Post date: Jul 17, 2008 5:1:48 PM
When I was about 22, in our first "real house" (we lived on the air force base and had a duplex in base housing) my in-laws descended on us for Thanksgiving. I had just had my entire kitchen remodeled by the housing folks and was putting it back together. I was a 6 foot-ish, left handed, young man. I arranged my kitchen the way it made sense to me. I had pots and pans in the cupboard above and to the left of the stove, where they were easy (for me) to access.
My great-aunt on my wife's side was doing something in the kitchen the day before Thanksgiving while I was away at work (I did nuclear weapons maintenance on a base that had no nukes... that means I am not a bad ping pong player!). She ended up totally re-organizing the kitchen, for a 5' nuthin, right handed, old woman. All my pots and pans were moved to the shelves below the counter on the right side of the oven. When told by my wife that I had just arranged the kitchen, she was told by Great Aunt Eunice "he's a man, what does HE know about kitchens?".
It took me 3 weeks before I could find my wok. But it was in the "right place" *grin*
BTW, nowadays I live in a school bus, and in my skoolie there is a wire shelf above the counter. All the pots and pans are there, easy to find, handy to a tall person (or a short person, my skoolie is not like Elliot's, it has not been lifted.... although that's the plan for the new one). There ARE a few pans still in the cupboard under the counter.... but those are ones I almost never use. The design of the new bus will eliminate that storage area entirely (I'm replacing it with nested pull out pantry drawers).