What is the ideal way to organize a kitchen? Whether you've been cooking for a while or are still searching for the perfect setup, finding the right solution can feel like a quest for magic. While this diagram may not perfectly match the layout of your kitchen, its spatial distribution offers valuable insights applicable to any kitchen. From this diagram, CabineLab gleaned five key principles that can be applied to your own kitchen, regardless of its size or shape.
1. Essential Factors to Consider When Designing Your Dream Kitchen
If you've ever been involved in kitchen planning or immersed yourself in cooking blogs, you've likely come across the concept of the kitchen work triangle. Traditionally, it suggests that the optimal kitchen layout forms a triangle connecting the refrigerator, range, and sink, allowing the cook to move efficiently between them.
However, with the diverse range of kitchen sizes and configurations available today, some argue that it's more practical to think in terms of work zones rather than a rigid triangle. While you may not have the flexibility to change the placement of your refrigerator or sink, you can alter your approach to these spaces and make strategic decisions regarding what you store and arrange in their vicinity.
When designing your kitchen, it's important to consider key work zones that will enhance functionality and streamline your cooking process. Here are the primary work zones to keep in mind:
Consumables Zone: This zone revolves around storage for your perishable and non-perishable food items. Typically, it includes a refrigerator for fresh produce and a pantry or food cabinets for dry goods, oils, and spices.
Non-Consumables Zone: This area is dedicated to storing everyday dishes, such as plates, bowls, glasses, and silverware. It should be easily accessible and situated near the dining area for convenience during mealtime.
Cleaning Zone: The cleaning zone encompasses the sink and dishwasher, if available. This area should facilitate efficient dishwashing and meal cleanup, with ample counter space nearby for easy access to drying racks or utensil holders.
Preparation Zone: The preparation zone is where you'll handle most of your kitchen prep work. It typically includes a spacious countertop or a kitchen island, providing a dedicated space for chopping, mixing, and assembling ingredients.
Cooking Zone: The cooking zone centers around the stovetop, oven, or range, where your culinary creations come to life. This zone may also include a microwave for quick heating or reheating.
Remember that even in small apartment galley kitchens, you can adapt these work zones to fit your space. A compact fridge (consumables zone), wall-mounted cabinets (non-consumables zone), a compact sink (cleaning zone), a foldable countertop or pull-out cutting board (preparation zone), and a compact stove or cooktop (cooking zone) can all be optimized to create an efficient and functional kitchen. Once you've determined the layout of these work zones, you're ready to move on to the next step of your kitchen design process.
2. Store items as close to their related zone as possible.
The point of dividing your kitchen into zones is so you can store things in the right place to improve your cooking flow! For example, knives, mixing bowls, chopping boards, spices, and other prep utensils should be stored where you do most of your prep work, in the preparation zone. Cooking utensils, pots, pans, and bakeware should be stored as close to or near the stove or oven, in the cooking zone.
3. Store your everyday dishes in the cabinet closest to the sink or dishwasher.
Digging into the details on this a little more, this diagram notes you should store your everyday dishes (the non-consumables) right next to the cleaning area, or where your sink and dishwasher are.
This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. What are you normally unloading from the dishwasher? All your everyday plates, glasses, and silverware! So whatever cabinet is closest to your dish rack or dishwasher, that’s where you should store your dishes if possible.
4. Create prep space as close to the stove as possible.
Another thing we noticed in this diagram is how the prep area is situated next to the stove. Ideally you shouldn’t have to take more than a few steps to put your prepped food into a pot on your stovetop, or in the oven.
If you don’t have a lot of existing countertop space next to your stove, this is where you need to get creative! Whatever space you do have, clear it off and prioritize it as a prep space. Remove the microwave and move the fruit bowl! You need that space to chop vegetables or mix ingredients, so let it be just that.
When that’s still not enough, you might consider adding a small kitchen island like IKEA’s GROLAND island, an over-the-sink cutting board, or a burner cover — all of which are great, accessible choices when you need more workspace.
5. Just do your best!
Of course, keeping items precisely within their zone isn’t always entirely possible if your kitchen is tiny and you need to, say, store your bakeware on top of the cabinets, or the only available pantry space is in a cabinet across the room from the fridge. But this idea of seeing your kitchen as a collection of zones and grouping things together by their purpose is something to work towards! There will always be exceptions unless you have a perfect kitchen.
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