If you have a really small kitchen the whole thing is one zone, but if it allows itself to be properly organized there are still divisions. The mixer might be right next to the stove, but if the mixer's pieces are stored beneath it, and the baking powder, etc., stored above it, you have a baking zone. Which, when the mixer is pushed back to the wall, becomes the landing area for the cooking zone. If there's one sink, with one drainboard, it's both prep and clean up zone--hopefully not at the same time.

True zones are necessary in a larger kitchen, because it's less space efficient. Zones allow you to conserve movement. But they have to be laid out with work flow in mind or they become obstacles rather than efficiencies. Therefore, for cooking, the flow goes from storage (fridge, pantry, etc.) to prep, to cooktop/oven. Then it goes from stove/oven to table/serving to clean-up, back to storage for leftovers. Baking goes from food storage to mixing area, to rolling/shaping/molding area, possibly to rising, to oven, to cooling. Sometimes it's possible, and works for the rest of the kitchen better, to carry a pan a bit farther from the mixing/shaping zone to rising or to the oven, and from there to cooling, than to have them all compact, but it shouldn't be a major trek.

Is this clear so far?

Zones are the areas within the workflow where the actual work gets done. Within each zone, ideally, you want easy access to all the tools you'll need in that zone. In the small kitchen described above, the measuring cups might be stored above the stove or above the mixer, and are equally handy to both. In a large kitchen, it might be handy to have separate ones. So you can get picky, and use the plastic measuring cups with the extra markings for baking, and the pyrex ones for dipping stock.

Most of my knives are for prep, and will go in the prep zone, but one of them only gets used for dividing dough, so will go in the same drawer as my pastry cutter, etc. I'm likely to use the prep island for shaping, however, so they may all end up in the same place. My spice cabinet will be in the baking area, but the ones I commonly use while cooking on the stove will go in the upper cabinet next to the hood. The flours will go in the drawers of the baking area, but the Wondra will also go in the cabinet by the hood.

So you have workflow and tool and ingredient storage. The third part of zones is cooks. That is, whose bottom goes where. In the small kitchen I referred to above, the three main stations, baking/non-sink prep, cooking and prep/clean-up, each have their own part of the aisle, so that three people working in there aren't standing on top of each other. In a large kitchen, with separate prep and clean up sinks, each zone should be self contained enough that they can all be occupied without a lot of running into each other fetching stuff, or bumping bottoms.

None of which speaks to the kind of kitchens most people have nowadays, which are medium sized, or long and open sided. The space might be too big for no zones but too small for truly separate zones. That's where you concentrate on workflow and tool/ingredient storage. That makes it efficient. And while people might overlap in reaching for supplies, you can design it so that people bump butts as little as possible.

You don't need a baking area to be "fully zoned", but think about what else you do. Sometimes the baking area also doubles as the turkey area, for instance. And if you have a young family, don't discount "baking" modeling clay, volcanoes, bake sale items, fundraiser cookie dough, etc.

Stripped down view for minds like mine -- doesn't negate anything pllog said.

If you think about cooking, you have a way you cook. Looking at the way you cook provides information about how stuff is related and how you use it. You may be very organized and prepared or may wing it.

There is a relationship between the food you want to cook, the steps you take to prep and cook the food, serving the food and cleaning up - both while cooking and doing the dishes. The stuff you use and the way its organized may not be the same as mine.

So this is a very generic chart showing how stuff might group up.

So, a specific example of zone I would love to have is the coffee zone. It would have a tiny ref for cream and bean storage, a filler faucet with filtered water, filter paper, a cleanup faucet over a small sink, a compost receptor, some shelves for cups, an every day pot, a fancy automatic expresso maker, spoons, a grinder and storage for a larger percolator. Maybe a few tea bags, cocoa and an electric kettle. A sugar dispenser.

In the zone would be everything I need to make the two of us hot drinks and set up a coffee bar for when family comes visiting (20-30 of them) - except a warming drawer specially for cups, nice, but I would just worry about how much electricity it was using - so they'd have to rough it instead. When I see this in my head, its an old Italian marble-topped cabinet with a mirror and the ref behind a door.

For someone else, add a bigger drinks ref, storage for wine glasses, wine, pitchers, bar implements, and alcohol-related stuff and you have a complete drinks service area. Delete the alcohol related stuff and add cereal, bowls, knives, bagel storage, cream cheese, lox and a toaster for a real breakfast bar.

Wow Two amazing replies. Im constantly blown away by the folks on this forum with all the great info and the time people are willing to spend helping relative strangers.

Perhaps my biggest hurdle is that I am not an organized person. Zones sound very organized. Also, Ive really only been cooking for a few years. Its funny, just 4 years ago if I wanted to make dinner for a date, I would have to buy literally every ingredient in the recipe. I always wondered why a person thought eating in was less expensive - LOL. And if for some reason the store didnt have exactly what was on my list I panicked! I didnt have the experience to improvise. It was such a *joy* when one day I made a list for dinner and realized I already had everything at home. I didnt have to stop for a thing. Simple joys are sometimes the best. :-)

I hope you two will help with my kitchen when I post the layout.

