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sailordave ... I feel your pain (see username). My method is to be organized, omit what I do not need, invite people to observe but not help due to space constraints, drink wine, and get over it. I know this sounds simplistic and lightly patronizing, but I have no other choice. Mine is an impossibly small kitchen, but tight quarters have not kept me from what I love and need to do. If my kitchen was five times the size, I still think I'd predominately work in the same five square feet. I'd just have more room for stuff.

I'd say it's more like riding a unicycle than a bike with a flat tire ... takes precision and stamina, with a side of moxie. But yes, I'd do many things for more counter space, so again, I know your frustration.

Incidentally, I have never cooked a frozen pizza.

For 3 years, I lived in a studio flat where I didn't have a kitchen at all, my "kitchenette area" was in the entryway...I never had the gas connected for the tiny two-burner cooker because I needed to wait for the gas guy to show "sometime between 9 am and 5 pm", which, coincidentally, was precisely when I had to be at work every day. So I decided, the hell with gas, and used the suddenly available counter space for a toaster oven instead. My microwave lived on the fridge, I also had a blender and an electric kettle. Seriously, these were all the appliances I had/could have. So I certainly feel your pain.

But luckily, it was just me, so it's not like I had hungry children to feed every day. Which also allowed for lots of wiggle room in terms of experimenting - it was actually fun to see what I could adapt to be either baked/roasted in a toaster oven or cooked in a microwave! Pasta, eggs, fish...all these elementary things were a challenge in the beginning, but just as @chisai said, once I got used to it, I forgot that it wasn't "normal". Don't let it frustrate you, take it as a challenge. You certainly do have to be efficient and organised, but you know what, when you have a big kitchen, you still need to be efficient and organised, you just get to have more stuff...:-).

I think everyone has great ideas. I would also suggest paring down to the bare minimum. You'd be surprised at how much stuff you really don't need in your kitchen. Keep what you love and use the most. The rest, you won't even miss. Get one of those small kitchen island/carts on wheels which will provide a movable workspace and is small. Since it's on wheels, throw a small table cloth over when its not being used and put it somewhere else as a table. Part of living in small space is finding ways to make what you have serve more than one purpose.

I'm not sure of your kitchen set up but something else you could try is adding a few small shelves over the stove (if possible) to hold all of your spices and oils and put them in easy reach. There are even hanging strips for utensils. Check out Ikea for some great solutions. If they have one in your area, gooooo. They have mastered getting the most out of limited space. Good luck.

My first apartment did not have a real kitchen and my current kitchen is just a little larger than our bathroom.

At the first apartment, the espresso machine sat on the bedside table. We always ate on the bed or the floor since the only table in the place was used for our computers. No microwave oven, but a toaster oven. The burner was connected to the sink which sat on top of the mini-fridge.

We ate out a lot, but some of the stuff that came out of the "kitchen" made people's jaws drop; most notable were the desserts we would make and bring to parties at the German consulate.

Get rid of dishes that you can live without, or stow them elsewhere so you have more storage space for spices, etc. All we had in that first apt were 2 plates and bowls, two of each utensil, 1 small baking dish, 1 knife, 1 pot, 1 pan, wooden spoon, and a whisk. You'll find that you don't need most appliances, since everything can be done by hand. It may be more laborious, e.g., whipping may take 15 minutes versus 5, but it can be done.

This does remind me that I need to go through our spices and purge. We have WAAAAY too much -- a 3-tiered pushcart that we park in a corner filled with packaged spices in addition to 2 shelves of bottled spices. Argh!

my kitchen is galley sized with full sized appliances so its a challange. I agree with everyone that said to get rid if small appliances you dont use often, or at least put them away in a closet or something. However I would disagree with someone who mentioned putting oils and spices on shelves near the stove. heat doesnt do spices or oils any good. I'm lucky in that I do have a very small pantry, and a "book shelf" screwed to the back of the door does wonders to hold most essential spices and oils as well as cans and a few other odds and ends. But your best friend is not only going to be being organized but clean as you go. I've catered for up to 50 out of my galley sized kitchen with the help of a sturdy card table in the next room. You can experiment, just think everything out first and you'll be fine!

I feel your pain. I'm in the same situation at the moment. There are no counter space at all for chopping without dropping some of the ingredients. I broke my portable grill because it didn't sit right on the counter space. I'm still trying to figure out a way to make more counter space. One of the idea that I have is to buy a large cutting board than can sit on top of the sink when I need to cut and chop. The problem is, I don't know where to find one.
I'll update you if I ever found one. :)

Oh, tiny tiny kitchens. Mine is still a challenge and some days the half-sized sink stops me from cooking much since cleaning up is such a challenge, but for the most part I've gotten around the no counter-space/little other space challenge by, like @huneybumper, hanging things on the walls. Ikea makes a series of really nice wall-racks which are all along all the (fairly minimal, actually) wall-space in the kitchen. We've hung up our dishrack (folds up to take up less space when not in use), all our spices, all our pots & pans, and all our cooking utensils. This has helped immensely. We share a closet in the bedroom for clothes; the other has become the pantry. Amazingly...I'm kind of getting used to it! I'm sure you will, too; good luck!

I also think getting a rolling island with shelves underneath would be a great idea. I'm lucky because my kitchen is decent sized (at least for NYC standards), but my boyfriend's is teeny, but he has a rolling thing that works great for him. It also makes a good bar when he has parties.

The idea of having a big cutting board that fits over the sink sounds like a great idea, too. If you can't find one big enough, try going to a kitchen store and seeing if they have remnants of butcher block counter tops that they can sell you - it would probably be cheaper.

Chiff, you and I were neighbors! We must have passed each other on the street dozens and dozens of times without knowing it!

A cute 'tiny kitchen video' from WNYC (public radio rocks)!
http://blogs.wnyc.org/culture/2009/06/22/food-in-the-city-melissa-clark%E2%80%99s-tips-for-tiny-kitchens/

I had a small kitchen at my old place and the way I got over it was by going to Ikea and buy storage things which helped alot. Also I learned very quickly that I didn't need to have every kitchen gadget on the face of this earth, so I had to downsize.