7 Common Kitchen Problems and How to Deal with Them

The Kitchen is a crucial part of your home, it should be warm, welcoming, and filled with positivity. This will make cooking less of a chore and more of a refreshment. But just a few problems in the kitchen can have the exact opposite effect on the cook.

Common Kitchen Problems

Space

This is the biggest problem homeowners have with their kitchen- there is very little counter space, there is just not enough storage space, the kitchen layout makes it difficult to work there, and the sink sucks.

All of these above issues make your kitchen a very messy and chaotic place. You are not impressing anyone with a kitchen like that.

There are no easy fixes to these problems. For starters, you can fix (or at least try to fix) the lack of storage space by making use of your vertical space. Get modular shelves, and vertical cabinets on your walls. If your kitchen layout is odd, you will have to get shelves and cabinets custom-made for them.

You can’t magically expand your counter space, the next best thing is to properly organize your kitchenware, put it away after you use it, and store away things that you rarely use.

If you ever did dishes in a tiny sink, you should know the problem with it. It splashes water all over the place, and there is just not enough space for your dishes. The only easy fix for this is to do your dishes as soon as they enter the sink (I know there are busy folks around, but it is what it is). 

These were all just surface-level fixes, temporary solutions of sorts, the only way to properly address these problems is to do a complete kitchen remodel, and this time around, it would be wise to consider the inputs of the actual kitchen user, instead of designing it according to the whims of someone who has never done dishes all their lives or cooked anything else other than a packet of 2-minute noodles.

Odor

Is your kitchen smelling like a trashcan or worse- like an incubation center for nasty-looking aliens? The culprits behind this smell are usually your sink, waste bin (if you have it in your kitchen), or your refrigerator. 

Your sink could have a clog or some bacteria partying in its bends, to crash their stinking party you will need some baking soda, white vinegar, and a pot of boiling water. Sprinkle baking soda into the sink, let it sit for a good ten minutes, follow up with a cup of white vinegar, leave your sink be for another ten minutes, now pour hot water down the sink to finish the job.

If you have your waste bin in the kitchen, it is a good idea to empty it every day, keep a lid on it, and clean it at least once a week.

If your refrigerator starts to smell, identify which part the smell is coming from, if it is coming from the inside, clean it well and place a bowl of baking soda on one of the shelves, it should remove the odor in a couple of days. If the smell is not from the inside, it could be from the drain pan. Clean the drain pan, and it should stop smelling. If none of these are the cause of your problem, it is best to call a technician to have your refrigerator checked.

Improper ventilation will also cause odors to build up in your kitchen, so make sure your kitchen is well-ventilated.

Lighting

In the majority of the houses, kitchens somehow end up with bad lighting. Not only will bad lighting make your kitchen look like Snape’s potion room, but it will also make it difficult to clean and cook. You can end up chopping up your actual fingers along with lady’s fingers, or your food could end up with some strange ingredients that you didn’t add. To avoid this, get whatever type of lighting you want- task, ambient, or track, but keep your kitchen bright and well-illuminated.

Grease and Grime

Grease and Grime are to the kitchen what Police and Crime is to the police station. There is no permanent solution to grease and grime, they will build up slowly in your kitchen on everything exposed to the elements. Your only solution is to clean them every week, you can use a scrub, dish soap, and some elbow grease. However, you can reduce the accumulation of these by turning on your exhaust fan or range hood when cooking.

Pest Infestation

While rodents are a rare sight, cockroaches and flies are not that uncommon in kitchens. All of these pests pose serious health and hygiene risks. While you can get rid of them with home remedies, if the infestation is severe you will have to enlist the help of a professional pest exterminator. Once you have them vacated from your home, you must take precautions to keep them from returning.

Clutter

Here’s a short story: Jaff just landed a new job, to celebrate, he invites his friends home to treat them to his special home-cooked dish. He starts cooking expecting his culinary masterpiece to be complete just in time for his friends' arrival. It’s almost time for his friends to show up, just a few more steps and the dish will be done. Jaff needs to add some of his mom’s special homemade masala, do some finishing touches, and et voila. But if only things had gone as planned, he started looking for the masala container amid tens of other similarly sized containers on his countertop, but to no avail. Just then he hears his doorbell ring, he rushes out to open the door. His friends are greeted by a frustrated Jaff, clouds of smoke, and an acrid smell of something burning in the kitchen.

Don’t be like Jaff, cluttering will only come to bite you back in urgent situations. Use organizers, and drawers to neatly stack away utensils and containers. Don’t forget to label things that need labeling.

Ventilation

Indians are fortunate since the majority of them don’t have smoke alarms installed in their homes, if it was the other way around, smoke alarms would be going off every time someone starts cooking in the kitchen. That’s the kind of dishes that we cook here, this is why good ventilation is a must. If not, you won’t have to use any mosquito repellents, cooking in the kitchen should be enough to smoke the whole house out. With proper ventilation not only will the smoke be kept out of your home, but odors will be reduced too.

Signing Off

While there are other problems that can bring down your kitchen experience too, these were the most common problems pestering countless households across the globe. Keep your kitchen away from these problems to turn cooking into an enjoyable activity, and turn it into the heart of your home.