The 5 Kitchen Storage Zones

To design and plan a kitchen for your unique needs, Andrew Stout Kitchens requires a lot of information from you. This means you have to give a great deal of thought to what you and your family expect from your new kitchen and provide a great deal of detailed information about your lifestyle.

Kitchen planning today takes the five storage zones as a basis for the optimum kitchen design. A properly planned kitchen saves time and shortens distances. Zone planning is used to define the proper allocation and equipment for the five most important work areas: (contd.)

1) Consumables

The "Consumables" zone is used to store consumer goods. These are items that are used for cooking and baking which then must be replenished. They include both chilled and unchilled foodstuffs. That's why both the refrigerator and freezer cabinets are a fixed part of this zone. Open packages usually belong in the "Preparation" zone.

2) Non-consumables

The "Non-consumables" zone is used to store non-foodstuffs.
It is mainly used for kitchen utensils, cutlery, dishes and glasses. For ergonomic reasons, it may even make sense to store often-used dishes in the pull-outs of the lower cabinets instead of the top cabinet.

3) Cleaning

The dishwasher and the sink with the sink bottom cabinet are located in the centre of the "wet zone." This cabinet is the proper location for waste storage/separation as well as household cleaners and cleaning utensils.

4) Preparation

This zone stores those kitchen utensils required for food preparation. It also contains some open foodstuffs as well as those that are often used when preparing food.

5) Cooking

This is certainly the heart of every kitchen. It contains items such as the hob, oven, microwave and extractor. The items required for cooking and baking are stored here - items such as pots, pans and cooking utensils.