Hey, it's the New Year, so let's all take a moment to ponder our kitchens. I've been setting up a new kitchen, and so the idea of kitchen workflow has been on my mind. This is a big topic, and one that touches on many different aspects of setting up a kitchen: Work zones, storage capacity, tools and cookware. How does your kitchen contribute to your daily cooking and cleaning workflow? Good workflow is different for everyone, but we all know when our kitchen has hit a snag! Here's my big example of tough workflow, from my last kitchen...
Look closely at the photo above! Note where the dishwasher is? Next to the sink, yes, but also basically perpendicular to the stove. When the dishwasher is open during clean-up and dish put-away, no one can stand at the stove or the one usable stretch of counter space.
Since we're a two-person household, and my husband does the dishes most of the time, this was a daily annoyance. We like to hang out in the kitchen together and double up on cooking and cleanup by chatting after a long work day. This layout made that workflow nearly impossible. I'd often end up with a cutting board precariously balanced on the far edge of the stove, chopping up an onion, while my husband raced to get the dishwasher filled up.
Needless to say, in our new kitchen, a major priority was the ability to cook and do dishes at the same time!
This inconvenience in my old, moderately (but not ridiculously) small kitchen is a good example of a kitchen hampering workflow.
So I'm curious — what's your idea of great workflow in your kitchen? Does your kitchen get in the way? Have you found ways to improve it? What does daily workflow look like in your kitchen?
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(Image: Faith Durand)
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I have a total lack of counter space! I have to clean in between cooking so that I can have space to cook more...totally inconvenient!
We have a galley kitchen which has a big enough gap between walls to not have the kinds of issues that you talk about with your dishwasher, at least, but it's got it's share. One of our problems is that the counter space is broken up into 4 sections, all of them rather small and not well planned or utilized. I struggle with trying to figure out a way to better use that space. And my two basin sink where the primary wash basin is tiny makes me crazy when I'm washing pans, large bowls or a cutting board because I have to move out the dish rack out of the larger side and temporarily reorganize half of the counter space to do it.
I like this when you said that Needless to say, in our new kitchen, a major priority was the ability to cook and do dishes at the same time!
Where is the light fixture from? WOW!
I definitely have a lack of counter space, but that's par for the course in NYC. What bothers me more is that with the layout of our kitchen it is really difficult to have two people doing something at the same time. Most often this is a problem when I'm cooking and my husband is putting away clean dishes. The cabinets are all above or below the counter where I do my cooking, and it's hard not to get easily irritated by the constant opening and closing and having to step away so he can put things back.
We had a galley kitchen, which we opened up to the dining area, separated by a large island. I have found it is much easier to accommodate many people prepping in the kitchen at the same time.
Im curious about he light fixture too!
Our dishwasher is also in the corner and blocks at least half of the countertop area and three cupboards where we store the dishes (I'm short so I can barely reach in the upper cupboards to start with.) Not only does it interfere with cooking, it gets in the way of putting the dishes away. There is plenty of room in our kitchen to put the dishwasher on the other side of the sink but we don't want to replace the cabinets.
The light fixture is a vintage Sputnik. We were able to take it with us when we moved, thank goodness. I love that thing too.
I have enough counter space in my U-shaped kitchen, but the section I prefer to work on (between the sink and stove) is rather short. I also like to keep my tea making stuff there as the mugs are in the cabinet above.
The best solution to this problem is to retrain myself to do my prep work on the other side of the stove where there's lots of open counter space and just walk the extra few feet from the sink after rinsing things. I'm very stuck in my ways though.
I have more of a problem with airflow than workflow. I wish my kitchen had an exhaust fan that vents outside. Our house has an open floor plan.
Daily workflow for us is two people making breakfast, lunch and dinner (usually at different times of the day except for dinner), with regular baking projects and a coffee station area with a ton of different contraptions to brew it. I'm a clean as I go type of cook so I need to be able to combo handwash/load dishwasher as I prep.
We are blessed with a fairly wide U-shaped kitchen with huge counters, plenty of outlets and room for two people to move around and access all appliances freely, BUT...our cupboards are a major bummer.
