Small kitchen appliances for an elegant kitchen

If you believe in the adage “small is beautiful” then small kitchen appliances may be for you. They are a god send to a kitchen lacking space (provided u follow certain guidelines) and are of course sleek and stylish making cooking quite pleasurable. So let us take a brief look at these appliances, how to store them and when you should splurge on them.

Say, you have a small kitchen which means you are lacking in counter space. So it makes sense to go for small kitchen items, right? Wrong. Small appliances though sleek and elegant can clutter your counter space and make it feel more closed in. so what should you do?

When going shopping keep in mind the following pointers.

• The items that you plan to bring home should match with the tasks you perform and should be functionally useful. In other words getting that coffee toaster if you are not a coffee person is a waste of money as well as kitchen space. So prioritize your needs and break down your kitchen tasks and see if the item is really worth it.
  
  
• The small kitchen appliances can be grouped in to basic and specialty appliances. Slicing, grating, chopping, blending etc constitute basic appliances. So a mixer, blender or a food processor needs to be thought of. Specialty appliances on the other hand carry out specific functions like the ice cream maker, pop corn maker, rice steamer etc. These are required if you are a frequent party entertainer or you love the specific food or have kids etc. So plan before you splurge on these items.

Now that the two above important pointers are out of the way let us check out the appliances which you can purchase.

• Coffee maker: if you wake to a cup of morning coffee then get yourself a coffee maker or bean grinder to make fresh coffee. The machines have a variety of features like adding milk and froth, grinding the beans to a coarse or fine consistency or setting a timer to get coffee when you require. These features will cost more and may often add to the bulk of the machine.
  
  
• Food processor: for cutting, slicing, grating and shedding this is the unit you must posses. Chopping vegetables, grating cheese are some of the things you can do with a food processor. The food processor with varying degrees of thickness and other adjustments can do almost all cooking activities with ease.
  
  
• Blenders and mixers: for soups and sauces get a hand held blender. Blender can also be used to whip up the occasional smoothie; dips etc. For ice crushing and other activities which require more power you will need to get blender with powerful motors. And for mixing and whipping get a stand mixer which has greater power to handle all types of load. Hand held mixers are not so powerful but they are more compact. They can handle only small tasks like whipping creams for cake etc.
  
  
• Grills: if grilling food is your passion then get hold of an indoor grill. Look for non sticky surface for easy cleaning, indicator lights to indicate when the surface is hot, temperature settings make for an ideal grilling etc.
  
  
• Family with kids: pizza maker, pop corn machine, ice cream machine fall in this category. If you are in to party entertainment you can also think of candy machine, chocolate fountain etc.
  
  
• Boiling/steaming: get a steam cooker for boiling and steaming. You can get ovens, deep fryers or combo units for general cooking purposes.
  
  
• Ovens: if you love to bake then toasters and ovens are for you. With convection capabilities cooking becomes more perfect.
  
  
• Waffle maker: For dripping honey filled pancakes and waffles get a waffle maker.

When buying these appliances keep in mind these specialty features too.

• Get space saving appliances to free up counter space.
  
  
• Go for non stick surfaces for easy cleaning and maintenance.
  
  
• Go for digital controls to get precise control of the cooking. If the machine is programmable it can be come handy.
  
  
• In built cords make storage easier.

With a little bit of planning you can get space spacing appliances for your kitchen. In case you have mistakenly accumulated small kitchen appliances all over the years making your kitchen look messy then don’t fret.

Here is what you can do about it.

• Discard appliances which are old and under repair. This will help clear up counter space.
  
  
• If you don’t have appliances with cord storage then twist the cords, tie them with bands if need be and make them look better.
  
  
• Group small appliances in lower cabinets and most frequently used items in upper cabinets. Appliances which are not used often should typically sit at the back of cabinet like waffle maker, juicer etc.
  
  
• Use unused corners and space wisely. For example the space between the upper cabinet and ceiling can be made to store appliances.
  
  
• Use appliance garage to group small appliance together. The garage utilizes the corners of kitchen and neatly stores the items together.
  
  
• Use pull out cabinets to reach items which are at the backside of the cabinet. These will typically be your unused juicers, blenders etc.
  
  
• Use baskets to hold small items together. This makes the kitchen look more organized.
  
  
• If you have a pantry then consider putting the infrequently used items there.

Thus by intelligently planning your kitchen space for appliances you can make your kitchen look spacious and elegant.

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