Kitchen Small Appliance Planning Checklist

List every countertop appliance in the house, including the ones currently living in a cupboard, the garage, or a box that has not been opened since you moved in.

Machines stored out of the room still need a home in the new kitchen, and they are the ones forgotten until the unpacking begins.

Mark honestly which appliances you have genuinely used since the seasons last changed, and which you keep only out of habit or a sense of obligation.

Being honest at this stage is the simplest way to reclaim worktop, because every retained machine has to be given somewhere to live.

Identify which appliance is tallest with its lid, hopper or arm fully raised, and which is deepest front to back, and treat those two as the ones any housing has to suit.

Appliance cupboards are usually designed around an average machine, and it is the outlier that will not fit once the doors are on.

Note which appliances are heavy enough that you would not want to lift them in and out of a low cupboard, and which you can move with one hand.

Weight decides whether a machine can live low down, and it is the reason many beautifully planned appliance cupboards end up empty.

Write down which appliances you expect to replace before the kitchen is fitted and which are definitely staying, since the ones staying set the sizes someone must work around.

A designer can leave room for an unknown replacement, but only if you flag it as unknown rather than describing the machine you own today.

Photograph the appliances you intend to keep with their plugs and cables laid out in shot, so the trailing lengths are visible alongside the machines themselves.

Short or stiff cables quietly dictate how far from a socket an appliance can sit, and nobody remembers this until the kitchen is finished.

Photograph your current worktop exactly as it stands on an ordinary morning, without tidying first, and bring that photograph rather than a cleared one to any design meeting.

The tidied worktop is not the worktop you live with, and a designer planning for the tidied version will plan too little surface.

Decide and record which machines are permitted to remain permanently on show, and which the household has agreed must be put away between uses.

This is a household agreement rather than a design decision, and reaching it before drawings begin prevents the same argument recurring at every stage.

Write down whether you want one uninterrupted stretch of worktop kept clear of appliances for preparation, and where in the room you would want it.

Appliances tend to colonise the most usable working surface first, so the clear stretch has to be claimed deliberately on the plan.

Note which appliances you reach for with wet or floured hands, since anything you use in that state is unlikely to be put back behind a door.

A machine that must be lifted out of a cupboard mid-task simply migrates back onto the worktop soon after the kitchen is finished.

Record which appliances children or others in the household use without supervision, and note how high up you would want those to sit.

Where a heat-producing or sharp-bladed appliance can safely be reached by a child is a matter to raise with a qualified professional and with the manufacturer instructions.

Note which appliances only ever get used together, such as the kettle and whatever sits beside it, so they can be grouped rather than scattered around the room.

Grouping by use rather than by appearance shortens the number of steps taken in the kitchen during ordinary daily routines.

For each appliance you keep, note where in the room you stand while using it, and whether that spot is anywhere near where the machine is currently stored.

The gap between where something lives and where it is used is one of the most common sources of daily irritation in a kitchen.

Note which appliances are carried to the sink to be filled or rinsed, and how far that carry is when they are full and dripping.

Jugs and reservoirs get carried full, and a long carry across a walkway is a spill route that a plan can easily avoid.

Trace the route between the fridge, the microwave or reheating appliance and the place where people eat, and write down where that route crosses the cooking area.

Reheating traffic often runs straight across the space in front of the oven, which is the clash most easily designed out early.

Note whether the toaster sits anywhere near where bread is stored, and where crumbs currently end up when you shake the tray out.

Small habits like this decide whether a bread drawer belongs beside the machine or at the other end of the run.

Record which appliances get carried through to a table, an island or another room, and whether they are hot when that journey happens.

A machine that travels needs a landing place at both ends, and the second landing place is almost never drawn on a kitchen plan.

Write down whether two people regularly use different appliances at the same time, and where they end up standing when that happens.

Simultaneous use is what makes a single appliance corner feel cramped, and it is easy to accommodate before the layout is settled.

Ask what happens to steam and heat inside a closed cupboard when a kettle or a small oven is used in it, and what the unit finish is expected to tolerate.

What any appliance requires in the way of ventilation and surrounding clearance comes from the manufacturer and the installer, and must be confirmed with them rather than assumed.

Check how the cupboard door behaves while the appliance is in use, and whether it folds away, stays open on its own, or has to be held back with a spare hand.

A door you have to hold open turns a convenient station into an annoyance, and door mechanisms differ far more than the photographs suggest.

Ask what a pull-out or sliding shelf is expected to carry and how it behaves with a heavy machine at full extension.

