# Organizing a kitchen that functions well



## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

Is there a web site that you can plug in photos of your kitchen, dimensions, cabinets, pantry, counter space, etc.......where it will show you how to organize to make it function well??

I have an odd shaped kitchen, with an obscene amount of counter space and cabinets......but they are all willy nilly.....I want it to function. Mean, clean, machine......

Any ideas? Thoughts??


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

Laura, I don't have any photos I can get to at the moment, but I had the same problem when we lived at our farm. Our's was due to doors everywhere! Our kitchen was huge but had a door going to the outside, a bathroom door, a pantry door, a hall doorway and a dinningroom doorway. 

What I ended up doing was setting up 'work stations'. I had a work station for baking; one for general cooking; one for canning/freezing/dehydrating; one for prep work; and one for cleanup by the sink.

Not knowing your kitchen I'm not sure if this would be practical for you, but just passing on some info that worked for us.


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## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

Laura...any way that you could post pictures?


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

Yes! My battery is dead on my camera right now....charging.
I will post pix and measurements.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

design your organization around how you use the kitchen. Imagine living in the space and using it and then see where you naturally want to go to reach for somthing when you need it, where the things you need in a rush should be, where things you rarely need can go. Design with you at the center of your design then branch out from you and your real life.


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## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

Is your battery charged yet? I'm eagerly awaiting pictures...


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

Mommabooh you seem chomping at the bit to play. I could use some help. With me you get pretty much a blank slate. Are you interested?


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

I been building cabinets my whole life and most of he time they are for show. Not for working. I would organize them by how you work. baking area, prep area. cleaning area. water.trash . pull out cutting boards at each station.
Use to put them slide out cutting boards in all the time . Now nobody does and don't know if you can get them. bottom cabs should be full extension drawers, maybe a couple doors with slide outs. Nothing you got to bend over and search in  Put the dishes in the drawers with the pots and pans.


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## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

Karen said:


> Laura, I don't have any photos I can get to at the moment, but I had the same problem when we lived at our farm. Our's was due to doors everywhere! Our kitchen was huge but had a door going to the outside, a bathroom door, a pantry door, a hall doorway and a dinningroom doorway.
> 
> What I ended up doing was setting up 'work stations'. I had a work station for baking; one for general cooking; one for canning/freezing/dehydrating; one for prep work; and one for cleanup by the sink.
> 
> Not knowing your kitchen I'm not sure if this would be practical for you, but just passing on some info that worked for us.


Oh, how I relate only, for me, it's the living room! It has five doors. Arranging furniture is a nightmare.


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

mammabooh said:


> Is your battery charged yet? I'm eagerly awaiting pictures...


In Detroit.......yeah, i know......will have pix up Wednesday Feb 22!!


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## Classof66 (Jul 9, 2011)

Look at your lifestyle. Do you pack lunches? Do you can? Do you have to wash eggs, strain milk? Do you bake bread? Make salads? bake? Got kids? Pets?

Then create a station for whatever you do a lot of. You might want to duplicate some equipment. Perhaps a big mixer and a hand mixer in your baking area, a hand mixer in the cooking area for mashing potatoes. Cutting boards in canning, lunch making, and food prep area. Nothing fancy, just step savers.


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## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

kasilofhome said:


> Mommabooh you seem chomping at the bit to play. I could use some help. With me you get pretty much a blank slate. Are you interested?


Most certainly!


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

mammabooh said:


> Most certainly!


I am home!! When the sun comes up, I will take pix and post them!!


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## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

Laura Zone 5 said:


> I am home!! When the sun comes up, I will take pix and post them!!


It's almost 1:00 in the afternoon here...my behind is getting numb and wide from sitting here waiting...


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

This is the entry into the kitchen from the dining area.
The kitchen (from the water bottles) is 15 feet deep.









This is the north wall.








This is the north wall, close up.









This is the east wall.









This is the south wall......continued.........


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

This is the bar/counter area that separates the dining area from the kitchen










This is the shot above the counters on the north wall. There is about 5.5-6 feet from the top of the counter to the ceiling.

Ok.....HELP!!!


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## MawKettle (Sep 13, 2006)

Laura,

First off, you have a LOVELY kitchen, and Iâm going to seriously apologize in advance if I sound like a really bad mother in lawâ¦.


Your kitchen is shaped very much like mine â with three differences:

#1 â I have a walk in pantry where you have the appliance garage

#2 â Iâve got a large center island

#3 â I donât have the breakfast bar thing


Weâve got roughly the same amount of cabinet / storage space though

Now, having said that, hereâs how Iâve got everything organized:

#1 â The section next to the fridge is breakfast central. The coffeepot and toaster live here, and the cabinets above that section hold a variety of little used things. I keep some of my baking materials here (chocolates, decorating stuff, etc), coffee and tea supplies, espresso machine (itâs a real small one), barware (because I use this counter as the bar when Iâve got people over), and various other items that rarely see the light of day. Itâs probably not the most efficient use of that space, but it works. On the lower cabinets in this section, I keep serveware â platters, large bowls, my corning ware (because I donât use it as often as I should).

#2 â Next to the stove on the left. My Kitchen Aid mixer lives there along with my baking stone, and my âout of the ovenâ cutting board. Top cabinets hold spices on the first shelf, more spices and things like soy sauce / the current box of table salt / lea & perrins / taller spice containers. Top shelf has stuff that I havenât seen in several years (I think its mostly coffee mugsâ¦but my roll of kitchen string lives there as well). Lowers in that section are all frying pans.

