Large kitchens are often seen as the cream of the crop or something to aspire to, but there are a few perks to be found in small kitchens as well. Limited space means fewer pots, pans, and other kitchenware, which reduces clutter and the amount of dirty dishes in your kitchen. Plus, you're more likely to prioritize buying high-quality, frequently recommended cooking gadgets that serve multiple purposes instead of spending money on one-use appliances or gadgets that get stuck in a drawer to be forgotten.
If you're looking for compact appliances to outfit your new home and its small kitchen, or want to claim back some much-needed space in a home you've lived in for years, we've got you covered. We've rounded up the best tiny appliances that were designed to fit your small kitchen, covering all the bases with an air fryer, coffee maker options, a few blenders, and more.
Read more: Every Major Air Fryer Brand, Ranked Worst To Best
Cuisinart Core Custom 4-Cup Mini Chopper
A food processor is perhaps one of the simplest electric gadgets for your kitchen, but it's capable of doing so much. You can create delicious pesto, chop vegetables for soup, make nut butters, and more. There are plenty of 8- and 10-cup food processor options available, but in a small kitchen, this 4-cup mini food processor from Cuisinart is a smarter pick.
Its 4-cup label means it can fit up to four cups of food inside at one time. There are two distinct functions for this little food processor, Chop and Grind, and it's easy to swap between them with simple paddle controls.
When you're done prepping veggies or whipping up a delicious dip, all the plastic parts can be rinsed and placed in the top rack of the dishwasher for easy cleaning. It's best to handwash the blade and wipe down the base with a wet cloth. This device has dimensions of 9.3 x 7.2 x 5.6 inches, making it small enough to tuck away in a pantry or cabinet until you need it.
Nutribullet Personal Blender
One of the most reliable, highly recommended blender brands to splurge on is Vitamix, but this brand's blenders aren't the smallest because they house a massive, powerful motor inside. When you're working with limited space but still want a powerful blender that'll deliver creamy smoothies and velvety sauces, a bullet-style blender is the perfect choice.
Measuring just 5.5 x 5.5 x 7.9 inches, the Nutribullet Personal Blender is super compact and often rated as one of the best kitchen gadgets you can buy on Amazon, with satisfied customers praising the smooth consistency it's capable of producing and how easy it is to use and keep clean.
Its 600-watt motor has no issues tackling frozen fruits, vegetables, or fibrous greens and turning them into a deliciously smooth drink in only a minute or so. The plastic blending cups and lids can be placed in the dishwasher's top rack to clean, and the blade only requires a simple rinse with soap and water. You can even stock up on extra blades or blending cups, sold separately, if you want a smoothie every day without the daily cleanup.
Beast Mini Blender Plus
A small kitchen can mean a lot of different things, like limited counter space, only one row of cabinets, or no dedicated pantry. If your small kitchen lacks a pantry or enough cabinets to store all your appliances, opt for an attractive personal blender that you wouldn't mind displaying on your counter at all times, like the Beast Mini Blender Plus. With dimensions of 4.1 x 4.1 x 13.4 inches, it'll leave plenty of space on your counter for other gadgets, if needed.
This blender has a 600-watt motor that can deliver creamy sauces, dips, and smoothies in minutes. It comes with three different blending vessels, or cups, sized at 640mL, 530mL, and 415mL. Each blending vessel can be paired with a lid and used as a cup for whatever you just blended, or you can transfer it to another cup, rinse the blending vessel, and put it on the top rack of your dishwasher for easy cleaning. For the blade, it's best to handwash it and let it dry completely before storing, though some customers have reported cleaning it in the dishwasher with no issues.
Keurig K-Mini Coffee Maker
For anyone who loves the convenience of K-Cups in their daily morning routine, Keurig's K-Mini coffee maker is the best option for small kitchens. This compact machine is only 4.5 inches wide, leaving plenty of space beside it for a coffee station decked out with mugs and a variety of K-Cups. Its 12.1-inch height and 11.3-inch depth allow it to fit well under most cabinets and on most counters.
With the K-Mini, you can brew a single serving between 6 and 12 ounces, and the sky's the limit when it comes to whether you want coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or any other hot beverage Keurig has mastered in its K-Cups. Because it's such a small coffee maker, you'll need to add fresh water to the reservoir every time you make a cup, but it's a quick process.
There's a drip tray below the dispensing nozzle large enough to hold a full accidental brew, so no worries if you accidentally start brewing another cup. The drip tray can be removed to accommodate up to a 7-inch travel mug if you need to take your hot drink to go.
