I have a small kitchen.

Let me qualify: I have a VERY small kitchen.

How small? Well, to be fair, I’m better off than many NYC apartment-dwellers. But I’d say I’m working with about 4 x 6 feet of floor space. I can take about two steps in either direction and get where I need to go.

This can be challenging for someone who loves to cook. I’m a sprawler when I do my thing in the kitchen. I use the space I have. I spread out. I make myself at home. What makes it even more difficult is that I moved four months ago from a bigger apartment with a MUCH larger kitchen with what felt like miles of counter space and endless drawers and cabinet space and pantry space and SPACE in general.

Alas…now I have been forced to adjust to my small — albeit extremely well-equipped — kitchen. I certainly can’t complain about the stainless steel refrigerator with bottom-drawer freezer, cabinets with the cool feature that gently pulls in the drawer the last inch and my gas stove. (Confession: a gas stove was at the top of my list of must-haves in my apartment search…cooking on electric makes me cry.) But I now have three small areas of counter space in which to work — and no dishwasher. Sigh.

But as Tim Gunn says, I’m making it work. And it really is a cute kitchen. Organization has been key. My Aunt Lauren, master of organization, unpacked box after box (after box!) of my kitchen stuff — plates, mugs, gadgets, pans, knives, appliances — and made sure everything fit in the limited cabinet space, and that I don’t have to use my handy step-stool too often to get to the goodies stashed on the top shelves. It was no easy task — food lover that I am, I have a LOT of kitchen tools.

And while cooking still has its hiccups in my small space, I really am in love with my little kitchen. There’s just enough room for me in it, and that’s what matters.