I have an older house with a "butler's kitchen"; we resolve this dilemma by allocating all dirty dishes to that big back sink and just using the main kitchen for vegetable wash & prep. We only have the one dishwasher in there, so that helps.

You might also consider separating your fridges conceptually into one for "cooking supplies" and the other for "liquids and drinks" or "party/leftovers" or some category that makes sense for your lifestyle. The two garbage cans have never posed much of a problem to be honest, that's easily managed.

Hire help. That's the whole point of having 2 incredibly huge kitchens. Bigger is NOT an improvement over a classic 10x10. IT's less efficient, more steps, and more work.

Interesting choice to frame the dark plywood with the lighter wood. But anyway, if you own a house of the size that supports 2 grand kitchens then you already have hired help. Just increase the number of visits per week, and you do the basic rough outs of dishes in the DW daily.

Can't speak for OP but I think it's a big assumption that if you can afford two kitchens you can afford hired help. Many Americans buy/build houses that are well beyond their means - or even if within their means, much larger than is practical/reasonable - due to banks' lax lending practices, which have hardly improved since the last housing crash. Just like there are many Americans driving $100k+ cars who could never afford a chauffeur.

Also this is a big country with huge regional variations in real estate cost. Based on the finishes and appliances, this is not some ultra-high-end architect-designed mansion. It looks like an ordinary upper-middle-class house. So I think the answer is that the second kitchen will mostly collect dust and be annoying, unless you host large catered affairs regularly (which, again, appears highly unlikely).

Treat it as a scullery instead of a kitchen. A place where you wash things or use as overflow space when the kitchen is in use or on display. Scullery is where you take dirty dishes first to be cleaned up, or do your messy prep in so your kitchen stays looking nice. Keep your creamer in the fridge closest to your coffee maker. Scullery can be a good place to store both.

I think your cabinets are beautiful, and I love your counter/backsplash! Is it Taj Mahal? I can't wait to see the cabinets with your flooring.

I suspect you are overthinking this. Keep in mind that when you first put things away in the two spaces, they can always be moved if the original spot doesn't make sense.

I would probably concentrate on the main kitchen. As you start baking, prepping big meals, canning - whatever you do in YOUR kitchen - you will naturally lean toward one space or the other.

In my house, the trick would be to keep track of which items go in which kitchen - and I imagine there will be a lot of duplication (both ovens need potholders nearby, right?) I would probably have very distinctly different utensils, pots, towels, etc for each space, so putting things away makes sense.

You may find that the back kitchen is a pantry most of the time, and that's OK (expensive pantry space, but there's no turning back now!)

You didn't say, but do you have children? I'm asking b/c all the advice to "split" the cooking/prep and cleanup b/w the two Kitchens will likely not work if you have children -- they'll do whatever: Use the closest refrigerator (this may be the only thing you might have some control over), use whatever sink is closest, use whatever DW is closest, use whatever trash is closest. In some cases, even a partner who doesn't have to clean, etc., may not adhere to the "rules" b/c it doesn't affect him/her that much.

For the current situation you can think about how to handle each Kitchen. I think your best bet is to make the 2nd Kitchen your Tea/Coffee & Snack Center and use the main Kitchen for everything else (except using the oven, I guess, since your oven is there).

I would see if I could move my most-used small appliances to the Kitchen somewhere (drawer or in one of the pantry cabinets I see in the main Kitchen) and only keep appliances used for snacks and coffee/tea or that are seldom used in the 2nd Kitchen. You'll need potholders and trivets in both places, though, since they will be needed for the ovens, MW, and cooktop.

The more you store in that 2nd Kitchen, the more it will get used and the cleaning, etc., of 2 Kitchens will continue.

For the trash & DW, I don't think there's much you can do about them short of putting signs on them that say, "Don't Use", which might not work anyway; plus, I wouldn't want to waste the space allocated & money spent on them.

[For others reading this thread and considering 2 DWs: The DW situation is why many of us tell people with 2 DWs to keep them together, it makes it a lot easier to keep track of what's where and which is clean/dirty.]

I think I would use it as what my family would call a ”utility room”. The room where you keep small hand tools, batteries, glues, tapes, for fixing things. Houseplant care and flower arranging. Crafts. Brush the dog. Dye hair. Home compost. Sneak a cookie when you don’t want the kids to see. Hide the birthday cake until the candles are lit. That sink is very useful for everything. Dishwasher can be a drying rack, or used to wash vases and tools, nylon scrubbies, etc. And of course pantry, kitchen storage, and extra cooking/cleaning space when needed.

So many possibilities! Embrace it! Use it! Call it utility room or scullery, it is so much more than a kitchen!

I think keeping it clean is the least of the issues here - it's just another room that needs to be cleaned, either by you or a cleaning service.

What was your plan when you planned this reno? We need to know more about you and your family, but if you have kids, forget about keeping A,B and C in one kitchen and X, Y and Z in the other. Similarly, the coffee maker in one and the creamer in the other is just ridiculous and inefficient. Did you really think it through?

If this was my space, I'd primarily use the main kitchen for everything. The second one for party prep and clean-up, a place to toss a bunch of crap when unexpected guests come over, and all the things that @bpath mentions.

I'm with @bpath on this one. I'd treat it like a butler's pantry and utility space. Store special occasion dishes, rarely used ingredients, odds and ends. If you are a costco buyer, put your extras in there. If you have small appliances you use less than once a week, keep them in there. Use the sink rarely - to toss dirty pans in when you have guests over and don't want to see them pile up in the main kitchen, for flowers, messy stuff. Or, as a catering kitchen for parties.

I think your post will be used in the future for those thinking about building a scullery kitchen. In this day and age, it doesn't always make sense.

