This is the stuff of kitchen nightmares... don't let it be yours

I just had this Facebook memory pop up in my feed and it reminded me of such a powerful lesson that I just had to share.



The top photo was my beautiful new renovated kitchen. I'd chosen everything myself, designed it with loads of drawers and cupboards, just the way I liked it.

And then we sold our house, a little sooner than we anticipated.

The second photo, is the kitchen that I moved into - a 1960's kitchen in a hot, cold, very 'original' house that was to be our home for 9 months while we built our dream home.

And just to be clear, the kitchen you can see in the photo, is the entire kitchen! There's no other benches, or space. You can just imagine the state of the cupboard shelves. 

"How could you live in this?" my friends all asked at the time. "You've had a beautiful new kitchen and now… this ."

"It's 9 months. You can do anything for a short, defined period of time, knowing it will end" was my repeated answer.

I'm not going to suggest living in that kitchen, or house, was easy. I hate cooking at the best of times and don’t really need an excuse to avoid it.

You can rationalise sacrifice when it has an end date.

But live in this second kitchen forever, with no idea when it will change? Now that's an entirely different matter. That would make me anxious, resentful and likely make me put on a bunch of weight because I down right refuse to cook!

Can I ask which of these kitchens represent your life? Are you living the life you intended, having deliberately designed and chosen every aspect?

Or, are you living in my second kitchen?

Even worse, are you in my second kitchen without a deadline on when you will get a new one?

Like the mouldy bench tops, has your career gone stale because you're afraid to take the next step, even though you know you're more than capable?

Are you so busy putting everything you've got into your career and family, that like my teeny tiny bench tops, find there's never any space left in the schedule to do anything for yourself?

Or have you just accepted that being exhausted, stressed and always on is now your lot in life, almost as if you've become used to a rusting sink and leaky tap, having given up any dream that there could be something better out there?

It might be time for you to take a deep breath. Think about your life. And be conscious of which kitchen you're really living in. If the answer scares you, then maybe it's time to do something about it!

Get in touch if you want to chat about the level of rust in your sink and think about how your future kitchen, or intentionally designed life could look. I promise you whatever you think it could be, the reality is always more amazing.