7 Tips to Design a Kitchen for a Busy Family
February 13, 2019When you have a busy family, the house can easily get cluttered during the frenzy of getting everything together and trying to get out the door. As one of the most highly-trafficked rooms in the home, the kitchen especially can become crowded with people and belongings. A good kitchen design can help control the chaos and add order to a busy room. Here are some tips to design a kitchen for a busy family:
1. Consider Current Kitchen Use and Flow
As you think about how to design a kitchen for your busy family, it’s important to take a step back and consider your current kitchen. Think about how your family uses your current kitchen and identify the general trends and pain points.
What times of day is the kitchen busiest? How many people are usually in the kitchen at the same time? What are they doing during these times? Where does everyone usually get stuck, frustrated, or delayed?
Having the answers to these questions allows you to approach the kitchen design in your custom home with valuable insights. You can bring these things up to your custom home designer and work with them to create a flow in the kitchen that will work for your family’s specific needs and habits.
2. Build in Open Space
One of the best ways to add a little order to the chaos a busy family can bring to the kitchen is to make sure there is plenty of open space. It’s much easier to avoid feeling blocked in or having collisions when there is enough space for multiple people to be in the kitchen and moving around.
3. Add Plenty of Prep Space
In addition to open space, you want to make sure you also plan for plenty of prep space as well. When multiple people are in the kitchen prepping snacks, meals, or trying to get things together to get out the door, having plenty of prep space available makes sure no one has to compete for space or has to wait to finish what they need to do.
4. Include a Kitchen Island with Seating
A kitchen island can provide more counter space for your family, more storage space for your kitchen, and more available seating. This is a great option that allows family members to sit at the kitchen island and do homework or other work while another family member preps meals or does something else somewhere else in the kitchen.
It’s also a great way for multiple family members to be in the kitchen at once and have enough space to eat or prep a quick snack or meal. Having a kitchen island with seating certainly can help make a free-for-all breakfast go much more smoothly and help everyone get out the door on time.
5. Create Specific Stations within the Kitchen
If you know there are certain activities that have to happen at the same time in the kitchen, you can design your kitchen with those things in mind. By creating specific stations within your kitchen design, you can add a little organization to the general flow of the kitchen. For example, if you know there is going to be a mad rush for drinks and snacks as soon as your kids get home from school, you can create a beverage and snack station in one part of your kitchen.
This will reduce the amount of time it takes for your children to find what they need and also limits where they have to go within the kitchen. So, if you’re trying to get something else done in the kitchen, you can take care of it without interruptions or having to dodge anyone else. A dedicated coffee station, meal prep space, homework space, and more can all help your busy family get what they need in the kitchen without going crazy.
6. Choose Durable Surfaces that are Easy to Clean
Busy families usually also mean a lot of activity in the kitchen, which usually means an increased potential for spills, crumbs, and general messes left behind. By choosing durable and easy to clean surfaces for your kitchen, it’s a lot easier and faster to clean up all the messes a busy family can leave behind. Plus, you’ll know your surfaces can hold up against heavy use.
7. Plan for the Right Kitchen Storage
The right kitchen storage for your busy family will be specific to your family’s needs and general kitchen usage. Planning for enough kitchen storage is a good thing. Planning for enough of the right kitchen storage ensures everything has its place, helps to reduce clutter, and also makes it easier for everyone to find what they need.
For some families, a walk-in pantry is enough. For other families, a combination of cabinets, drawers, and open storage is what works best. For others, it may be a combination of everything. There are plenty of kitchen storage solutions available to add more storage to your kitchen design, so you can get exactly what is right for your family.
Your kitchen is the hub of your home, even more so when you have a busy family. With these tips, you can dream up the perfect kitchen for your family. To make your dream home a reality, contact Custom Home Group at 717-284-4090!