Two rooms, six people, one socket and two scalds
A family of six - two parents, a son of 16, a daughter of 12, a grandmother with knee arthritis, and a 4-year-old - rents a 46 m² ground-floor flat of two rooms. The kitchen measures 2.1 m × 1.8 m with a single window opening onto a covered courtyard; the LPG cylinder sits on the floor beside the sink, leaving a 40 cm strip as the only work surface. The only socket is above the door, so the mixer and fridge run off an extension lead across the floor. The living room doubles as the grandmother's bedroom, study and dining area. One 1.2 m wardrobe serves all six; clothes are stored in suitcases under the beds. The grandmother cannot bend or stand for long. The family has saved a fixed amount for improvements, and the landlord permits only reversible changes - no rewiring, no wall-breaking, no structural work. The 4-year-old has had two minor kitchen scalds in six months.
1. Apply the family resource management process to decide what to change first. Show your steps and the criteria you use.
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Steps
- Identify goals and standards: safety (two scalds already), a study space for two adolescents, sleep and mobility for the grandmother, hygiene in a 3.8 m² kitchen, storage for six people.
- Inventory resources: the fixed savings, the reversible-only rule, one socket, existing furniture, and the family's time - who cooks and when is a resource as real as money.
- Generate alternatives: relocate the cylinder; reversible wall shelving and rails; a folding dining table; bunk beds; a curtained sleeping alcove; a clip-on exhaust.
- Evaluate against criteria, in order: safety first, then frequency of daily use, then cost, then reversibility. A change used daily by the 4-year-old or the grandmother outranks a wardrobe upgrade.
- Plan and implement: one weekend, a written checklist, a named person per task.
- Control: revisit after a month and check scalds, study hours, and whether the extension lead is still on the floor.
Decision rule: anything removing a hazard to the 4-year-old or the grandmother comes before comfort and appearance. The first move is the cooking arrangement - cylinder and cable - not the wardrobe. That ordering is the management judgement; the shopping list is secondary.
2. Propose a revised kitchen layout and storage plan within the constraints, giving approximate dimensions and justifying each move.
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Kitchen
- Move the cylinder out of the 40 cm sink strip to the end of the counter with the hose routed flat against the wall, or outside the window if the landlord agrees. That recovers the only work surface at almost no cost.
- Add a reversible rail with hooks above the counter for the three most-used utensils, and a low shelf under the counter for the pressure cooker - vertical storage where there is no floor space.
- Keep the sink as the prep zone, with two boards (one colour-coded for raw food) so raw and cooked work are separated in a room too small for two zones.
- Clear the window sill entirely: the single window is the only exhaust. If the savings stretch, a clip-on fan or a recirculating hood.
- Cleaning chemicals go into a locked box on a high shelf, not under the sink where the 4-year-old can reach.
Living room
- A 1.2 m open shelving unit as a room divider: grandmother's bed near the window wall, study table for two at the far end, folding dining table against the wall. Keep 60 cm clear on the grandmother's access side for a walking frame and give her a high-seated chair with arms.
Storage
- Raise both beds on 20 cm plinths for the suitcases; add one tall reversible shelf in the passage; divide the wardrobe by height rather than by person so the 4-year-old's clothes sit at his own level.
3. Which two improvements would you defer, and what would you advise the family about ventilation and safety in the meantime?
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Defer
- Rewiring or adding sockets. Not permitted, and it would consume the whole budget. Instead use a proper multi-socket with a trip switch, clipped to the skirting, with the cable routed along the wall and never across the floor - the trip switch matters more than the extra socket.
- Replacing the wardrobe. Reversible shelving, bed plinths and height-sorted storage solve most of the storage problem for a fraction of the cost, and the wardrobe can wait a year.
Ventilation meanwhile: cook with the kitchen window and the living-room door open together so air draws across the flat; never use the cylinder in a closed room; check the hose monthly for cracks and keep the soapy-water test habit. A 3.8 m² kitchen with one window and no exhaust needs cross-flow, not a bigger window.
Safety meanwhile: a gate at the kitchen door at cooking times, rather than repeated warnings to a 4-year-old. Keep a bucket of water and a lid by the door - most of these injuries are scalds from vessels, and the first response is cool running water for 20 minutes, not oil or toothpaste. Fit a night light on the grandmother's route to the toilet and fix her chair height before spending on anything decorative; falls and scalds are the two hazards the household has already demonstrated.