You'll get used to it. The kitchen in our condo was smaller. You'll just have to be ruthless with the things you use everyday and find a home elsewhere for the things you don't.

I would probably put pots under the sink.

Can you turn the fridge to the right and put a shelving unit beside it under the pass through window?

We have a similar small kitchen. I cannot wait to redo it in a couple of years.

What we did was get a kitchen island and put it (in your case) along side the fridge. There is the cut out but it should be high enough to get a small to medium sized island in there. That is where we store many of our pot/pans, and larger small appliances.

I'm not sure of the space allowance, but you should look into getting a buffet for under the window cutout. (there's no counter/cupboards there, right?)

We have this one from Jysk, and while it's not great quality, we painted it white to match the cupboards and it makes a WORLD of difference. It's not terribly deep, but you could put your dry goods, or plates/cups/mugs there, or small appliances. (and it's cheap which is good!)

http://www.jysk.ca/olav-pine-buffet.html

It's fairly shallow, so if I'm reading your floorplans/photos properly, you should still have enough clearance. (IF you can move the fridge the other way, which I don't see as an issue, you might just have to change the swing on the door.)

This actually seems like a fairly average-large sized kitchen to me, seeing as the kitchen's I've had since moving out of my moms have been uber tiny.

Some things that I do

- we have a separate cabinet that I use as a pantry- all our food items (canned goods, cereal, baking stuff etc) are in there.
-Microwave is on a microwave cart with two shelves underneath it that hold things like pot lids and whatnot
-For dishes, when we have a 2 basin sink we have a drying rack that sits in the second sink. When we had only 1 basin, we used drying mats instead of a drying rack as they took up a lot less room.
-Find innovative ways to store things. For example in our condo, I kept the big not-so-often used appliances (think waffle iron, panini press, griddle etc) in the linen closet upstairs. Sure it was inconvenient to get when you wanted it, but it was better than not having it/not having any counter space to put it when you want to use it.
-With most fridges, you can reverse the doors on them to open the way you want. So if you feel like the floor plan works better if the fridge opened the opposite way, then flip the doors!
-Don't forget about the added storage you have above the cabinets! You can use that area for the things that I used to keep in my linen closet!

To be honest, I like my smaller kitchens. Everything is right there for you and it forces you to keep life simple. Go through all the kitchen stuff you will be bringing with you from your old place - do you truly need 10 mixing bowls? 15 different cookie sheets? Simplify your life- you'll love it in the end!

I would def. maximise the space above the cabinets.
Nice baskets, ect. to keep stuff organized.

You could put your drying mat on that little "box" by the stove.. it's useles space anyway..

Add some kind of low shelves / hutch / expedit ikea bookshelves..ect.. under the cutout (as long as you can turn the fridge..otherwise you wouldnt be able to open the door.)

Could you also put a buffet in the dining area? Not sure how big your own kitchen table is, but from the photos, it looks like there'd be enough room! You could put some of the less-used items there.

I was going to suggest some sort of buffet, hutch, cabinet, sideboard (whatever you call it)to the right of the patio doors. Then you can store some of your less used items over there. That, together with an island and baskets up top would give you plenty of space.

Our condo has a much smaller kitchen than that. I'd put some sort of cabinet or moveable island under the pass-through and a sideboard in the dining area.

If the lack of a dishwasher is a big deal to you, I had a Danby counter-top dishwasher in my old rental. I kept it on a the second shelf of a rolling island. We gave it to our friends when I moved in with DH and they say it's the best gift anyone ever gave them. Our other friends friends have the portable GE dishwasher. It's pretty compact but works really well.

You're welcome, Mrs Elle. I hate doing dishes more than anything. Mine was a gift from my parents years ago and I'd never heard of one before either. Danby has 2 models, one holds 4 place settings and one holds 6. If there's only two of you and the baby to be, it should suit your needs. I found it works best with liquid dishwasher detergent.

Ignore the 2 bad reviews on the website, sounds to me like they didn't read the instructions properly and didn't level the dishwasher before using it. DUH.

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