All the Shit We Bought For Our Homes Now That We're In Them All Day
FeminismStyle
Graphic: Elena Scotti
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While living and working at home for the past few months, I’ve become something of a cooking freak. In just a few weeks, I went from exploiting the luxury of ordering out almost every day to cooking daily, from trendy recipes (like the New York Times Cooking section’s simple but decadent Strawberry Spoon Cake) to my mom’s Guyanese non-recipe “recipes.” It’s not easy. My tiny kitchen has limited countertop space (almost none) and barely qualifies as a galley. Due to these constraints, I desperately needed to organize it so I could better access everyday items while moving around. While I already had the obvious basics like measuring spoons and a colander and things like that, I was either missing a few necessities (who thinks about buying a spoon rest???) or using very old and worn pots and pans that it was time to upgrade. Life in self-isolation inevitably pushed me toward buying things that would make my life easier, from small items to big-ticket stuff every home chef needs.
In May, I upgraded from a decade-old hand mixer to a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer and have since made many batches of chocolate chip cookies with it. I also bought an All-Clad saucepan. (Both from Williams Sonoma). I really did not want to think deeply about which pots and pans to choose and just went with familiar names. As far as small items, I invested in things like a knife sharpener (still unsure how to use it), a spoon rest (which you really don’t consider until you see how messy the countertop gets and think: well, clearly I need a larger spoon to rest this spoon on), a rolling pin for if I ever make pizza, a digital meat thermometer, and even new oven bulbs because mine had long blown out.
For kitchen organization, I bought a bunch of storage jars from World Market and Rubbermaid containers from Amazon, as well as a wall-mounted pot rack to free up cabinet space and this unfortunately cute Anthropologie honey pot. I laugh every time I see it. I also purchased, from Etsy, a reclaimed wood shelf for kitchen storage above the sink. I have about four of these already and love how sturdy they are, plus rustic.
I didn’t quite realize how much cooking required wiping my hands and dishes, so I stocked up on tons of tea towels, including a set of lemon-themed ones from Peace & Riot, one of my favorite black-owned home stores in Brooklyn.
Here is a shot of one side of the kitchen.
But my proudest purchase so far is a practical one, the Stove Shelf, which not only provides extra storage space on the stove but keeps things from falling behind my stove and making me paranoid that everything behind the stove will somehow catch fire. Funny how something so small can provide such big relief. (As a final sidebar not related to the kitchen, I’d like to recommend Zara Home as a source for storage baskets; I copped a few, among them these laundry hampers.) —Clover Hope
My boyfriend and I moved into a new apartment together on the same day that both of our companies officially instituted a work from home policy, which means that we have spent the past three months trying to beautify and personalize our home from the safety of the couch we were smart enough to buy before this all happened.
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