Your twice-weekly deep dive into what’s fresh on our radar.

I’ll be frank: I wasn’t excited about moving when I found out that the beloved Brooklyn carriage house my husband and I have called home for nearly five years was being sold. That’s the downside of renting well into adulthood. You can settle down but only with an asterisk. However, as a fresh start began to take shape—namely with expanded counter space, the glorious addition of a dishwasher, and under-cabinet lighting that might actually let me see meal prep—I warmed to the idea. And it made me reflect on the 7-by-8 feet where we’ve cooked both simple and elaborate meals together on the regular. I’m bidding adieu to you, tiny kitchen, but this is a thank-you for your service. —Samantha Weiss-Hills, managing editor

When we moved into our 750-square-foot apartment in January 2020, I didn’t expect to cook as much as we ended up doing over the last 1,693 days. But I didn’t predict a pandemic either, one in which we didn’t order takeout or eat in a restaurant for six months. The shutdown required us to maximize our space in creative ways, and once people started coming over again, we kept at it. Bread baking and fresh pasta making are still going strong in 2024.

Photography by Stacy Zarin Goldberg; Design by Zoe Feldman Design

Here are my 10 tiny-kitchen game changers:

01. I prefer to store my knives in a wood block, but our kitchen’s narrow dimensions made this impossible. I opted for a wall-mounted magnetic strip that has served us well.

02. We only have so many cabinets, so we hang regularly used cookware, wood cutting boards, and small utensils like measuring spoons and small mesh strainers on two pegboards. This is the pan I reach for the most.

03. A diminutive 4-gallon trash can is plenty large enough for two people’s waste (we take the rubbish out pretty often, too). Not to mention it’s touchless and self-sealing.

04. In my head, I’m cooking in a tiny kitchen that looks exactly like this one, designed by Zoe Feldman. I’m head over heels for the soothing color palette and textural touches.

05. They’re kind of an open secret, but the CB2 Marta glasses stack neatly and are surprisingly durable for how thin they are.

06. We pull shots from a Gaggia espresso maker every morning, and it takes up less than 10 inches of counter space.

07. Extremely shallow metal shelving—it’s the exact depth of our fridge, so nobody can see it from the living room—holds more than you’d expect. Ours corrals a pasta machine, rice cooker, blender, hand mixer, electric kettle, aprons, proofing baskets, and my “good luck kitchen parrot.”

08. The magnetic shelf on top of our stove has been a home for several types of salt, a Dansk butter warmer, and the pepper grinder I reach for daily.

09. Yes, I do store things in my oven—just not clothes. It’s where you’ll find extra sheet pans and a Dutch oven for ragus, meatballs, and braised vegetables.

10. This Yamazaki dish rack has made it through so many 10-person dinners and lived to tell the tale. We use the draining board on the bottom for a double-decker dryer.

I’m imagining leaving these beautiful tools out on display on the (relatively) expansive countertops in our new home.

Clockwise from top left:

The Toaster, Balmuda

I’m a bona fide toast-head, so I’ll make space for the Land Rover of toasters. The matte white option doesn’t draw your eye too much, and the steaming technology truly does make an unbelievable slice.

Perch Mortar and Pestle, Holcomb Studio

I adore this Seattle-based brand from a father-daughter duo, and the standout product is the conversation-starting mortar and pestle. The wood base lets you rotate the granite bowl as you grind, and when that’s not in use, it’s a landing pad for heads of garlic.

Sette 270Wi Grinder, Baratza

After a year of my husband hand-grinding espresso shots for us every morning, I splurged on this fancy burr grinder for his birthday. It has an integrated scale so it can grind by weight, plus it just looks so pretty.

Aluminum Tray, Yumiko Iihoshi Porcelain

One of my favorite ceramists also makes very sweet aluminum trays, one of which we brought back from Japan to be an olive oil caddy next to our stove. Lo and behold, I had no idea they were available on Amazon.

Extremely functional (but still good-looking!) items that I’ll hide away to make my future cabinets and drawers work a little harder.

• I can’t wait to have an out-of-sight spot for every slicer I own, from my thin tomato knife to a chonky cleaver. This beechwood beauty is my organizer pick.

• Acrylic risers will be like little coffee tables for my dishes. I’ll stash dinner plates underneath, perch pasta bowls on top. Repeat.

• Our home editor, Lydia, loved this over-the-sink dish rack so much that I’m going to pick up the matching soap caddy to keep our sinkside neat.

• We’re trying to avoid drilling holes into the millwork, so I’m considering in-cabinet pull-out drawers like this and this.

• Okay, these will work for spice storage in narrow cabinets, too!