Insights into Induction

We've been using our induction stove for about 10 days. I've already discovered things I like and dislike about it. Do keep in mind that all of my observations and thoughts are going from a 15+ year old electric stove to a brand new induction stove. 

Things I like:

1. The entire surface is flat. The controls on our new stove are touch controls so there are no knobs. I like being able to wipe across the entire surface to clean it. Although the knobs were removable on the old ones, you were still left with little metal rods, and it was an extra piece that needed to not only be wiped under but cleaned itself.

2. It's fast. The first time we used it to make ramen for our second dinner, it took 5 minutes from start to finish boiling cold tap water and cooking the noodles. I've noticed a significant increase in cooking speed because when I'm cooking, I can tell I need to think faster in order to keep up with the cooking. Generally speaking, I already think pretty quickly, so the fact that I felt a need to think faster meant the cooking speed was actually faster than I was used to. 

Things I'm Indifferent About:

1. One of the selling points about induction that's advertised mentions the surface not heating up because it's heating up your cookware. One of the first things I did after cooking was removing the pot and putting my hand to the surface to touch it to see how hot it was. Yes, I did it with caution, not like a 5 year old child would, and yes, it was still very very warm. It wasn't hot enough to the point where I'd be getting at least a second degree burn instantly, but it was hotter than I expected. On the flip side, it is not hot enough to "cook" any spilled food. Cleanup on the stove is relatively clean and in the week and a half I've used it, I've not once needed to really scrub any burnt on food...because it's not burnt on.

2. There is noise. I've read other users describe the sound from an induction cooktop as a buzzing or subtle ringing sound, especially if the stove is turned up to the higher power levels. There is indeed a buzzing sound coming from the stove. I don't necessarily like it, but it doesn't bother me. It helps that our vent hood is on when I cook and that sound is quite loud already so the sound of the induction cooktop gets muffled rather easily. 

Things I Don't Like:

1. Because the controls are touch, you cannot set anything on the front panel where they're located regardless of whether you are using the stove or not. One morning I was making a big batch of waffles as I do once every few weeks and I had set my baking trays on the stove like I normally do so I can place waffles on them as they cook to prepare for the freezer. After about five seconds of placing down the trays, the stove started beeping at me to alert me that the buttons were being "pressed." I removed the trays and locked the controls to see if this would stop the beeping while the stove was off. Nope. Still beeped. At that point I gave up and rearranged my trays so they were not touching the control panel in the front. I will probably get used to this later as we have this stove longer, but for now, this feature makes me think too much in ways I don't really want to. 

***

Overall, I'm very happy with our upgrade. I probably won't pore over the electric bill to see if it's actually more energy efficient, but it's probably hard to actually compare because there are so many other variables that change from month to month. It makes me happy that my cooking time can be shortened, even by the slightest minutes. For now, I'm gingerly lifting pots and pans to move them around the stove top as to not scratch the pristine glass surface. In 10 years, if we're still in this house, I'll probably be sliding everything all over that cooktop.

Or maybe one year. Who knows. 😏

Storage 101: Blind Corners

This is the first part of my 4 part series. To read the backstory on how we started reorganizing around our house, click here.

We have two blind corner cabinets in our house. We never used them efficiently from the start, but we never really had a reason to need to. Until we did.

For those of you who aren't familiar with blind corner cabinets, they are cabinets with a "blind" corner. Essentially, it's a cabinet, but then either to the left or the right, there is extra room but unaccessible straight from the cabinet door. If you're a visual person, I've created a nice diagram. 

This is exactly like one of our blind corner cabinets. The blind portion is almost exactly the same size as the area straight ahead of the cabinet door. So we were really losing out on half of the space of the cabinet by not using it properly.

In 2020, we gained lots of small kitchen appliances and kitchen gadgets as well as upgrading some to nicer/more permanent options.

1. We got an immersion blender, and to be exact, it was winter 2019 when we received it. It had no permanent home in our kitchen so it sat in the box on top of the refrigerator next to other miscellaneous items with no permanent home for almost a year. Using it was pretty precarious and we caused a few avalanches.

