Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: CH kitchen equipment / design

[Eris Weaver (erisw]

A couple of things I would add:

* Garbage disposals in all kitchen sinks! People end up washing pots,
peeling carrots, in all the sinks. We started out with only one disposal
and added one to the second sink because we got tired of fishing veggie
gunk out of the drain.

* Make sure the baking pans you buy fit into your ovens! We got a bunch of
casseroles and some restaurant-type pans but they don't fit into the ovens
efficiently, so now we need to buy new ones. Measure twice, shop once!

* Refrigerators - I am amazed at the communities who say they make do with
small refrigerators. Ours is always full. We do four meals a week, and
sometimes there is stuff for more than one meal in there if people shop
the day before; plus we don't seem to do well on leftover management.

* Wheeled carts. We keep all our clean dishes on one, just wheel it out to
the dining room to set the tables! Then we use one for serving food, dirty
dishes, etc.

* Dishwashing & cleanup area - really think through the flow of your after
dinner bussing and cleanup. Ours is not very well laid out and there
always is a clog of people around the counter and not enough room to work
during cleanup time. (My personal opinion, anyway, as Miss Ergonomic
Efficience -- maybe some of my neighbors don't mind it.)

* Serving stuff - Get lots of hot pads and trivets. Make sure your serving
dishes are the right size for the size of your tables. We have 4 and 6
person tables and most of our serving dishes are really meant for 8. I
think this may contribute to our overabundance of leftovers -- you tend to
fill up the dish even though it's meant to serve twice as many people as
you need.



***************************
Eris Weaver
erisw [at] sonic.net

FrogSong
A cohousing community in Cotati, CA