Useful Cooking Gadgets

Waste Disposal / Recycling
www.IKEA.com
UTRUSTA pull out waste sorting tray    £18 each
Holds various sizes of sorting bin that pull out for easy access



Bar Stool and Pull Out Trays
IKEA Franklin Bar Stool  £25 . 
Tray Runners  www.ironmongerydirect.com (fitter made and installed trays in a couple of hours) In the food preparation area I have a stool and two very useful pull out trays that enable me to get my legs under the working area. Of all the extras I have fitted these have proved most useful.

Taps on the Front of the Sink

www.salonsupplies.co.uk
REM Monobloc Mixing Valve in the front and a standard mono mixer tap at the rear. Total cost about £150  
There is a VOLA unit installed at NMC. Try as I may I could not find anything similar but cheaper on line but my solution was found during a trip to the barbers.

Remote Controlled' Cooker Hood

FSH for me means that raising my arms above my head isn't easy. I was quoted £1500 for a fully functional remote controlled cooker hood. Instead I opted for a HOTPOINT hood which I am able to control it from switch which was installed in the bank of labelled switches.

Moving Heavy Appliances on Worktop Bench
SMULA Tray IKEA £1 
I am less able to lift appliances from drawers and a simple solution that works for me is to “store” them out of the way on the worktop is such a way that I can slide them to a more accessible position when I need them. My simple cheap solution another IKEA purchase.

Cooking Baskets 
Pans of hot water are heavy and dangerous. Wire baskets used for frying chips, make it easy to strain the vegetables, as long as they are not peas, without moving the pan.

We are grateful to Rodger Marshall for providing all the suggestions apart from the cooking baskets.
For the next edition we are looking for websites and products along our theme of keeping safe. Please forward any suggestions to jon.mcvey@nmcentre.com

Kitchen Tips - My New Kitchen Design by Rodger Marshall

I have recently had an extension to my bungalow to accommodate a new kitchen. I am fortunate in that I had the funds to do it, but I found it very difficult to get any meaningful advice on what to do and what my options there were.  My Local council Occupational Therapist would not help even with the planning stage as I was effectively too well off!  She suggested AKW who install kitchen solutions for people with mobility needs or get some private OT advice.  I called around and became more and more disillusioned with lack of advice in my locality, West Sussex.

I remember visiting the NMC and seeing some of the measures you had incorporated into your kitchen. 

Of all the people I spoke to recently Matthew was the most helpful. He gave me some excellent advice regarding worktops, cupboards and drawers and general accessibility which I incorporated into my design. 

To get some inspiration I persuaded my family to wheel me around the Ikea Superstore in Croydon and looked at online videos. 

I did get some ideas but my budget did not stretch to AKW. In the end I chose a local builder who also happens to be my neighbour to build the extension and fit the kitchen.

My builder uses Howdens to supply the kitchen units and they offer a free kitchen design service. Needless to say that their free service is limited and they have minimal experience designing a kitchen for somebody with mobility issues. 

Prior to the building work I had given the layout a lot of thought and produced my own draft before looking at Howdens plan.  I was able to sit with their planner and their more sophisticated programme and between us we came up with a suitable workable design for the units/cabinets etc.

I believe I have some practical and money saving tips to share with anybody contemplating refitting their kitchen.
   

Matthew strongly suggested having taps at the front edge of the sink rather than the traditional setting at the rear.  After a lot of searching I believe I have sourced a cheaper alternative to the VOLA taps he suggested, saving or rather not spending £400 yet achieving the same outcome.

 

FSH for me means that raising the arms above my head is becoming more and more difficult. Hours and hours searching on internet for remote controlled cooker hoods yielded nothing suitable, but I did find one that will restart on the previous settings if turned off at the mains.

I have found and installed cheap functional plinth heaters to keep me warm and which can be controlled by wall switches.

Pull switches rather than traditional rocker switches are easier to grab hold of and reduce the likelihood of a fall when twisting to turn on the lights on entering a room.   

We utilised the cutouts for the sink and hob to manufacture the pull out shelves and by buying a pair of extension runners from www.IronmongeryDirect.com my builder installed 2 bespoke pull out worktops for less than the 'off the shelf' Howdens price.

Similarly I found that it is possible to install two pull out waste sorting trays side by side under the sink. 

I find the pull out larder units easy to use and access, well worth the investment.

I am sure that like me most sufferers have developed coping mechanisms. But just maybe some of the tips and tricks I have found may help others. Nothing that a competent, empathetic, OT specialist might suggest, but working without this support these are some of the things I incorporated in my new kitchen.