Kitchen Clean Sweep

I came home from Christmas shopping on Sunday to find my kitchen counters had been rearranged.  Elves?  No, it was Michael.  In an attempt to find more prep space in the kitchen, he moved the microwave, toaster, canisters and kitchen tools.  At first I was resistant to the new layout, but after living with it a few days, it is starting to grow on me.  :) 

Here’s what I’m talking about:

The corner on the left is where we usually do most of our prep work for meals.  The cutting boards are stowed beside the cookbooks and the knives are in the corner.  Sink to the left makes the perfect work spot.  This area stayed mostly the same, except the glass cutting board (which has been deemed useless, decor-only by you-know-who) was moved to the opposite side of the stove, along with the oil and salt and pepper tray.  That opened up the space to the left of the stove for more prep space. 

The toaster was also relocated, which gave us more room beside the sink, and also made it easier to access the cutting boards.  It went to live where the microwave used to be, next to the refrigerator.  This area was always cluttered by the bulky microwave.  Getting rid of that has made a big difference in prep space and convenience when taking things out/putting things in the fridge.

The microwave moved all the way across the room next to the dishwasher.  Granted it’s a bit outside the “work triangle” that we had before, but we don’t use it all the time, so it works better for us to have the empty space near the stove.  Putting in on the far counter meant the pink KitchenAid mixer had to find a new home.  It found a spot in the pantry.  :(  I guess it will be okay, though, since I don’t use it that often.  (I secretly think the whole “rearrange the kitchen” scheme was just so Michael could hide my pink mixer!)

We managed to gain a lot more usable prep space which hopefully will make working together in the kitchen more enjoyable and efficient.  And having all the counters cleared off is an incentive to keep things clean and clutter-free!  Which reminds me, I should probably go do the dishes…

Thanks for reading! 

I’ll be back soon to reveal our autumn porch decor, as well as a special project I’m working on for the office!