Saving! Moderately on topic

Normal for some people.

I can't stand kitchens where the fridge and sink are at opposite corners of a 'work triangle'. I want the fridge and the sink close to each other, with the kettle between them, as making tea is what I do most in the kitchen.

It's just sensible efficiency isn't it?

Owain

I have my activities in the kitchen optimised for minimum movement, where fridge and freezer are opposite the microwave, kettle and sink. One plate,cup etc.

Hmm, dunno. I can?t see that minimising the exercise that you get from daily living is a good idea as you age. If it?s just about efficiency improvements during the mundane stuff to free up more time for other activities then I can see where you?re coming from.

Well why wouldn?t you? ;-)

Tim

You are the ideal customer for "Just Eat" :-)

When I try to minimise movements by balancing too many items taken from the fridge, the usual result is a big mess on the floor.

Perhaps you should have allowed a female to design the layout of the kitchen :-)

For DIY I keep meaning to get one of those tool belts, that you wear like and apron having dropped an armful of gear on more than one occasion.

Andrew

:-)

Our kitchen/diner is rather long with fridge and microwave at one end, table at the other. The designer got the dishwasher position just right. Next to the sink for rinsing and with cutlery/plate and cups drawer reachable without moving your feet:-)

I had reservations about the Quooker but have come round.

Or impending doom.

This weeks activity is creating and erecting a pergola. Why she thinks an open frame will hide my veggie plot is open to question.

I suppose from watching endless TV news clips of NH staff binning theirs. Mine were protecting me from wood preservative.

You can grow your runner beans up the pergola posts !

We don't worry too much, Sink and cooker are side by side, fridge and kettle opposite. As the gap between the two worktops is only 1.2m it's hardly an effort to turn and take one step.

Now the position of the dishwasher is another matter, at one end, about

Owain Lastname explained :

Quite normal for me, throughout my life - the older I became, the more thought I gave to the process. I never walk out to the garage with a single item, put them by the back door until I have to go there anyway. I never make a special trip upstairs, I put things at the bottom, until I have a need to go up there.

Tim Lamb has brought this to us :

Likewise - our kitchen diner is big, but when I did the kitchen layout I failed to plan on a dishwasher, cupboards and drawers were more important, so the dishwasher lives with the washer in the utility room. As a result, it is a bit of a performance to carry pots etc. out there to load and unload it.

Don't know about the gloves, but good kitchen layout is certainly an art. I have a square U shaped kitchen. One side goes

Bread bin, toaster, air fryer, halogen oven.

The back goes microwave, range cooker, electric pressure cooker, kettle.

The other side is drainer, big sink, drainer, stacking area, fridge.

The main work surface partly closes off the U, being attached at the bread bin side.

Andrew has brought this to us :

I use several of those deep, plastic trays, with the handle in the centre. I think they are sold to restaurants for collecting cutlary in. They are perfect for hand tools.

Not here, I have a bit of a one-track mind at times and if I suddenly think "I need the toilet" or "I need to get xxxx from upstairs", my thoughts are on that and I completely miss what's waiting to go up! I do tend to notice things waiting to go up, when I am coming back down from my mission or when I am already carry things to go up and can't carry any more.

That advantage of this is that as you approach the stairs, you see the objects and take them up. This avoids getting upstairs and thinking I could have brought that and that upstairs just now, but I didn't think of them.

Jesus Tim, I am in a state of health where every bit of exercise I do even if its just walking from te fridge to the kitchen table, is adding an hour to my life!

I have my activities in the kitchen optimised for *maximum* movement, where fridge and freezer are opposite the microwave, kettle and sink and the cooker, and the kitchen table used for prep is sort of in the middle. The kitchen table used to at off is up the other end.

I delight in going up the stairs as many times a day as it happens, I always think 'look ma, no hands, and i don't need to stop half way up with stabbing brutal chest pains, after the hospital *sent me home* while having what turned into a heart attack'

Well I got that bit mostly right. But with storage and gear all round the walls, even half a 30 sq m kitchen is a big space to move around to cook in - the other half is mostly for eating.

wait till its covered in some invasive climbing monstrosity.