<p>Love my prep sink–use it all the time. I keep it free off dishes so its always available to me. Plus it’s located close to the stove/cooking area. I use it primarily for cleaning and preping vegetables/herbs, filling pots, and other cooking tasks. Like it so much that when I remodeled the kitchen in a vacation home, I added a prep sink.</p>
<p>This is really helpful. </p>
<p>mathmom, is your not having a new kitchen kind of like the shoemaker’s children (as in, the architect’s house goes un-remodelled)?</p>
<p>How small are you considering? My kitchen designer and most people on gardenweb seemed to feel that large enough to easily fit a salad spinner or large colander is the minimum, and much larger (even full or oversized if you have the room) if you want double duty for cleanup. Bar sized sinks are good for washing hands, getting water or a drink, but not much more. </p>
<p>My main advice would be to consider the location of the prep sink in relation to the other appliances in the kitchen. If you are designing from scratch it’s very helpful to have: fridge, pantry, cooktop, a dishwasher and ovens near the prep sink. Also handy are extra trash pullout, tools, utensil drawer, trays, bakeware, cookware , drawers for saran and foil, knives, measuring cups, colanders, salad spinner, spice cabinet, (and more that I am probably forgetting)right nearby. That’s not always all possible, but thinking about these things will help you to prioritize. </p>
<p>A pull out faucet or sprayer is very handy by the prep area. So is a second garbage disposal (if allowed in your area).</p>
<p>I renovated my kitchen a few years ago and find that having two sinks is especially good with my layout. Prep is done at the sink in my island ( I prefer single bowl sinks - they are good for cleaning large roasters, cutting boards etc) , a step away from the ovens, cooktop and fridge. Second sink on the perimeter is identical to the prep sink. It’s near the kitchen table and the back door, so it’s handy for people without going all the way around the island. I use it for doing dishes after meals, for the clean up after grilling or when there is more than one person cooking or cleaning up. Glasses, dishes and utensils are near that sink, so they are easy to put away later.</p>
<p>My thought on prep sinks is put one in if you use the island for your food prep. Put a garbage disposal with that sink as well but put the sink in the corner of one end of the island so you don’t break up the work space. My parents have their island set up that way and it sure is handy just to scoop stuff over to the sink and grind it up but I would not like it in the center of the island.</p>
<p>We remodeled several years ago and we do have a prep sink near the stove. Due to a mix up with the granite guys, we got a much larger sink than we originally planned and I LOVE it!! It’s great for prep (does have a disposal in addition to having one in the sink by the dishwasher in the “clean up” area), AND for cleaning of large pots and pans. Also handy for bathing small children. :)</p>
<p>^^^Without turning on the disposal, I hope. :eek:</p>
<p>Another factor in placement - if you have one dishwasher and a smaller prep sink, it can be an advantage for the prep sink to be on one end so that’s easier to move prep bowls, cutting boards, tools etc to the larger sink and dishwasher when it’s time to clean up. But if there is enough room on both sides of the sink for uninterrupted work space and/or a second dishwasher, having the sink in the center of the island can be very handy for cooking and cleaning as you go. All that being equal, it’s best to put the prep sink as close to the fridge, ovens and cooktop as possible.</p>
<p>Ouch, VeryHappy. You’re making me retroactively glad that I’ve never lived where I could have a disposal, since I definitely bathed each baby in the kitchen sink at first. And a couple of the cats too, come to think of it. Not at the same time, though.</p>
<p>
Absolutely. Finally did the pink bathroom this spring (and while we were at it moved a wall in the bedroom so that our weird little “nursery” worked as a walk-in closet/possible future entrance to a master bath. </p>
<p>Every year I have a different idea about what I need in a kitchen, but now that we have an empty nest I guess the needs won’t change. I’m determined to figure it out this winter and do the construction in the spring. Though I still have to decide whether I can afford to enlarge it at all which I would really, really like to do if I can swing it. (And if I can put in the master bath upstairs (which we don’t need anymore, but would make the house more desirable I think and I would love to stick my laundry up there too.)</p>
<p>I have a prep sink in my island and I find it more frustrating than useful. It just is too small to be productive. When I remodeled our vacation home kitchen I put in a full size farmers sink in the island and it has served me much better.</p>
<p>