Thanks

Jeri

Jeri, Don't sell yourself short! If you can take a recipe, make an appropriate list of ingredients it requires, take that to the store and buy all the right things from it, then take them home and make something edible from the recipe, you're more organized than you think!!! I'm assuming that the results were edible because you've kept on cooking. :-)

And you've been asking questions about how to go about your project, and about terms you want to understand better, before leaping in. You're discussing your plans and doing your research before ripping the house down to the studs. That's also very organized.

It sounds to me, just interpreting from these things, since, as you say, we're relative strangers, that you're not disorganized at all. You're just better organized with things you understand. Totally understandable!

The important thing to having an organized kitchen, is to put things away thoughtfully, when you're not rushed, and remember where they go when you put them back after using. Be willing to put something in a different place, and remember where it is, if it's not convenient in the first one. Nothing freaks me out more while cooking than when someone puts things away in the wrong place and I can't find them when I need them. I have them all trained now--if you don't know where it goes, ask, or leave it on the counter.

When an older relative started having sight issues, the vision center tried to send someone to reorganize her kitchen to be "optimal". The kitchen she'd been in for forty years. They wanted to change things so she wouldn't know where anything was. When she couldn't see them anymore! Organization is being able to lay your hand on it when you want it, not necessarily having it where someone else thinks it should be.

One of the issues you're facing is designing a kitchen without half a lifetime of knowing how you cook or what you'll want. That makes it hard to envision, and really hard to organize in the abstract. It will be a challenge! And there will be a few "mistakes"--as in made the right choice at the time but when you learn something new later you'll wish you chose differently. But you've come to the right place for knowledge and advice. Weigh the advice from single cooks, and full house cooks, from parents of little ones, and from parents of teenagers and empty nesters. Plan for the future, and use your imagination. You'll get there!

And, if it comes down to it, if you're still not sure of things when you're done, there have been plenty of threads in the past asking where to put stuff away!

Thanks plllog :-) When I married my husband 4 years ago, I started watching Rachel Ray. What she made on her show that evening was DHs dinner the next night. And, it did all turn out really well. I actually learned a *lot* from watching her not the least of which is not to stress about cooking. The only problem is that I have gained weight. You see, I figure as long as I am cooking, Im going to make something I like. The problem with that is that I eat too much! :-)

Helpful hints: Don't cook when you're feeling hungry. A few almonds, for instance, are good for you, and give your digestion something to think about while you're making dinner. The rest is portion control, and learning to cook lean, now that you know how to cook.

Since you had such a good time learning how to cook, do you think you might want to learn how to bake? Since you asked whether to leave out the baking zone, it's important. Baking takes more precision than cooking, but we already know you can follow a recipe. And it's much more forgiving, once you know what you're doing, than people give it credit for. Home baking, traditionally, is something that was done in the country because people were too far from bakeries for their daily needs. But it's fun! And a great way to have high quality products for your household.

I'm going to piggyback on what plllog said. In thinking about designing your kitchen for how you use it, also think about future needs. Up until about a year ago, I only occasionally baked for Holidays (cookies and pies mostly). Through reading this forum I've become an avid baker. I bake bread almost weekly, have become very excited about trying out much more difficult cake recipes (lucky for me I don't eat desserts!). I didn't grow up seeing this, my Mom hated cooking and never baked EVER in her entire life. My family is amazed and gets so excited to come over for anything and start talking about the food 2 weeks before. They all leave with goodies and it makes them feel special and me so very happy to take care of them in that way. So, I've incorporated an orginal vintage bakers table into my layout. Never had planned on or thought of it before. Leave yourself open to new hobbies and make sure you can tweak what you have to make it work for you. It's never to late to learn a new hobby or find something you've never done' before that you love. I'm the perfect example of "never too late" since my boys are now grown and out on their own. The new kind of fun is just starting for me!

Yep portion control is my problem if Im enjoying the food But I am choosy a slice of store bought apple pie is not worth the calories. However, homemade apple pie with a bit of vanilla ice cream now thats worth it!

I have shied away from baking because I think that "baking=weight gain". To me, every *good* chief should be fat. :-) Bread for example is something I rarely eat. If I was to start making my own, I worry that I would eat more than I should because Im sure it would be delicious. But Im truly open to *all* ideas.

I've incorporated an original vintage bakers table into my layout

I dont know what that is, but it sounds special. Is that for rolling out dough? I think its wonderful that you can show your love for your family in the nurturing way that you do and Im sure I would feel as you do being able to provide in that way.

Im really hoping all of you will design my kitchen with all these wonderful things in mind so that when I decide to try my hand at baking, Ill have the tools and place to do it. :-)