Probably not, since being organized begets us more time. It seems that we are all in short supply of time and can certainly use more. There have been hundreds of books written on the subject of time, how to get more time, how to spend time more efficiently, and how not to waste time. We still haven’t figured out how to get MORE than 24 hours in our day, so we have to do the best we can with what we’ve got!
Whoever said, “There’s a place for everything and everything in its place,” certainly knew what they were talking about. I have seen many kitchens that followed the ”Fibber McGee” rules of storage. Remodeling the kitchen is not going to miraculously organize the cook and the family, so it is our job to design the space efficiently with easy access, easy use, and easy clean up, and, of course, at the same time give it that WOW look!
The kitchen can be considered a large multi-task space. By dividing the room into several task areas (food prep, clean up, baking, entertaining and eating to name a few) and designing each area with specific storage ideas, the kitchen will be more organized, more productive and more fun to use.
The food prep and clean up areas should have their own sink. When I started designing many years ago, multi sinks in the kitchen were quite uncommon and if there was a second sink, it was usually too small to be useful. We are now seeing double compartment or large single sinks used for clean up and sinks in the food prep area. Each sink can have its own dishwasher and pull out trash containers in adjacent cabinets. Not only does this make sense, but it also provides separate workstations for 2 people working in the kitchen at the same time. Well, are you ready for that 3rd sink? We have all seen the pot filler faucet over the range to make filling those large pasta pots easier, but where do you dump the water? By having a very small sink set near the backsplash close to the cook top or range (the pot filler faucet should be directly over the sink), the problem has been solved without loosing workspace.
Storing and organizing spices and cooking oils has always been a challenge, but base pull out storage units for such items are now available in various widths. These units can be used on both sides of the cook top or range to give a symmetrical look or used in other task areas to hold small cooking utensils or even cleaning supplies. Metal pegboard with hooks for those little gadgets we never know where to put are available as a pull out unit. The handy pull outs are also available for wall cabinet areas as well as those tall spaces by refrigerators.
Every base cabinet should have pull-out shelves, but the shelves servicing the cooking area by the cooktop should have full extension guides with a heavier weight capacity. Vertical dividers in base cabinets and/or the upper area of the oven cabinet can store all the cookie sheets, baking pans, wire racks, and pizza pans, as well as large serving platters.
Houses may be getting smaller but the average consumer does not want to give us their “stuff.” Organizing or agonizing is the question. Spending less time looking gives us more time to being productive.
