With today's array of earth-tone paints, under-cupboard organizers and inventive illumination options, there's no need to fret away those happy hours you could be enjoying in the heart of your home -- your kitchen!

Too small? Too cramped? Too dark?

Use the S-O-S system to rethink your kitchen space this year!

Simplify it.
Open it up.
Store it.

Simplicity doesn't mean barren. It doesn't mean sparse. It does mean easy -- on the eyes, on movements, on how you use the space and light you have to maximize your small spaces.

Simplify your kitchen furniture and furnishings ... streamline and recess your lighting ... clear your counters and walls of all but the attractive essentials for food preparation. These, plus an efficient step-saving work area, are among the quickest first steps you should take to when redecorating your small or narrow kitchen.

If possible, rearrange your appliances and workspaces to essentially "go with the flow." Divide the room up into two main areas: food preparation/cooking, and clean-up.

One way to simplify food preparation is to arrange your appliances in 1-2-3 order in terms of use: refrigerator first, then sinks with work surfaces attached or inserted, then microwave, stove or cook top. That way, food leaves the refrigerator, and is washed, chopped, processed, seasoned and cooked with just a few easy steps by the chef!

Make more of your wall space, too. Hang a large pegboard -- painted white or some pastel hue to match your kitchen -- along one wall. Using different-sized S-hooks, gather together all those kitchen gadgets, ladles, sifters, choppers and other hand tools that so often clutter up counters or languish in junk drawers.

Attach an oversized S-hook at one or both ends of the pegboard to keep handy your aprons, children's bibs and potholders.

Open up your small-space kitchen by adding light wherever you have a dark corner. Skylights are great illuminators, if a redesign fits into your redecorating budget! For lighting, opt for the brightest, least harsh illumination available, and get rid of clunky hanging globes and lanterns in favor of streamlined, sleek luminescence.

A bright glow is a must for a small kitchen, but you can also add light by strategically positioning mirrors. Hang one across from your kitchen windows, to double the incoming natural light and double the view of the great outdoors. Mirrors are effective, too, in "extending" short hallways and opening up dark, dead-end corners.

White cabinets -- doorless, or doored with framed chicken wire -- and white or pale walls with color flowing seamlessly from one room to the next, say "light and airy" in any kitchen lexicon! Feeling adventurous? Tear out a few old cupboards and put up some open floating shelves in their stead.

Finding storage space in a small kitchen is so much easier these days with a wide array of under-sink, under-cupboard and behind-the-door organizers -- everything from hanging mesh baskets to epoxy-coated wire. Use them liberally to store and hide trash bags, grocery sacks, coupons, barbeque tools and other as-needed accessories!

Whatever your decorating choices, make them with "you" in mind. Experiment with light, space, fabric and textures to achieve the look that you want, in whatever space you have available!

Kate Sheridan is a Michigan freelance writer, photographer and homesteader whose writings on the fun and foibles of country living may be found at http://www.gardenandhearth.com/RuralLiving.htm.