How To Fit Everything In A Small Kitchen

So as I mentioned a minute ago, the biggest problem with my new place is the lack of kitchen storage. Not only do I happen to love to cook, I also have a grandmother and great aunt who love to cook and never throw anything away. Put two and two together, and all of a sudden, while cleaning out my old house/packing to move, I found myself with more than a full kitchen--we're talking 3 sets of dinner plates, bowls, smaller plates, a ton of silver wear, knives of all sizes, an orange juicer and a lemon juicer (two different things, I should add), cake pans, brownie pans, baking sheets, Pyrex baking things, an angel food cake bowl, mixers, wooden spoons, and you get the idea. My fantastic mother came up to help me pack and clean (THANK YOU) and I got to send a bunch of stuff home with her. The point of sharing all this with you, however, is that I basically moved in to my apartment with an entire kitchen myself, and then had to make room for my roommate's stuff (I guess she might have her own stuff, heh). Anyway, the kitchen has limited storage: a handy little island/counter with space underneath, cupboards above the fridge and stove, but waaaay up, and some strangely tall cupboards next to the fridge. I am very short so the tall cupboards are out of reach--I really need a stool, don't laugh--which is an issue, and that's all the storage there is. We got that amazing cupboard thing from Julie's neighbors FOR FREE so that helped, but we still had some space trouble. I should also mention that the apartment is rather old and came without a microwave (!) and that also made things trickier. Luckily, we moved in right around the time of tons of yard sale and bought the worlds biggest microwave for $15 from a guy down the street. This microwave is so big that is serves as a shelf for our toaster, blender, Cuisinart, and a few other odds and ends. However, yay space! In the deathly hot days earlier this week, we escaped our boiling apartment by heading to Ikea in search of a spice rack to hang on the wall. We succeeded in finding one that not only held spices, but also had extra space to hang potholders (well, to hang whatever, but we hung potholders) so that was really exciting. Julie also just got us a lovely hanging produce basket which I think will really be the last thing we need. In other words, the point here is: get creative! Use microwaves as shelves, windowsills as shelves for bottles (in our case of our various liquors and wines), the top edge of the stove for stuff you use with the stove (olive oil, salt--too big to fit in the spice rack, vinegar, etc). Not only does this save space, but it makes it easier to find and get to things that you use often (olive oil, vinegar, Pam, etc), and reminds you what you have and encourages you to use it (two kinds of vermouth, rumpleminz). Most importantly, in my opinion, is that it turns your house or apartment into a home and makes it yours.