Cookaholics Bulletin Board

So ...

Y'all folks who are used to having big kitchens? How do you figure out where to put everything?

We just spent an hour with blue tape and a measuring table marking cabinets in prep for unpacking everything, but I know we're going to end up improvising. I've never had space to put things away before, there's all these cabinets, and most of the shelves are even adjustable.

Looking at the picture, I'd use the tall double door cabinet next to the dishwasher as a pantry. You have plenty of counter space for your appliances, so that solves one problem. Is there a big cabinet across the stove? Would be great for pots and pans. Can't see the fridge, but hopefully there is a cabinet near for glasses.

I noticed you have a corner cabinet. Does it have a lazy susan?

Welcome back, welcome home
I can't see a picture using my iPad Pro

Group things by usage and distance from prep area and stove. The primary goal would be (IMO) to minimize the walking around to prepare/cook a meal.

Then iterate many times

The picture was on an earlier thread.

I've tried to break my kitchen down into centers. There's a cooking center -- pantry, prep area, fridge, and stove are there. Baking center -- flours, sugars, cocoa, mixing bowls, measuring cups are above; mixer and food processor on the counter; cookie scoops, bench scrapers, rolling mat, pie crimpers, etc. in a drawer; baking pans below. Hot beverage center -- coffee maker, kettle, teas, coffee, cups; this keeps people just wanting their caffeine fix out of my grill, literally. Plates, glasses, etc. should either be near where you'll clean them or where you'll use them. Personally I lean towards keeping them where you'll use them since that also keeps the person setting the table out of the way of the person cooking. I keep the serving dishes fairly near the cooking area, though, so that they can be grabbed quickly when the food is done. Hard to reach cabinets are obviously for things you hardly ever use.

Kitchen photos are here: https://fuzzychef.smugmug.com/Other/New-House/

Alina, one of my goals is NOT to have appliances on the counter. I'm aiming for maximum counter space. Ideally, only the electric kettle and the toaster will "live" on the counter.

JB, yeah, I was trying to do something like that. One challenge is that the best cabinet for holding dishes is not the one next to the dining room door. In fact, the cabinets nearest to the dining room door are problematic for dishes, being too shallow, narrow and/or high.

BTW, we may keep the stove. I haven't been able to find any tech information for it yet, but it seems to be pretty darned high-end for a resistor-based electric stove. Those burners heat up FAST. And it has convection, etc.

Ideally mine would be like JB described. However the cabinets that fit my dishes are in between the stove and where I prep. So I try to get the kids to set the table before I start cooking or after I finish prepping.
that Pinterest tip of using tension rods as cabinet separators totally works btw. I used those and the expandable shelves in my cabinets where I store all my not often used items. There are only 2 shelves, way too far apart and things would get piled and buried. Now I can actually find things and pull them out without emptying the whole thing.
Coffee is above the coffee maker, mugs are now away from the dishwasher and sink so the person cleaning up after dinner is not running into the person making coffee/tea. The toaster does not live on the counter but the kettle and coffee makers do. As well as the FP and stand mixer, but they are in the corner and need to be pulled out to be used.
I actually came to the board today to see if you'd settled in - glad to know you are there.

I like having my dishes and glasses closest to the sink and dishwasher...makes it easy to unload the d/w.