2. We bought an electric griddle. This griddle is advertised to store vertically in a slim space. However, the cabinets in our kitchen came with a shelf in the middle to create two tiers so this was impossible for us. The griddle is 15"x19"but none of our cabinets have a 15" height clearance. We attempted tucking it into the space between our cabinet and our refrigerator, but this caused more problems because we didn't want the kids to find it or it to scratch against anything. So we were forced to find a place to store it flat.

3. We upgraded our colanders. We had a set of three with stainless steel mesh, but over time, I realized stainless steel mesh was not my preference. We bought another set with perforated stainless steel which we absolutely love. I'm not going to get into the differences between the two here, but if you don't know the difference and you're curious, google them or send me a message and I'll tell you all about them! We didn't get rid of our old ones because sometimes I need more than one strainer in a large or small size, so it helps to have multiples. 

4. We got a kitchen scale. I. Never. Knew. How. Much. I. Needed. One. These things are amazing. I can weigh my baby food in exact portions. I can measure breastmilk and use a bottle without measurements on the side. (1 ml = 1 g) I know exactly how much my meat weighs when I vacuum seal it to freeze. I can double check the accuracy of weights from grocery delivery services. And I haven't even mentioned that I can bake with extreme accuracy! Can you tell how much I love this kitchen scale? And it was a gift!

We were able to store all of this in the existing space in our kitchen cabinets AND make everything more accessible. How did we do it?

We installed blind corner shelves in one of our blind corner cabinets.

I've looked these up for years. We looked into Shelf Genie. I googled different types. I looked up DIY videos and how-tos to get ideas for what people did with a tight budget. Nothing seemed to fit what I wanted to do so we put it off for a long time. Then back in 2020, when all this organization began, I decided it was time to purchase blind corner shelves and install them for my birthday present. 

This is the model we purchased. They're manufactured by Rev-a-Shelf.

Before buying them, I did a lot of homework, the main thing being measuring. We measured everything. I measured cabinet heights, cabinet lengths, cabinet depths, small appliance heights, pot heights, cutting boards, baking dishes. I measured a lot. Why? Because installing these shelves would involve rearranging pretty much every lower cabinet in our kitchen. 

And they're not cheap. 

There was one thing I couldn't measure and had to take a gamble on after purchasing and that was the space I would lose due to installation. Because this shelf rolls in and out on a track, it needs a few inches of height for installation. Nothing I read online in product descriptions stated this important piece of information. Our cabinets had double shelves so it was extra crucial this would work. 

So I gambled.

After they arrived, that was the first thing I did. I set up the track on the kitchen floor for a mock install, had my husband hold the shelf in place on the track because nothing was secured, and measured the height I would lose from the track installation: 4". 

4" is huge in the construction world. In this case, it meant my original storage plan of what I was intending to store on these shelves had to be scrapped and redone. Otherwise, we were going to be returning the most expensive birthday present of my life. 

So we went with plan B. And it actually worked out better than I thought it would have. We managed to rearrange all of our things, store the four extra kitchen purchases in our existing space, and make everything more efficient. 

We were so pleased with the way this turned out, and using these shelves is actually a lot of fun. The gliding is extremely smooth, and it really does live up to its name: "The Cloud." 

Now, you may be wondering how this can be more efficient since the shape of the cabinet is a perfect rectangle, and the shelf resembles nothing like a rectangle, which means you are losing out on square footage of storage. This was my conundrum for a long time which is why it took me so long to make the purchase. 

The answer is twofold. Yes, you are losing out on square footage because storing items directly into the cabinet and packing it in like tetris is the "best" way to use the most space. No, you are not losing out on efficiency because I can locate items located in the very back of the cabinet on this sliding shelf and take it out without displacing any other items in 10 seconds or less. This is impossible if I had crammed everything in like tetris: I would be left unpacking the entire cabinet to locate something in the very inside. Their design is the most efficient at maximizing the storage and maintaining maximum efficiency in an effortless way. 

My blind corner no longer disappoints me, but instead, brings me joy when I slide the shelf in and out.

When we have more time to complete DIY projects again, we can attempt the other one. I have an idea in my head, but it's not perfected. Anyone want to help bring my idea to life?  😀

Next time: The Pantry