The huge counters mean deep lower cupboards, with very narrow (10" wide) doors on the two side/corner cupboards, requiring us to reach around a ninety degree angle with zero visibility to get to anything. Because the doors are so narrow, installing one of those rotating pull out shelves isn't an option (I've looked everywhere for something that would fit). They are basically unusable except for the one that faces the rest of the kitchen, and that one has a flimsy narrow shelf in back and requires a deep squat to get to anything beyond the first 12" of storage (we did install a sturdy pull out lid rack that has had a significant positive impact). They're also standard size cabinets so they installed fillers where needed, leaving unreachable 6" gaps between the middle and side cupboards, wasting space and making it impossible to clean or use the corners efficiently.
The uppers, also standard size with fillers on the ends, store about 1/4 less than they appear to. I've read many opinions on upper cupboards, but I wish ours reached up to the ceiling to maximize storage and eliminate dust/grime buildup on top.
And finally, we don't have a pantry, so we use one of the uppers for food and one of those corner, hard to reach lowers for a combo of food and food storage containers, it's a mess. A floor to ceiling cupboard with pull out shelves for food storage would be so amazing. I've also considered adding onto one of the uppers to create a kind of built in breakfront. We have more counter space than we ever need so it's not like we couldn't lose a a few square feet of it for this.
Kitchen designers: please PLEASE only install pull out shelves or drawers for all lower cupboards and consider where people will actually want to put things. Our home was built in 2006 (moved into it in 2009) and it's tough to think about replacing relatively new materials due to poor design.
If you're going to renovate a kitchen, can I leave some helpful advice? Pull outs, lazy susans, and pantries. Don't go without any of these! They've saved me space, backaches, and have given me a decent spot to fit all of my pans and small appliances.
I wish I had a pantry! I have food tucked in a few small cabinets. Things get out of hand really quickly if I'm not careful about being organized.
Ours (apart from general tiny-ness) is dishwasher related, too. Our old metal cabinetry (original to the townhouse, circa 1951) does not allow for a dishwasher so we have an 18" portable. It takes two hours to run but blocks our sink (and the one countertop we have) while it washes! We often think of giving up on the retro cabinets, which have trouble accommodating many modern conveniences, but haven't quite found the will to part with them yet.
Not to play the martyr, but I don't even HAVE a dishwasher, so even an inconveniently placed one would be preferable. ;-)
Mostly kidding. My biggest workflow problem is that there is NO workflow. Our front door opens into the kitchen, there's no sensible place for the fridge so it sticks out into the room, and the doorway to the hallway is restricted by the washer and dryer (which I'm extremely thankful to have, at any rate), and there's about two square feet of countertop. We have an Ikea kitchen cart, and I do 90% of my prepping, cooking and serving on that.
All that being said, I love my quirky little apartment, even with all its faults.
I know a lot of people like having their trash cans under the sink for prep work, but I've always found this to be a nuisance for cleanup. if one person is at the sink washing up, no one else can scrape plates or throw away table trash. I prefer my trash can to be more accessible.
I have a good triangle. The stove, refrigerator and sink form a trianlgle that keeps my work flowing well.
I love small kitchens because of the efficient work triangle. I moved from a galley style to a huge kitchen with an island and I hate having so much space. So inefficent!
not really an issue, but our predecessor put in a 6-burner stove with grill. i would much prefer a 4-burner with grill. rarely have more than 2-3 burners in use at once--only for feast-making and canning--any ideas for putting excess stovetop to more effective use?? i end up storing pots and pans on the excess burners.
My husband is an architect, so this was a common topic of conversation for us. We have a 90-degree kitchen (2 walls) and were planning to put in an island with a dishwasher, but we're now loathe to give up all that gorgeous floor space. My husband said he'll make a cardboard mock-up if we want to see what it feels like to live with an island before we actually commit.
I remember one apartment kitchen I lived in that was a galley kitchen and it was so incredibly efficient, but definitely only a 1-person kitchen. I'm so glad to have a larger, more open kitchen now that we have kids because everyone loves to hang out in the kitchen.
First thing to do is rip out the dishwasher, trash it and replace it with a cabinet. I did that and haven't looked back since
Only one in the kitchen when cooking helps too. It is only 95 sq ft U-shape with a cart for an 'island'