I’m pondering moving the laundry room in the new house, too. We may need to do a spinoff thread for that. The idea of actually having a laundry room on the same floor where people keep their clothes - as opposed to two or three floors below - is very, very appealing to me.</p>
<p>Though I suppose if I get a prep sink as big as you all are suggesting, I could just wash the clothes there. :D</p>
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<p>Our laundry room is on the second floor and I like it very much.</p>
<p>I have a stack W/D on the second floor, in the new addition to my 19th c house and the wash spin cycle shakes the whole house. The contractors (later let go) absolutely refused during construction to reinforce the joists under the spot the machines were going. I am just hoping the house doesn’t fall down in the next 30 years which will probably be my life span. Has anyone tried a vibration pad? I read mixed reviews?</p>
<p>It was oddly comforting to visit a friend in a condo last week and realize every washer in the whole complex did this.</p>
<p>Back when I was in college I housesat in a house with laundry on the second floor I’ve been wanting it ever since!</p>
<p>Opinions, please:</p>
<p>In the house we are moving into, the washer/dryer are in the basement. (Booooo!) We will be redoing the kitchen and I’d like to move the W/D to at least the first floor. (Bedrooms are on the second floor.) However, in my experience, I always wind up having lots of things hanging around my laundry area – my underwear, which shouldn’t be dried; the odd sock; a basket of laundry that hasn’t made it upstairs yet. Do I really want to have this in my beautiful new kitchen??</p>
<p>(There is no space on the 2nd floor for the W/D, which would be my preference.)</p>
<p>VeryHappy, my laundry room isn’t IN the kitchen, but it’s right next to it. Because it sits between garage and kitchen, it’s probably the highest-traffic room in the house. There have been days when some undies are drying in the open and the neighbors’ kids pass through the room. They pretend not to see. So, it’s really not an issue. Stray socks and baskets don’t bother me/us, so that’s not an issue either.</p>
<p>We do have issues, though, with the noise. When the W&D are running simultaneously, it’s pretty loud. I wish we had a door between the laundry and kitchen, but it’s not possible. (Long story, the laundy was part of an addition.) </p>
<p>So, in addition to questions about tidyness, you want to consider noise level in the kitchen.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. Interesting. I don’t want noise in the kitchen; it’s where we spend most of our time. </p>
<p>Are fancy new expensive European W/Ds quieter than old cheap American appliances??</p>
<p>Sorry, can’t answer that. Mine are Kenmore front loaders, vintage 2007.</p>
<p>I’d like to redo the kitchen & since we are going to have to add a ramp off the back of the house, we could also expand the footprint a little for a laundry room ( after D finishes school). On the one hand the noise would bother me , on the other hand with only two people how much laundry do we have?</p>
<p>I do remember it being mentioned on the w/d thread however that the front loader is so quiet you can’t tell it if it is running…
But then again, if you have leakage issues, a main floor w/d could be major disaster as opposed to in the basement.</p>
<p>No prep sink here, what I long for is a window over the sink ( H says we can’t move the plumbing), or a built in dishwasher, then I could have an island. </p>
<p>I had an idea! I could put the dishwasher where the sink is now, and build an island facing the windows & put the sink in that. ( My sink faces east- i have two large double hung windows on the west wall) That would just require adding onto the plumbing a little bit & we have a mostly unfinished basement to make it easier. . This thread is great!
;)</p>
<p>We have our washer/dryer on the third floor of our townhome, where the bedrooms are, and I hate it. I am not organized enough to not ever be turning on the dryer just as I am going to bed, and it is noisy and it heats up the upstairs when it runs. I also always have clothes hanging to dry in the hallway, and the clutter makes me nuts. Someone more organized than me would probably find it very convenient, but it doesn’t work for someone like me!</p>
<p>Our new house is all one level, but the laundry has a separate room with a door off the hallway by the guestrooms-- on the opposide side of the house from the master bedroom. There is enough room in there to hang clothes to dry. As long as I can refrain from doing laundry at night while we have guests I should be good to go, and even then I don’t think it will be too loud with the door closed. </p>
<p>I am excited to have the laundry on the main floor-- while it was nice to have it by our bedroom in the townhouse when it came to hauling clothes back and forth to the bedrooms, I would always forget I was doing laundry and leave wet clothes sitting in the washer… thus clothes going into the dryer right before bed. If I leave the door to our new laundry room open, I can hear it stop if I want to.</p>