We are building a new house and it will be the first house we have that has a butlers pantry (existing has just a walk in pantry). The main thing we want to do is to have all our washing done in the butlers so that it is all hidden away. Our existing main sink is in the kitchen and at the end of the day we have a mountain of washing in the dish rack even though a lot goes into the dish washer and it just looks messy.
We are just wondering what others have done in terms of workflow, location of dishwasher and where they keep their items stored for regularly used items (i.e. dishes, cups, etc)? We were thinking:
1. Small prep sink in kitchen, dishwasher in kitchen, larger washing sink in butlers, keep all plates, cups, cutlery, etc in kitchen. We can unload the dishwasher straight into the cupboards in the kitchen. Sounds reasonable to us.
2. Small prep sink in kitchen, dishwasher in butlers, larger washing sink in butlers, keep all plates, cups, cutlery, etc in kitchen. We unload items in butlers and then carry it all out (or on a small trolley or something) to kitchen and then store. Also sounds OK, we currently have a dish washer and the cupboard where plates go is on the opposite side of the kitchen so we are used to unloading everything then having to carry everything across to a cupboard to store.
3. Small prep sink in kitchen, dishwasher in butlers, larger washing sink in butlers, keep all plates, cups, cutlery, etc in butlers. We unload items in butlers and then walk into butlers to get items as required. Seems inconvenient to always go into the butlers to get everything.
4. Small prep sink in kitchen, dishwasher in butlers AND kitchen, larger washing sink in butlers, keep all plates, cups, cutlery, etc in butlers AND kitchen. We unload items in respective area to the dishwasher. Seems excessive and messy to have like two sets of everything.
5. Any other options???
We intend to store as many appliances in the butlers as we can and only keep the microwave in the main kitchen.