gin bottle.

Now I have no room for the plastic bag collection, of which I have lovingly accumulated, so they have to go into the 'cupboard of Doom' which is full of cardboard boxes which 'will come in handy someday'.

Tip Three: that day is today. Put the plastic bags in them.

Am I good, or am I good?

 

[lurok]

Sucker punch of a thread title (for any science nerds)

Only advice is on boxes and is: flatten. Less volume. And keep some duct tape handy.

 

[Jadzia]

Kitchen storage works like this:

Sink cupboard -- Basket with bottles of cleaning things. Washing tablets. Basket with new sponges and cloths. Basket with big cooking utensils. Basket with metal baking sheets and loaf trays.

Sink draw -- Cutlery. Small utensils.

Big floor cupboard -- Metal cooling racks. Serving dishes/trays. Mixing bowls. Miscellaneous dishes. Plastic containers. Teeny-weeny frying pan for pancake day. Hand blender. Cereal boxes/bags.

Draw above big cupboard -- Towels

Small floor cupboard -- Dishes/plates

Draw above small cupboard -- The Kitchen Draw™

Worktop -- Fruit basket. Toaster. Bread bin for bread and plastic bags. Three sauce pans. Microwave. Kettle. Teapot on display. Paper towels.

High cupboard 1 -- things in packets. freezer bags. electric mixer.
High cupboard 2 -- cups. measuring jugs. weighing scales. food bag clips.
High cupboard 3 -- jars and seasonings.
High cupboard 4 -- teas. flour. sugar. herbs. random other things.

 

[An Officer]

The main problem is most British kitchens tend to be entirely too small. It is impossible to have a well stocked kitchen that is 4 yards by 2! I wish space wasn't at such a premium. I suggest we throw all the non-trekkies out of the country and see what we've got left.

 

[captcalhoun]

yeah, start by throwing the ConDems out of the country off Beachy Head.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

I blame the reverse Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric.

I blame the neighbours that sneak into my flat at night and leave their cleaning products there
I once found a cat in my kitchen drawer ~ ok it was my cat but it was still a surprise and he was taking up space

I can relate to the take-it-out-put-it-all-back-in scenario. Yesterday I had it with my handbag. In the morning, as I left the house at 6 am on to way to the conference I was attending everything fitted into my bag perfectly. On the way home, sitting on the station at 6 pm, my bag was overflowing and nothing fitted, so much so that I ended up carrying my note book and phone in my hand. The only things extra in my bag were a couple of business cards.

BIG business cards!
It's like efficiently packing to go on holiday and on return finding out nothing fits back in the suitcase ~ then realising you're trying to pack a hat you bought for a bargain 3 euros and a comedy donkey

In my experience, in order to clean something up I have to make it a bigger mess than it was before. And in the process of rearranging things, I'll establish new specific places to put specific stuff, which will eat up the space I had before--resulting in more stuff again than space, even if I've tossed out quite a bit of stuff...

Oh Gosh Evans ~ I think you're right. Once I'd 'decluttered I aspired to make a place for everything and everything in it's place. I even thought of making little labels on the shelves so all would know.
Unfortunately, unless chaos prevails, there is no such thing as a 'designated area'

Holdfast's Handy Household Hints:

Had to get Men with Wet Vac out because of an unrelated 'Bacon fat down drain' issue and am trying to put the stuff back in.

Tip One: do not put the bacon fat back down the drain. There a reason they took it out.

I have frightened the neighbours with my explicit reasoning to the shelf to just "get back where you belong"

Tip Two: when someone could mentally caption the image of you talking to the shelf as "two short planks", it's time to leave the housework behind and open the gin bottle.

Now I have no room for the plastic bag collection, of which I have lovingly accumulated, so they have to go into the 'cupboard of Doom' which is full of cardboard boxes which 'will come in handy someday'.

Tip Three: that day is today. Put the plastic bags in them.

Am I good, or am I good

It was a bottle of rose and beating Man at board game that revived me ~ but the genius of putting the bags in the boxes will be done

Sucker punch of a thread title (for any science nerds)

Only advice is on boxes and is: flatten. Less volume. And keep some duct tape handy.

I tried to lure you ~ and it worked
But I have no cupboard space for the duct tape

Kitchen storage works like this:

Sink cupboard -- Basket with bottles of cleaning things. Washing tablets. Basket with new sponges and cloths. Basket with big cooking utensils. Basket with metal baking sheets and loaf trays.

Sink draw -- Cutlery. Small utensils.

Big floor cupboard -- Metal cooling racks. Serving dishes/trays. Mixing bowls. Miscellaneous dishes. Plastic containers. Teeny-weeny frying pan for pancake day. Hand blender. Cereal boxes/bags.

Draw above big cupboard -- Towels

Small floor cupboard -- Dishes/plates

Draw above small cupboard -- The Kitchen Draw™

Worktop -- Fruit basket. Toaster. Bread bin for bread and plastic bags. Three sauce pans. Microwave. Kettle. Teapot on display. Paper towels.

High cupboard 1 -- things in packets. freezer bags. electric mixer.
High cupboard 2 -- cups. measuring jugs. weighing scales. food bag clips.
High cupboard 3 -- jars and seasonings.
High cupboard 4 -- teas. flour. sugar. herbs. random other things.

1. You have too many cupboards
And you leave your saucepans on the worktop? ~ But then there would be no room for the cat

The main problem is most British kitchens tend to be entirely too small. It is impossible to have a well stocked kitchen that is 4 yards by 2! I wish space wasn't at such a premium. I suggest we throw all the non-trekkies out of the country and see what we've got left.

