Corners of Our Home: Kitchen Shelf

In our kitchen we have all kinds of shelves. Open shelves, closed cabinets, and a wire wall system with thin rails and small movable racks. The latter shelf gets used more than any other.

Between the four of us, we probably reach for something on it a couple dozen times a day. Cups, bibs, cloths, spoons, plates, teapots. It was never meant to be anything special, but it became the place where the things we rely on most naturally came together. Some of it is practical, like the kids’ sippy cups and divider plates that are always in rotation. Some of it is more personal.

And then there are ultra-special pieces like a small hand carved wooden plate by Ryuji Mitani that our son has used since he first started eating on his own. Mitani-san hand carved his name into the front. It still gets used almost every day.

All of these things live together on this one shelf. Not arranged in any particular way. Just what we use, over and over again, placing things back after the many loads of dishes each day and pulling them down just as quickly. It’s probably not the prettiest corner of our home, but it’s the most practical, lived-in one.

When I think about how quickly these early years pass, I think about how the things on these shelves will change too. This corner will keep adapting with us. But right now, this is what our days look like, with small hands reaching for anything and everything.