{"id":15253,"date":"2013-09-12T00:01:03","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T07:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=15253"},"modified":"2013-09-12T00:01:03","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T07:01:03","slug":"five-things-i-like-best-about-my-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/five-things-i-like-best-about-my-kitchen\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Things I Like Best About My Kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
We spend a lot of time at the kitchen sink, so it’s nice to have a window. The sink looks pristine, but it’s probably home to more microbes than a flushed toilet. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

My two kids are about to set up housekeeping with their very significant significant others. My son and his brand new wife<\/a> are thinking of trading in their townhouse for a house. My daughter and her boyfriend are looking for an apartment together. Among other things, they will be looking at kitchens.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to tell them what to look for. I\u2019ve got so<\/em> many ideas, really good ones, on the subject of kitchens.<\/p>\n

The sweaty ladies in my Zumba<\/a> class, however, have advised me to keep my kitchen wisdom to myself, shrewd and wonderful and hard-earned and rich with life experience though it is.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m taking their advice. I\u2019m going to write about the five handiest features in my kitchen as your friendly, helpful blogger — and not as the family matriarch<\/a> passing along her superb kitchen organizing ideas to four young folks who will surely do it all wrong if they don\u2019t listen to her.<\/p>\n

1. Go for a window over the sink.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Whether you\u2019re the cook or the dishwasher, the sink is where you\u2019ll spend the most time. Make it a place that connects you to the outside world. If it can\u2019t be a window, try for a view into the dining or living area.<\/p>\n

2. Opt for one large single sink.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Don’t get one of those awkward double sinks. If you\u2019ve got one big sink, the entire greasy broiler pan will fit right into it for an overnight soak: nice and neat, no greasy water slopping onto the<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Big enough to hold the broiler pan — and fill a vase with water. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

kitchen counter. And you\u2019ll still have lots of space left over at the opposite end of the sink for scrubbing a pot or filling a vase with water.<\/p>\n

Now that meats and poultry are so often contaminated with bacteria, the old two-sink solution doesn\u2019t make much sense to me anymore. The kitchen sink is one of the dirtiest<\/a> places in the house. Filling one with water to wash dishes or fruits and vegetables just doesn’t feel safe. Besides, who wants to dig the gunk out of the drain basket of the sink that has no garbage disposal? If you want to wash dishes by hand, two wash tubs will fit handily into your one large sink.<\/p>\n

Baby bonus: a baby bathtub will fit right into a big sink, and the baby will be at the right height for both his safety and yours \u2013 just in case there’s a baby in your future. (Is there?)<\/p>\n

3. Get one of those pull-out trash can drawers.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

We love ours. When Jon is cooking or I\u2019m doing the dishes, we pull the drawer out and keep it<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
At our house one can holds food scraps for composting; the other takes the recyclables. What little actual trash we produce goes in a mini can under the sink. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

open while we work. This makes it easy to scrape dinner plates or pitch avocado pits right into the can.<\/p>\n

With a trash can drawer, you don\u2019t have to open the under-sink cupboard door (when your hands are wet or messy) to pull out the trash can every time something needs throwing away. When the cooking or clean-up is over, the trash drawer closes and the mess disappears. (This feature was suggested by our designer at Custom Kitchens in Oakland, CA, when we remodeled in 2000.)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Our refrigerator is nearly six feet tall, but the space above it is\u00a0 accessible. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
4. Use that useless space.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

This one\u2019s my favorite tip.You can make use of that impractical, unreachable space over the refrigerator by installing vertical shelving. Use it for cookie sheets, platters and serving trays. No more hunting around for a<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
I’m short, but I can easily reach the trays and platters without a stepstool. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

stepstool to get access to that space. No more trying to pull one pot or platter out from under another while standing on your tip toes. Even short folks like me can safely pull out a heavy tray with one hand and grab it from below with the other. (I got this idea from my short mother-in-law.)<\/p>\n

5. Plan ahead for a decorative bar.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Before the granite or tile or sheet rock is applied to the wall behind your new stove top, have the contractor put in some plywood behind it. When the wall is finished \u2013 and before the<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The stainless steel bar over our cooktop is mounted securely enough to hold a treasured Tonala platter from Mexico. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

contractor departs \u2013 have the carpenters drill through the wall and into the plywood to securely install a decorative rod, from which you can then hang cooking utensils, an interesting plate or a cooktop-safe wall hanging.<\/p>\n

Any questions, kids?<\/p>\n

\"Japanese<\/a>
The glass vase, filled now with water, holds Japanese anemones and asters from our garden. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

We remodeled our kitchen in 2000, and we made some design decisions that still make me happy. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34,54,1060,1061,1062,548,55,82,1063],"class_list":["post-15253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","tag-dont-miss","tag-grown-up-kids","tag-kitchen-design","tag-kitchen-tips","tag-kitchen-windows","tag-mother-in-law","tag-family-stories","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-tonala-pottery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}