Ninja 14-Cup Coffee Maker Pro
Single-serve coffee makers are a great option for those living alone or with one other person, but for larger families who all drink coffee in the morning, a larger coffee maker is necessary. Many options offer high capacity, great features, and excellent overall quality, but often at the expense of taking up a lot of counter space. One option we found that offers all the aforementioned perks with a small footprint is the Ninja 14-Cup Coffee Maker Pro.
This large coffee maker does take up quite a bit of depth and height on your counter, but its width is about 30% smaller compared to other popular coffee maker options, like those from Mr. Coffee or Cuisinart. Ninja's 14-cup coffee machine measures 11.5 x 7.9 x 14.3 inches (depth, width, and height, respectively).
Its size and sleek stainless steel design make this coffee maker look great on your counter. A permanent, reusable filter adds ease to your life, ensuring you never have to stock up on coffee filters or K-Cups to enjoy a fresh cup — you'll just need your favorite ground coffee beans. Ninja's large coffee maker also features two different brew styles, Classic and Rich, along with an adjustable warming plate, a removable 70-ounce reservoir, and dishwasher-safe components.
Dash SmartStore Hand Mixer
Although stand mixers from most major kitchen mixer brands are high quality, they're bulky, and that won't do for tiny kitchens. You can mix most things by hand instead of using a hand mixer, but why add unnecessary hassle when you can buy a super compact hand mixer instead?
The Dash SmartStore hand mixer is designed for small kitchens, with built-in storage slots for the beaters and a rubber piece to hold the cable in place once it's neatly wrapped. It can even fit inside most drawers, with impressively compact dimensions of 3.2 x 7.4 x 4.7 inches.
This lightweight mixer weighs just over two pounds but packs 150 watts of power to seamlessly mix cake batter, cookie dough, and any other yummy treat you can think of. There are three different speeds to swap between — Low, Medium, and High — depending on whether you're whipping egg whites into meringue or simply bringing ingredients together. And if you need to set the mixer down to add ingredients, it has a flat bottom so you can suspend the beaters over your mixing bowl and avoid a messy counter.
Ninja 8-In-1 Flip Toaster Oven
The Ninja Flip toaster oven is a game changer for tiny kitchens. As its name implies, you can flip this toaster oven up when it's not in use to preserve limited counter space. When it's down and ready to cook, it's 17 inches deep, 15.8 inches wide, and 7.7 inches high. Flipping it up and away, the 17-inch depth becomes its height and the 7.7-inch height becomes its depth, freeing up about 10 inches of counter depth when the toaster oven isn't in use.
Despite its relatively compact footprint, this 1800-watt toaster offers powerful performance and consistent results. It can air fry, bake, broil, roast, and dehydrate, and it has custom modes for pizza, toast, and bagels. Using the built-in controls, you can customize the baking temperature, set timers, and quickly start or stop cooking. Whether you're using this as a replacement for your traditional oven or in addition to it, this toaster oven is a helpful kitchen companion.
Our Place Wonder Oven
Our Place made waves in 2021 with its Insta-famous Always Pan, largely because it nailed the understated, modern aesthetic people were, and still are, searching for in classy cookware. The brand makes other cookware and appliances that are just as attractive as the Always Pan, and one of the best for tiny kitchens is the Wonder Oven.
This compact toaster oven won't take up much space on your counter, with dimensions of 10.6 x 11.5 x 11.6 inches, and it looks like a design choice rather than a necessary appliance. The Wonder Oven comes in a light brown Steam shade, a rich cobalt Blue Salt colorway, a peachy orange Spice shade, and a deep charcoal Char shade, all of which look gorgeous.
Functionally, the Wonder Oven has a capacity of three gallons (12 liters), can heat up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and features a non-toxic ceramic coating and a stainless-steel and chrome-steel interior. It has six functions: air fry, toast, roast, bake, broil, and reheat. There's also a unique steam-infusion technology, which lets you put water in a special compartment to be released during cooking and can supposedly improve a food's flavor, aroma, and texture.
Chefman Mini Air Fryer
An air fryer used to be considered an unconventional kitchen appliance, as a traditional oven can technically do what an air fryer can, but the speed and convenience air fryers offer over traditional ovens have helped them rise in popularity quickly. Many of the air fryers you'll find while shopping offer larger capacities, like four, six, or even ten quarts, but those are much too big for a small kitchen.
