As you design your new kitchen - DO THIS. I just finished my mapping and I found a couple of cabinets that needed to slightly change the configuration, but most of the layout worked.

I will easily be able to pack / unpack, and since the new hours rearranges where stuff is stored, it was so helpful to figure out where everything would go. I have almost ZERO "built in" storage - but a TON of cabinets, so I had measure and map out the following spaces:

1. Kitchen cabinets (including 2 islands)
2. Walk in pantry
3. Kitchen bookshelf
4. Butler's pantry
5. sideboard in dining room
6. laundry room cabinets
7. garage overflow storage cabinets (mostly drinks and large Costco paper stuff - TP and paper towels) as well as cleaners and dog biscuits
8. kitchen desk area

The good news is that the pantry area in the new house is so big, I have enough empty cabinets to not worry about space. But there was some re-swizzling that had to occur in the island and workspace.

I measured each cabinet I have currently and put in the length and depth of the cabinet and figured the square inches - since I will be not having many upper cabinets and I'll have more drawers. I had a total square inch count for each "type" (glasses, bowls and places, hand tools, small appliances, etc) Put it all in a speadsheet and then moved each item onto the printout of my kitchen.

Thanks to all the folks that have contributed to the "New to Kitchens - Read This First" thread and the logical steps in design. I have a lot of confidence now that all this will work and I can order my cabinets without freaking out.