#3 â Above stove â Iâve got some outdoor plastic picnic ware in there

#4 â Next to stove on the right. On the counter are my knife blocks, a spoon rest, my new crockpot (because I keep using it and have not yet found a spot to store it in), a glass cakeplate in the corner. Now I do have upper cabinets where you have your window in the corner and all the way around to where the over the sink window starts. This is where all my day to day dishware is living. Lowers in this section contain pots and pans that are in active usage.

#5 â The Sink. The only things under my sink are cleaning supplies.

#6 â Next To The Sink / DW area. Iâve got a small dishdrain that I use for stuff I wonât put in the dishwasher, and then use this space to air dry other stuff on dishtowels. Iâve also got a wall cabinet in that space that holds all my everyday drinkware.

Now, I know you donât have an island, but my island holds the following:

#1 â Other small appliances (food saver, food processor, kitchen aid attachments, etc)
#2 â My old crock pot, the punch bowl we got when my MIL passed away
#3 â BBQ tools, and my supply of mixing bowls.
#4 â The Tupperware section

Now thatâs how MINE is organized. I do use my island as the main work area for almost everythingâ¦..BUT if I didnât have an island and my kitchen was like yours, hereâs what I would do:

#1 â Use the space between the stove and sink as your main work area.
#2 â Relocate small appliances to the space next the fridge and to the left of the stove
#3 â Do not let that breakfast bar space be a catch all â it looks like it has a nice stretch of counter and could be useful for feeding children (I donât know if you have any)â¦

Things I don't like about my kitchen.....well, to be honest, not much.....I knew from the minute I saw it that it was my dream kitchen and the center island makes a HUGE difference....

How I use my kitchen: Well, when I got all this space, I really tried to set it up so it works for me as a cook. The center island (again) is my main go to space...but if I didn't have it, my main stretch of counter would be in the same place yours is - between the stove and the sink would be prep central......

I tried to make "stations" in the space that I have, and it's worked pretty well......

I hope I've helped at least with some ideas!


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## wagvan (Jan 29, 2011)

Wow. Amazing kitchen. Mine stinks. (It is somewhat big, footprint size, but poorly laid out because of oldhouse windows and doors. I keep most of my kitchen storage in the basement. But I would echo the PP. Organize stuff by stations by where you use it.


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## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

Laura...are you wanting to organize, or remodel? If remodel, what's on the other side of the wall to the right of the fridge? Living room? Family room?

I tend to think big (and Hubby tends to carry out my ideas and make them even more elaborate). IF it's an option, and would fit into the way you live/work, I would remove most of the upper cupboards to the right of the fridge and put them on the opposite wall (divide them up to fill in the empty space on either side of the sink. I'd then cut a huge hole in the wall after the cupboards were removed to open up the kitchen to the area that is on the other side of the wall. Also (and yes, I'm a bit of a weird-o, but) I'd probably build a wall behind the bar to separate the kitchen from the dining room.

Do you do lots of canning/baking/cooking? If so, I'd have very separate areas for those tasks. If that was my kitchen and I had made the changes that I mentioned, I'd have party-type serving dishes in the lower cupboards under the new hole. I'd have baking dishes in the lowers to the left of the stove with baking ingredients in the uppers to the left of the stove. Are the drawers to the right of the stove big enough for pots and pans? If so, that's where I would put them. I like to keep all of my big utensils (spatulas, soup ladles, wooden spoons, etc,) in a big crock on the counter, but I still have a drawer for things like the rolling pin and measuring cups to the left of the stove. IF there were uppers to the right of the sink (that's where I'd put your open plate storage unit), that is where I would put the everyday dishes (for easy dishwasher unloading) and glasses. Silverware drawer would be as close to the dishwasher as possible also. I'm assuming that the cupboard to the left of the fridge is a pantry?


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

Our home is just shelled in. Things went wrong and This IS NOT my home the dementions are wrong and the floorplan had to be changed due to that and then well DH made even more changes --OK. So, now it is all just a shelled in area. Ele is in much of it.

What is there is a 17.5 area by 39 feet.
This is all open with a cathdro ceiling.
At one end will be my kitchen.
the kitchen area is 12.25 by 17.5 feet
One wall of the 12.5 feet allows for a 24 depth of counter with 12 ele already installed one per foot. The 24 in depth is limited to that because on the wall that is the 17.5 has a door installed that is 30 inches from the corner. It is a 36 door. What is left of that wall I think the sink will go. the other wall that is 12.25 is the wall that faces the driveway and at 12.25 feet mark is the entry to the home it is again36 inches.

II spent so much time planning my kitchen that when I saw the build made the wrong foundation (note builder is in jail-for real-) I just have drawn a blank. Third wall is non existant as it is open a basement woodstove pipe does come thur the floor and the counter with the bank of ele stops at that end to the hall leading to the bedroom and bathrooms so I limited the area to work to the kitchen and not to the rest of the grand room.

There are 3 in the family but we do have potlucks here. (30 people)
I bake, make pasta, butcher goats, clean salmon, can. I have my pantry straight below the kitchen and due to the design change(gritting my teeth) so I was thinking of a dumbwaiter. I am really 5 feet tall. I want an easy to clean surface. I love draws and I inherited 12 piece china with every extra with it, I have kitchen aid, counter convetion oven. So I did not mention window I refused to put or frame for windows because I did not have a floorplan due to the sudden change. (4 feet shorter than planned as the front door moved to where I was going to put the fridge) I am open to any thing but I do not enjoy a window behind a sink as it gets dirty so quickly.

I wish I could summit a drawing just some ideas. Right now I cook on a woodstove in the basment that we live in. Canning can be done in the basement for the future. I really want a 3 sink deal.

See, I had planned a baking area,


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

I'm wondering how your organizing is doing.


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