Ha! Your dilemma reminds me of what we did, in a different way. while purchasing a second home I thought it was great that all the bedroom had an insuite bathroom, great for guests, right? What I failed to consider was that I now have 5 ! bathrooms to clean whether they’ve been used or not. I haven’t had good luck finding good housekeeping help either, most do what I call ”motel” cleaning, quick & not as detailed as I would do.

OP, I don't think anyone can tell you exactly what to do, but you said that you always wanted a scullery. Why? What was your old kitchen not giving you? Or your new one, for that matter? That's what it should be used for.

I have a feeling that the return of the sculleries is not due to people having hired help. I think it's the opposite. When a house is all open concept, there is a need to have a place to contain all the clutter of small appliances and mess that comes with cooking. So, scullery basically becomes the kitchen, while main kitchen serves as the dining room with some appliances and the sink. I've stayed in a house with hired help with a huge open kitchen. And with two ladies constantly cleaning, there was no need in a scullery. Without that help and with the number of people staying there, it would've been a mess.

As to 10x10 kitchen being enough, it could be, if you have a separate pantry and a breakfast room for a coffee station and a dining table. Those are the 2 things that made my 10x10 insufficient. We lived with it for 10 years, but it wasn't convenient.

You could move the food and coffee maker to the main kitchen, turn off the back kitchen refrigerator, and close the back kitchen door.

Does anyone actually choose to cook meals in their scullery vs the main kitchen on a regular basis? I certainly don't get that sense - the reason why people overwhelming like large kitchens with seating and hate galley kitchens is they do not want to be isolated in a small enclosed space while preparing food for their families or guests. And you don't need a scullery to declutter - that's what a butler's pantry is for. Hard to imagine the type of oversized kitchen that you tend to see in houses with sculleries lacks for proper appliance storage, and if it does, that's reflecting a massive design fail.

I really think that sculleries are solutions in search of a problem, except they certainly are making contractors a lot of extra money.

I knew a number of families growing up who had two full kitchens (less DW usually) but one was usually in the basement or garage and called the canning kitchen or summer kitchen. I imagine that those secondary kitchens were not really fully used most of the time, while certain parts of them may have come into play frequently.

We did not, but we had a refrigerator/freezer in the kitchen, a full refrigerator in the basement a full freezer in the basement and a bar kitchenette with refrigerator, and glassware storage And separate storage in the dining room for multiple sets of dishes glassware, crystal glassware and lots of silverplate. And we did not have a housekeeper.

What we had was a system. Certain types of frozen food were never stored primarily in the kitchen, they were stored in the full freezer and possibly shifted to the kitchen freezer at time of use. Certain things were stored Only in the second refrigerator. The bar refrigerator never had anything in it most of the time, and would be stocked for parties. Certain things were Never put in the second refrigerator. Certain things were stored only in the kitchen cabinets. Certain things were only stored in the dining room. Everything had a specific place that it was always kept. Certain things were washed only in the kitchen DW. Bar glasses and crystal cycled from that DW to their specific place. Things never just got put where they would fit, things never got put in one fridge one time or one fridge another time. If you used something that was kept in basement refrigerator up in the kitchen (since we didn't have two full kitchens) you walked it back down to the basement refrigerator when you were done with it, you just didn't stick it in the kitchen refrigerator.

Yes it was very rigid and everyone stuck to it but things rarely got lost, duplicates of things rarely got opened, things rarely got lost and went bad, and on the rare occasion that things got misplaced it did kind of wreak havoc especially with my dad who expected that he would always find whatever he was looking for in the exact spot in the drawer that it belonged in.

Once when I had a friend home, the kitchen bottle opener got misplaced and everyone was looking for it. My friend got her car keys and said "This is ridiculous, we are going to the store to buy another bottle opener" And I said that we were not. I asked her how many bottle openers do you have and she said "I don't know, half a dozen or more who cares, it's a bottle opener, they're cheap" And I said "Okay so you don't know how many you have. Now, how may of the 6 do you know where they are?" And she said she didn't know. And I said "And when you can't find any of the 6 or more that you have, that is when you look for one, or just go and buy another one." And she said yes, who cares bottle openers are cheap. And I said "The kitchen bottle opener is the one my parents got as a Shower Present before they got married in 1955. That has been the Only bottle opener in the kitchen drawer for 55 years. There are a couple bottle openers down in the bar, but they aren't The bottle opener that has always belonged in the kitchen" It wasn't about a bottle opener, it was about staying organized.

This is a long post and people probably think this is over the top OCD, but really, when everything is not centralized, like if you have a single appliance for each function and a one room kitchen, you Have to have a System.

Thank you everyone! Great organization advice. In answer to some of your questions.
It’s just the two of us, but there are grandkids, and I’m the neighborhood cook. Weekend breakfast or dinner for 25 is pretty common. Parties break out on a regular basis. Before the addition and remodel, it was pretty tight. Now everyone can help! The scullery was planned for those occasions. Dirty dishes will pile up in there.
There are 4 ovens, including a steam/convection oven. I am learning to bake.
My husband built the cabinets. They are walnut and afromosia wood. No plywood. The sun makes the wood change, and I love it. I’ll attach a before photo so you can appreciate them. The original cabinets were built 11 years ago. We added more with the remodel. They will even out in time.
Countertops are Taj Mahal! Good eye.
I’ve worn out lots of bottle openers!

Plus.. it’s all paid for. HU-918119203

Update* The conundrum has worked itself out. The scullery is perfect for baking, small appliances, extra ovens. We’ve developed a rhythm, living in one area, and spreading out when there is a crowd. My husband, who built the cabinets, recently admitted he wasn’t so sure about it at my first, but it’s become a valuable and well used space.