Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 2, Number 25, DeMotte, Jasper County, 12 January 1933 — PLANS PROPER USE OF KITCHEN SPACE [ARTICLE]

PLANS PROPER USE OF KITCHEN SPACE

New York Woman Succeeds in New Profession.

As a new profession for women, that of “kitchen planning" has just turned up in the trade directories. So far as known, there is only one exponent of this novel way of earning a living, but she has succeeded in making a good living out of it. even though she launched her new business just about the beginning of the depression period. She is Mrs. Ann C. Willis, and she has offices in six cities. One day may find lAr in New York at the office of an architect, planning the ideal kitchen before the house plans leave the blueprint stage. Another day she is at a client’s house, perched upon stepladder, measuring her china and the space it requires, asking about the size of the family, the scale of entertaining, and the consequent demands made upon the kitchen. Between these stops she may drop in to study a kitchen that, like Topsy, “just grew,” full of mistakes that no one, least of all the owner, realized were being made, and that now is to be done over. In the comparatively short time Mrs. Willis has been a “kitchen planner” she has discovered that a great many kitchens have exactly the same defects. For instance, they lack sufficient storage space, with the result that utensils have to be piled in stacks and working surfaces become cluttered. Another common defect is that sinks, stoves, and tables are the wrong height. This, of course, is easily remedied, but many housewives tire themselves out day after day bending over a low sink without ever realizing what the trouble is. Most kitchens, she finds, don’t get enougli light and air. Daylight is best, of course, and it should come from the left when you're standing in position most frequently occupied. If your kitchen is so large and so old-fashioned that the unnecessary space wastes time and energy, move everything to one corner of the room. Mrs. Willis suggests in the American Magazine. Put the stove over within friendly distance of the sink. If your husband is fiandy with the hammer, get him to build a cupboard near the newly assembled kitchen, or buy a kitchen cabinet. If on the other hand, your kitchen Is small and you are cramped for space, her advice is to build cupboards over the ice box and put slender ones in narrow places. Very often they can be built, in under the sink, in space that usually goes to waste. Next, weed out pieces of china rarely used and banish them to the cellar or the attic.