In my retirement house that DH and I will one day build, I'm going to have 2 kitchens... A "prep" kitchen. It will be galley style with a door that closes. One counter will have a huge sink, a built in pastry board, a place for my Kitchen Aid and prep space. The other counter will have a counter for all of my counter appliances like crockpot, bread machine, food processor, ice cream maker, and blender. It will have a dishwasher, a freezer/fridge combo and a single oven and maybe a single or 2 burner range if I ever get really into canning. It's where I'll go to make a mess and make noise. Then I'll still have my "public" kitchen with my standard appliances.
In my husband's home country, it's common to have a "dirty" kitchen (often outdoors, even). It's where the actual cooking takes place. People who have them then have a "public" kitchen that they hardly ever use, except maybe to store the dishes, so that it stays clean. People think my in-laws are exceptionally weird for only having one kitchen and then actually cooking in it.
My kitchen is a U-shaped apartment kitchen, so it is in some ways very spacious, in others very cramped, and in all ways totally awkward. I don't actually have much counter space (and the fact that it's U-shaped means I have less than it looks like I should), and all of my counters are exceptionally deep. So I use them as storage, both because I have to stretch to reach the back of them (especially in the corners) and because my apartment has barely any storage.
So between the fridge and the oven, I have a microwave with cutting boards, oven mitts, and a microwave plate cover on top. Then I have the Cuisinart food processor (because it's heavy enough that we only use it if it stays out), a small wine rack, a cookie jar I haven't used in ages but don't want to get rid of (it's a penguin with a muffler! what's not to like?), bottles of oil we use a lot, paper towels, a cookbook holder, two utensil crocks with spatulas and spoons and the like, and salt and pepper shakers.
Between the oven and the sink, I have a spice rack with our most commonly used spices, a box of baking soda (placed in a handy location in case of grease fires, and also for cleaning), my coffee maker, my coffee grinder, a small glass container where I store about a week's worth of ground coffee at a time, a coffee pot that was a wedding present and has nowhere else to go, a spoon rest, a sugar bowl, my popcorn air popper, the electric kettle, the toaster oven, and the dish drainer. There's a teensy strip of counter on the other side of the sink, and that collects things that need to air dry before going into the recycling and dirty dishes.
And none of this includes the two large metal shelves between the end of the counter and the end of the room (it's an eat-in kitchen) that hold our less-frequently-used appliances, mixing bowls, tupperware, pitchers, travel mugs, water bottles, canned goods, dry goods, cans of soda, and other miscellaneous items that can't easily be stored elsewhere.
I am so envious of people who have appliance garages. I want one so badly.
