Drawing a triangle over the top of a kitchen floor plan is one thing, but actually making that kitchen practical and efficient is a completely different exercise.

If you are unfamiliar with the ‘working triangle’ concept, the basic idea is to place your fridge, sink and cooktop on the 3 points of a triangle. The closer to an equilateral triangle this is, supposedly the more efficient your kitchen is.

Take for example the simple (or so it should be) activity of making a cup of tea. First I go to the kettle in my perfect example of a working triangle kitchen (below), a classic 1990s fit out. It’s empty. I cross the room to put water in it and return placing it on the cooktop to boil. While I wait for it to boil, I again cross the room to the pantry to get tea bags and a cup, placing them near the kettle so as not to have to cross the room again. Once the kettle is boiled I fill my cup and turn for the milk. You guessed it, the other side of the room again. Now to dispose of the tea bag…

Main: A Classic 90s fitout. Inset: Floor plan with Working triangle overlay

There are so many examples like this where the working triangle layout fails. And now that you are looking at your own kitchen in a new light, I bet you are shocked at how inefficient your kitchen really is.

One of the world’s largest hardware retailers Blum has for years been promoting the ‘zoned’ kitchen. The concept is to separate each activity in the kitchen into different zones or areas; Storage, Preparation, Cleaning, Cooking and Consumables. A perfect example of this is keeping rice and oil near the cooktop where they are used rather than in the pantry. To read more on this concept visit the Blum website.

So if I come back to MY kitchen and MY cup of tea, how do I create a more efficient kitchen? Simply by asking myself what are the most common activities that I undertake in this space and how do I categorise these or zone them to increase efficiency? A great tool to use is an activity map. Simply draw a quick sketch of your kitchen floor plan and draw the path that you take around the kitchen for one full day. It’s a great idea to get each member of your family to use a separate colour and draw their activity map too, after all the kitchen is no longer a one woman domain like it was in the 1940’s when the working triangle principle first came into use.

Photo by George Marks https://www.canva.com/photoimages

Personally I could improve the efficiency in my kitchen by having a coffee and tea area close to the sink and the fridge. Kettle, tea bags, cups, water and milk all at hand. Contrary to most people’s beliefs, my cutlery draw would be near my kettle and cooktop, not my dishwasher. After all what is the one item that is removable in most dishwashers? And as for food storage, by the time I put my oils, spices and sauces near the cooktop, my tea and coffee near the kettle and my Vegemite and bread near the toaster, I probably don’t need a ‘traditional’ pantry at all. Suddenly my kitchen is so efficient I need to go to the gym!