For a tiny kitchen, a two-quart air fryer like Chefman's Mini model is a smarter investment. With compact dimensions of 10 x 10 x 8.3 inches, it can fit easily on your counter or be stashed away in a cabinet or pantry when not in use. Despite its small size, this air fryer's nonstick basket can easily accommodate a full dinner for one or two people. When it's time to clean up, both the basket and the rack inside it can be placed in your dishwasher's top rack.
Instant Pot Duo
Instant Pot makes some pretty massive electric pressure cookers, but the Instant Pot Duo is a relatively compact model with a three-quart capacity and dimensions of just 11.2 x 11.4 x 10 inches. This may not be an appliance you want to keep on your counter at all times, but it can easily fit on a pantry shelf or in a small cabinet.
In addition to pressure cooking, the Instant Pot Duo offers six other functions. It can slow cook, sauté or steam veggies, make rice, or even help automate parts of the yogurt-making process. There are also preset buttons to quickly customize settings for soups and broths, meats and stews, beans and chili, rice, and porridge.
This nifty pressure cooker speeds up most cooking processes while still managing to deliver tasty, well-cooked food. Once it's time to clean up, both the lid and the inner pot can be put in the dishwasher after being rinsed.
Dash Mini Rice Cooker
An appliance with only one use can be seen as kitchen tech that's a total waste of money, but if that appliance does one thing really well, it quickly proves its value. For anyone who uses rice as the base for multiple dishes every week, a good rice cooker will help you create perfectly fluffy rice with minimal hassle. Plus, it allows you to buy dry rice in bulk and save money on groceries.
The Dash Mini Rice Cooker is ideal for a single person or a couple who only cooks small portions of rice at a time. It comes with a removable, half-quart nonstick pot that can accommodate one full cup of uncooked rice and one and a quarter cups of water; after about half an hour, you'll have roughly two cups of cooked rice.
It's cute enough to keep on the counter when you're not using it, but if you'd rather pack it away in a cabinet, it won't take up much space, with dimensions of 6.5 x 8.5 x 6.3 inches. And although its primary purpose is to cook rice and other grains, you can also use this rice cooker to make soups, boil pasta, steam veggies, and keep food warm without cooking it further.
Ovente Immersion Blender
If you don't have room in your cabinets or on your counter for a bulky blender, an immersion blender is the next best thing. This immersion blender from Ovente is easily one of the best kitchen gadgets you can find under $50, powerful enough to blend soups, sauces, and smoothies, even with frozen fruit. Its 300-watt motor can operate two blending speeds, either Low or High, depending on the consistency you're looking for.
The handle that contains the motor can be detached from the blade shaft, which is made with food-grade stainless steel and can safely go through a dishwasher cycle for easy cleaning. To clean the handle, simply use a wet cloth to wipe away any food debris.
When assembled, this immersion blender measures 2.5 x 2.5 x 14.8 inches, which will fit nicely in longer drawers. If your drawers are short or it simply fits better with your other kitchen gear, you can twist off the blade shaft to store it beside the corded handle instead.
Dash Multimaker Mini System
When space is limited in your kitchen, grabbing multi-purpose appliances and gadgets is a smart decision. This typically means you have to forgo appliances generally considered frivolous, like ice cream makers or popcorn machines, but there's at least one appliance out there that's the exception to this, as it's super tiny, multi-purpose, and frivolous: the Dash Multimaker Mini System.
This compact gadget can act as a waffle maker with its two traditional waffle plates, and you can shake things up with the included heart-shaped waffle plate, or check out some of Dash's other fun plate shapes sold separately. The two griddle plates can also be swapped in to make pancakes, eggs, or sausage patties.
The device itself is incredibly compact, measuring only 6.9 x 5 x 4.1 inches. There's also a small storage box that can simultaneously hold six plates, which are easy to swap out and safe to clean in the dishwasher. While you do have to wait for individual waffles, pancakes, or eggs to cook, each one is done pretty fast, generally between 2 to 5 minutes, depending on what you're cooking. You can also cook ahead and freeze items to consume them later.
Methodology
To compile this list of tiny appliances made to fit your small kitchen, we first looked through Reddit threads and other forums to find out which appliances were most useful for the average person. From there, we took those ideas and searched through websites of major retailers, including Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart, to find the best compact versions of these appliances.
What qualifies as tiny or compact can be subjective, so here's the specific criteria we used. We compared the dimensions of the most popular options in each appliance category, and then found alternatives that were significantly smaller. Some of the appliances we picked are relatively tiny no matter which brand you go with, like an immersion blender, so in these cases, we looked for models that break down or store more easily than others in their category.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
