I haven’t taken any photos of our little kitchen because, frankly, it’s a bit of a mess and I didn’t feel like cleaning it just so I could get a few pictures.  But I did want to post a few photos of how we used one of the little rooms on the first floor.  We have two small rooms down there that aren’t really suitable for bedrooms unless you have very small kids.  I decided to turn one of them into a pantry.

I bought the refrigerator last week to supplement the small “dorm sized” one the landlords supplied.  It’s an AEG model and so far, I’m pretty pleased with it.  It’s a good size for two people and gives us a  better place to store all the things that take up too much space in a little fridge.  We put all the magnets we collected on our many trips on that fridge.  I caught one of the neighbor kids looking through the window at them.  😉

The shelves I bought years ago at Rose’s.  They are very sturdy wood and fold out conveniently.  I usually use them for books, but we didn’t bring many books to Germany on account of our 5000 pound shipping limit.  They make a great place for my china and some dry goods, along with bakeware that doesn’t fit in the kitchen cabinets.  And you can also see the obligatory twenty pack crate of beer…

I bought this handy little cart from Amazon.de.  The top opens up so you can store stuff under it.  There are two drawers, room for wine storage, and space under the rack and drawers for other stuff.  The wheels make it easy to move.  Although this cart is pretty heavy, I think we’ll probably take it back to the States with us.

The vacuum is a Dirt Devil.  I’m not all that happy with it because it has a design flaw.  The on/off button is on the side of the machine, so if you accidentally run into the door or something, it shuts off.  Also, the head isn’t powered, so it’s not that great for carpet.  Luckily, we don’t have much carpet in this house.

Another shot of the shelves.

The other small room we’ve turned into the trash sorting room.  In Germany, you have to sort your trash by what it is.  It’s not just putting recyclables in a recycling bin.  It’s separating paper, plastics, metals, biodegradables, and residual trash.  That means having just one trash can isn’t feasible.  I don’t mind separating trash, I guess, though I really need to find a single trash can with several compartments in it.