Live long and conquer An Officer ~ we're right behind you... yep just to the left... Oh hang on I've got a red shirt on ~ "wardrobe..."


True though. But then do you not think the more space you have the more you fill it with needless effects?

 

[M'Sharak]

I can relate to the take-it-out-put-it-all-back-in scenario. Yesterday I had it with my handbag. In the morning, as I left the house at 6 am on to way to the conference I was attending everything fitted into my bag perfectly. On the way home, sitting on the station at 6 pm, my bag was overflowing and nothing fitted, so much so that I ended up carrying my note book and phone in my hand. The only things extra in my bag were a couple of business cards.

BIG business cards!

Printed on heavy stock, no doubt.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

I can relate to the take-it-out-put-it-all-back-in scenario. Yesterday I had it with my handbag. In the morning, as I left the house at 6 am on to way to the conference I was attending everything fitted into my bag perfectly. On the way home, sitting on the station at 6 pm, my bag was overflowing and nothing fitted, so much so that I ended up carrying my note book and phone in my hand. The only things extra in my bag were a couple of business cards.

BIG business cards!

Printed on heavy stock, no doubt.

And they should have stuck with 85 x 55 instead of poster size. And the frame probably took up all the bag room

 

[Jadzia]

1. You have too many cupboards

Most of my food I keep in my store room. I'm inclined to buy things infrequently and in bulk, and I like to keep well stocked up on things.

And you leave your saucepans on the worktop?

Like this

 

[Finngle Bells]

There is a mystery at my Grandma's. She wouldn't let us put in a dishwasher because she couldn't stand to lose any cabinet space (she lives alone, for the past 23 years). Yet there was once 9 people in that house, eating well...

 

[Yeoman Randi]

To the OP: Have you ever seen one of those plastic bag storage keepers? There are all kinds, made out of all different things. They hold a LOT of bags and are really great.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

1. You have too many cupboards

Most of my food I keep in my store room. I'm inclined to buy things infrequently and in bulk, and I like to keep well stocked up on things.

And you leave your saucepans on the worktop?

Like this

But I don't have a storeroom or posh pans

There is a mystery at my Grandma's. She wouldn't let us put in a dishwasher because she couldn't stand to lose any cabinet space (she lives alone, for the past 23 years). Yet there was once 9 people in that house, eating well...

Older people do not trust dishwashers ~ they steal spoons

To the OP: Have you ever seen one of those plastic bag storage keepers? There are all kinds, made out of all different things. They hold a LOT of bags and are really great.

Do they come in a bag

 

[Jadzia]

Your old carrier bags can be used as liners for your kitchen bin. It saves buying liners, although your bin has to be the right size to fit them.

 

[Mary Ann]

The main problem is most British kitchens tend to be entirely too small. It is impossible to have a well stocked kitchen that is 4 yards by 2! I wish space wasn't at such a premium. I suggest we throw all the non-trekkies out of the country and see what we've got left.

Yep, one of the few things I've never become used to in this country is the tiny kitchens. The first house we lived had good-sized reception rooms and the most useless little galley kitchen. I had more kitchen stuff stored in the back reception room than the kitchen. When we moved back to Canada for 2 years I had a huge eat-in kitchen...and not enough cupboard space. Have cupboards, will fill with crap! Moving back to England and to a kitchen 1/3 the size was a nightmare. When we had it remodelled I didn't get a dishwasher because I couldn't spare the cupboard space. Kitchen stuff is kept in the kitchen, the back reception room, the utility room, and the sun room.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Your old carrier bags can be used as liners for your kitchen bin. It saves buying liners, although your bin has to be the right size to fit them.

I don't have room for a bin ~ it's just an old carrier bag hung up

The main problem is most British kitchens tend to be entirely too small. It is impossible to have a well stocked kitchen that is 4 yards by 2! I wish space wasn't at such a premium. I suggest we throw all the non-trekkies out of the country and see what we've got left.

Yep, one of the few things I've never become used to in this country is the tiny kitchens. The first house we lived had good-sized reception rooms and the most useless little galley kitchen. I had more kitchen stuff stored in the back reception room than the kitchen. When we moved back to Canada for 2 years I had a huge eat-in kitchen...and not enough cupboard space. Have cupboards, will fill with crap! Moving back to England and to a kitchen 1/3 the size was a nightmare. When we had it remodelled I didn't get a dishwasher because I couldn't spare the cupboard space. Kitchen stuff is kept in the kitchen, the back reception room, the utility room, and the sun room.

You have a back reception room, a utility room and a sun room? *Goes off with a big hammer to 'knock through'*

Would it count if they were tents?

 

[Mary Ann]

You have a back reception room, a utility room and a sun room? *Goes off with a big hammer to 'knock through'*

Would it count if they were tents?

I should post some pictures. The back room/dining room is a good space, but the utility room, as I've snobbily called it, consists of the old pull-chain outside loo (still with original pull chain!) and the next-door coal shed being knocked through and a super cheap-o plastic roof put over the space between the this space and the house. At the moment there isn't even a door from this space into the sun room, so we have to sing when we're using that loo. I call it the utility room because it houses the washer and dryer and I store the tinned food there (nowhere near the toilet, I hasten to add), and saying you store food in the back toilet doesn't sound very nice. The sunroom is about 30 years old, has a cracked, sloping concrete floor and another cheap-o plastic roof that probably won't last another winter. Trust me when I say that I may have space, but it's not exactly House & Garden worthy!