What a shelf, runner or fixing can carry is for the supplier and installer to state for the specific unit, and should not be estimated by an owner.

Note that any appliance housed inside a cupboard needs its power arranged deliberately, and add it to the list of things to raise with a qualified electrician.

Whether and how a socket may be provided inside a cupboard is a question for a suitably qualified electrician working to the requirements that apply locally.

Consider how much space the cable and plug take up behind the machine once it is pushed back, and whether that pushes the appliance forward off the shelf.

Rear cable space is routinely forgotten, and it is the reason an appliance that fits on paper protrudes in reality.

Ask yourself plainly whether you would still use the appliance if it meant opening a door and pulling out a shelf before the first drink of the morning.

Concealment only works if the daily ritual survives it, and it is better to admit that now than after the units are made.

Note what sits directly above wherever the kettle or steam-producing appliance stands, and ask the supplier what that surface or unit finish is expected to cope with.

Whether a unit or surface above a steam-producing machine is a suitable place for one is a question to put to the supplier and to a qualified professional.

Record which of your appliances blow hot air out of the back or the top, and note what is currently sitting against that face of the machine.

Rear-venting machines are often pushed back against a wall or into a corner, which is where the discolouration eventually shows.

Note which appliances splash, spray or leak in ordinary use, and where the nearest worktop joint, upstand junction or socket happens to be.

Junctions are the weak point of any worktop, and knowing which appliances make a mess helps decide what should not sit over them.

Record which appliances you leave running while you are out of the room, and note where you would want them to sit given that habit.

What may be left unattended, and on what surface, is a matter for the manufacturer instructions and for a qualified professional to advise on for your situation.

Note which machines vibrate or drone, and whether the wall or floor they sit against is shared with a bedroom, a study or a neighbouring property.

Noise transfer through a shared structure is far easier to avoid at planning stage than to correct once the kitchen is in.

Record which machines are still warm when you want them out of the way, and where they currently wait until they have cooled enough to be moved.

A machine that cannot go straight back into its cupboard needs a waiting place, and without one it simply stays on the worktop until the next use.

Write down the full sequence of a morning drink in your household, from reaching for a cup to disposing of grounds or a used bag, and note every place you turn or stretch.

Written out in order, the sequence usually reveals that cups, machine, bin and water are in four different parts of the room.

If a machine that takes a permanent water supply is being considered, ask what would need to be brought to that position and treat the answer as a deciding factor.

Connecting any appliance to a water supply or waste is work for a suitably qualified plumber, who must confirm what is possible in your property.

Note where used grounds, pods or bags currently end up, and how far the bin is from the machine when your hands are already full.

A drinks station without a bin within reach produces a permanent trail across the worktop, and this is entirely avoidable on a plan.

Record whether cups and glasses live near the machine or near the sink, and which arrangement suits the way your household unloads the dishwasher.

Storage near the machine saves steps when making drinks, storage near the dishwasher saves steps when putting away, and only you can say which matters more.

Note how far the milk has to travel from the fridge to the drinks position, and whether an additional chilled space nearby is something you actually want.

It sounds trivial, but it is one of the most common reasons a beautifully placed coffee station goes unused.

Ask what the local water is like and what that means for any machine that heats or holds water, and record the answer as something the supplier should comment on.

Do not act on what the water does to a machine without asking a suitably qualified professional what, if anything, is appropriate for your property.

Group your retained appliances into the zones where they are used, such as drink making, food preparation and reheating, and hand over the grouping rather than a flat list.

A grouped list tells a designer where storage volume is needed, whereas a flat list only tells them how much you own.

Mark which appliances need a permanent dedicated position and which can share a cupboard with something else, and be strict about the difference.

Dedicated homes consume cabinetry quickly, so naming only the ones that genuinely need one keeps the rest of the storage available.

List the appliances you would be willing to give up if space became tight, in the order you would let them go.

Handing over a prioritised list means the trade-off is made by you in advance rather than by a designer guessing under pressure.

Flag any appliance you intend to buy but have not yet chosen as an unknown, and ask what allowance can sensibly be left for something not yet selected.

An honest unknown can be planned around, whereas a placeholder described as if it were decided leads to cabinetry that does not fit.

Ask what information a supplier needs from you before an appliance housing can be drawn, and whether they want manufacturer paperwork rather than your measurements.

Suppliers usually work from manufacturer documentation, and offering your own figures can introduce errors nobody catches until installation.

Record where the household disagrees about which machines stay out, and note that it is unresolved rather than presenting one view as settled.

A designer told that a point is still open can leave room for either answer, whereas one told it is settled will draw for the version they were given.