9 Ways to Avoid Kitchen Traffic Jams

9 Ways to Avoid Kitchen Traffic Jams

When it comes to designing your dream kitchen, it is tempting to try to squeeze in all of the latest and finest gadgets and appliances — and enough cabinetry to contain them all. But unless you also put some thought into how you, your loved ones and guests will circulate through the space, you could get a dysfunctional layout that’s not any pleasure to operate in — newfangled gadgets and all. I’ve pulled together some suggestions to remember while designing a kitchen to avoid traffic jams and inadequate circulation.

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1. Optimize the design. Among my favourite kitchen designs is a spacious kitchen with an island and no closed corners. I find having a island that family and guests can easily circulate around, without becoming stuck in a corner, greatly reduces kitchen traffic jams.

Kitchen Encounters

2. Provide ample walkways and aisles. Make sure your kitchen paths are at least 36 inches wide and your job aisles — those spaces in front of sinks, appliances and prep places — are at least 42 inches wide, or 48 inches to accommodate numerous cooks.

Those with larger families or who entertain often might want to go as wide as 54 inches for work aisles. This will allow two individuals to pass behind somebody working in the countertop, sink or appliance.

J.A.S. Design-Build

3. Look at sitting area. If you intend to get a seating area at an island or a peninsula, then think about where the stools will be. Ideally you want people to be confronting you as you are working at the kitchen, and you want to keep them out of your primary work aisles, also.

Pierce Allen

If you anticipate stools at a walkway or a aisle, allow for the extra space they’ll need when occupied. You’ll need at least 36 inches so someone can pass behind a stool if it is pulled out.

Clark kitchens and construction

4. Look closely at cabinetry and appliance clearances. While your purpose needs to be to arrange your appliances to efficient work zones, see for any awkward adjacencies. Avoid putting major appliances directly opposite each other, as this can create a traffic jam if the two appliances are being used simultaneously.

Also, try to keep appliances away from any corners, so as corners stop full access to the appliance, and the adjoining cabinets can’t be opened if the appliance door is also open.

This applies to your cupboards as well — be sure you are able to open all of your cabinet drawers and doors with no running into one another. It’s tough to avoid this with corner cabinets, but the other cabinets should open freely without slamming into another door or a drawer.

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5. Do not block kitchen entrance points. Leave enough room for someone to enter or exit if the appliance or cupboard door or drawer is available.

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6. Offer your refrigerator ample space. The region around a refrigerator tends to be a high-traffic zone, and therefore don’t crowd it in. Plus, some refrigerator doors are a whopping 36 inches wide — meaning they take up a lot of space when available. If your refrigerator is near a kitchen entrance point, add a cabinet cupboard to function as a buffer so that the open refrigerator door won’t be as likely to block somebody.

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7. Offer your sink some space, too. Have plenty of countertop space on either side of the sink, and don’t cram the sink in between other appliances, together with the noteworthy exception of the dishwasher, which can be handy to have right next to the sink for cleanup. Avoid corner sinks — they’re major culprits of kitchen traffic jams.

8. Do not fight with a little area. As much as I love a island in the kitchen, I also value area for moving around. In case you’ve got a tight kitchen, keep it as open as possible. You always have the option to incorporate a movable island cart that you can tuck off to the side out of the flow of traffic when it is not in use. As tempting as it might be to cram as much cabinetry and countertop area in as possible, it is just not worth it if this makes the room awkward to use.

Renewal Design-Build

9. Consult a Specialist. The best bit of advice I can offer is to engage the assistance of a capable and respectable designer who specializes in kitchens. If your renovation budget is tight and you are going the DIY route, consider finding a kitchen designer prepared to consult a couple hours with you to get a flat fee. This investment of a few hundred bucks can help you avoid ending up with a dysfunctional kitchen design — and will help save you time, frustration and money in the future.

Inform us: How have you designed your own kitchen to avoid traffic jams?

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