Everything and the kitchen sink

By Elizabeth Prata

Who knew I could get so excited about rearranging my kitchen sink accouterments?

Let me explain.

I live in a small apartment, about 410 square feet. It's two rooms and a small bathroom. It is more than adequate for my needs, and I love it. The lockdown time has given me extended time to dwell inside here and I love my place all the more.

I like to collect teacups and teapots, though I've stopped, given that I've filled my space now. The question for every tiny house dweller, is how to have things around you that you enjoy using and seeing, but display them for form and function so as not to be cluttered? I hate clutter. It reduces the feeling of spaciousness and crowds not only the body but also the mind. It intrudes on smooth functioning of a space, and makes one feel scattered. I don't like clutter.

I watch design shows and also I love to watch "Take a Tour of my NY Loft with Me" kind of videos on Youtube. I love taking apartment tours of people who put their videos online. I favor city lofts and apartments, usually because they are smaller and I can see what the owner did to solve their space problems. I get ideas. With all this time in the evenings now and I'm not busy or tired, I can watch lots of these kind of design vids.

As an autistic person, my brain runs along one track. Things are things and they are always THAT thing. If I get a cookie sheet and it's designated as a cookie sheet, it will never also be a picture frame or a table top...a ladder will never become a bookshelf or an old tv into an aquarium or teacups into chandeliers. Cookie sheets are for cookies, teacups are for drinking tea, ladders are for climbing, and old tvs are for the dump.

I can't get my brain to repurpose old things into new things, or switch uses. I mean, I can if I see it first, I do, but I'd never think it up on my own.

The kitchen sink was bugging me. I all of a sudden realized it one day. I didn't like how I'd arranged it any more.

To the right of the sink we have dish soap, steel wool pad, scrubby, and hand soap. All necessary. To the left of the sink we have the two drinking vessels, water glass (with a "P" on it) for water, and the coffee mug (With an "E") on it. Also necessary, I drink coffee every morning and water all day long. I decided it was too cluttered. But there I sat, not knowing how to fix it.

I do like the teacup stand and I like the mini-pitcher on the windowsill. The pitcher is a rare find, it's mid-century from Vernon Kilns (California), Raffia pattern. Its shape tickles me. It is whimsical and funny and I like looking at it. I also like how the sun shines through the teacup and illuminates the delicate flowers at the bottom of the sup. So those were staying. Something else had to go.

So I was watching a 'tour my new NY apartment video' from some designer or other, and she was so excited to show her kitchen, and in it she had a soap dispenser. To me, the soap that the soap comes in is final, put that one at your sink and that's it. What she had down was purchase a fancy glass soap dispenser and put the soap from the plastic bottle inside it. Revelation! I had not thought of that.

Too cluttered

I also remembered being at a friend's house and seeing her holder for the sink sponge. I've never liked that the scrubby doesn't dry completely. At night I'd put it on the stove eye so it gets some circulation underneath. But mainly I just lived with it always hanging out at the sink, because that is the way I always did it and it's hard to change. I had forgotten about the sink sponge holder. But when I saw the glass soap dispenser I remembered the sponge holder. When I went to the Dollar store I went looking for a really narrow holder or one that I could bend. I planned to put it between the dish drain and the wall of the sink, which was only about 2 1/2 inches. I wanted everything below sink level so the eye would not be stopped when looking about the room. That's what clutter does, stops the eye.

I found a nice glass dispenser at Amazon and got it, and when it was delivered yesterday I fixed the sink the way I wanted it. I'll need to get some more Dawn soap, so the glass container is more filled, but I like the look a lot. The water glass and coffee mug will now stay inside the dish drainer. I bought a holder and squeezed it into the spot I wanted. I removed the hand soap. I'll either use dish soap or wash my hands in the bathroom sink. Let me tell you, it's a lot easier to squeeze dish soap from a dispenser than with wet hands, hold a dish in one hand and pry open the bottle with another and turn it upside down to squeeze it onto the sponge or the dish.

Paper towels are behind the pineapple. lol. I'll also tell you a secret, that every time I finish using the faucet, which swings, I move it back to align with the sink divider. Stop the eye design wise...OCD... either way, the kitchen just looks neater. In a small space even minor adjustments have a big impact.