Yes, it will make it cleaner...if you want it to. But it still resides with you.

Corollary to Parkinson's law....the available junk will fill the available space.

My mother used to complain that her kitchen was too small...and it was...for the amount of stuff she had...once we cleaned stuff out, it became just right.

Yes.
I had a lot of square footage in my previous kitchen, but the entire sink run, about 15 feet of counter, was the dumping ground from the garage. It also had the mixer, basket of towels, and other stuff that I cannot remember!!
Since this counter was not supported, splashes ran from the sink back to the corner, so everything got wet when my MIL would wash dishes, because she would not realize the water ran back there.

I had a corner next to the refrigerator with no lighting that kept the cookbooks, toaster, onion storage, and some other stuff that I cannot remember. This area was the dumping ground for the office.

I had an island with about 36" of prep space and my range. Salt, pepper, olive oil, and a few blends sat there, too, since my spices were on the other side of the office door, by the dining table.

Now, my kichen is on the way to the bedroom, so stuff does not get dumped. I have a baking area, and my mixer is in a cabinet. Cookbooks....cabinet. Spices....drawer next to range. Toaster....out of the kitchen. Big sink that hold the stuff I am washing. Work table for prep space, and drawers for knives and utensils. AND, except for a few things that go in the hutch in the dining room, all of the glasses and silverware are right by the dishwasher, so it takes seconds to unload.

Probably WAY more than you wanted to know!!

Nancy

Yes yes and yes! Even though budget only allowed minor changes to the old layout the changes that were made was a huge plus. In the old layout I had a two level countertop at sink area, by changing that to a one level and doing some recessed shelving within a nearby wall I had an area to store tea and coffee condiments. Plus, I had much more useable counter space. In the old layout there was no place for tea and coffee stuff but on the limited countertop. I picked granite on the wall side that hid all toast and bread crumbs. I have three dogs so I did a dark stain on the lower cabinets to hide all that. My kitchen is not big but it is tall. I eliminated the kitchen storage clutter in other rooms by going up with the cabinets and put little used stuff up there. I have a port station in a drawer to eliminate the re-charge thingies hanging out on the limited countertop. We added a pull-out trash cabinet at the end of the sink run so I don't have that flouting bulk crowding up the space. We moved the range over about eleven inches out of the previous near corner location where all the action was, just doing that little bit helped with that messy crowded area. My kitchen is in an open plan so adding the deep single bowl sink hides any dishes from view from the other rooms. I didn't have room for a spice drawer like I would have liked but do have 6" pull-out wall spice cabinets. In the old kitchen I had to keep spices in the Lazy Susan where they often fell over and that area was a mess. There is so much more I could go on and on, my drawers for pots and pan are great too.
Now everything has a place.

Yes. I didn't get new cabinets or anything, but I WANT to keep my space clean now because it isn't such a chore and it looks so pretty now. Before I was content leaving dirty dishes on the tile counters because I didn't care about them. THey were a PITA to clean, they were ugly and I knew they were going to be replaced. Now that i know I have my counters and they need to last 20+ years, I take much better care of them.

Absolutely, without a doubt. It is easier to keep tidy and clean because it is better planned, I purged all the junk that I no longer used, everything has a place and I like keeping it clean. Everything is so nice and shiny and new. My old kitchen was leaking and falling apart around me and I had lost all enthusiasm for cleaning and tidying.

Yes, so far, so good. A lot of it is that there are now proper "homes" for many things that previously were, by default, left on the counter. Part of it is from living out of a basement kitchen for a year; some of the little-needed stuff still resides out of the kitchen.

I'm pre-reno still, but in my former kitchen, even though it was super tiny, I had PLACES for things to go, even if it meant that the crockpot went above the fridge cabinet, it still had a place that it could reside. In the current kitchen...no proper places for anything. It's infuriating. My pots and pans have to go in a corner cabinet and everything goes everywhere when I try to get one thing. So, I've taken to leaving my "daily use" pots and pans on the counter. The weekly use or bi-weekly use ones usually get put away. And because I dislike it so much, it's kind of a dumping ground for mail and so on. We have no place for recyclables, so those sit on the ground next to the garbage or on the counter until we remember to take them out when we head outside. Even though my former kitchen was smaller, it was much better planned (surprisingly for a builder layout) and had places for things to go and it was far easier to cook in and clean up.

As for marble. I don't know what to tell you. Hopefully you got honed so that you won't have a lot of etching show. Will it stain? It probably will at some point. Some time you will be at that point where you *should* reseal it and you won't have gotten around to it. And someone will spill red wine. It'll happen. At some point. But Europeans have been using marble for ages and ages and they live with it. Your first stain will kill you. After that, it will begin the process of turning into "patina" and memories of your years with it. Honestly, if I could find a piece of marble countertop that has been well loved for about 30 years so that the first stain and etch wouldn't be mine, I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat. Or if my husband weren't as, ummm....let's say "detail oriented" to remain positive...I would go for marble. He would never forgive/forget the first mark be it that he made it or I did. So, for us, marble isn't a choice. But, if you can look at your marble as inevitably getting signs of being loved, you should be happy with it. :)

Give the kids a bottle of Windex and tell them how much FUN it is to clean windows. First one finished wins a prize. lol

Thank you!
Yay, then I have hope for my new kitchen.
AnnieD: yes, I know it will reside w/ me, but hopefully, it'll be a little easier when (like blfenton noted) "everything has a place" (and if not, it gets toss out) :)

Nancy: I am soooo looking forward to my large/deep sink (32"x10") to hide all the pots/pans, etc. I often take forever to unload my clean-dishes DW. But the plan is to have my children unload the DW now that the dishes/glasses will be store in the base drawers (so they don't have to climb the counters to put them away in the current upper cabinets).

Jterrilynn: YES YES YES! I can't wait for more storage space. Right now, my 2 drawers (24" wide) hold all my pots/pans/bowls/measuring bowls/pie dishes. New kitchen will have 2 - 36" drawers, 4-24" drawers to store all that!

Bahacca: yes, I rarely clean my nasty corian all-cracked/split sink because it never seems to stay clean. Can't wait for my stainless steel sink! Same for the corian countertop: can't wait to get rid of it!

Angie: can't believe you have the skills to DIY so many things (just saw your post about DIY hood venting).

Andreak: "Your first stain will kill you."
YUP. You got it.

I'm a BIG fan of used items, one big reason is I would hate to spend tons of money on something pristine/new and then make the first big ding or damage or something on it. But if it comes marred/patina, then hey, I already love it.
Yes, I'm getting honed marble. I almost succumb to some GORGEOUS slabs of polished marble, but I knew honed is the way to go for me.
It's my husband who convinced me to get marble. Yeah, shocking!

Schoolhouse: yes, I need to get them to do that.
They're excited to be able to put away dishes once they can reach the drawers.

Thank you!
Amanda

Oh, my, YES! I keep commenting to my dh how much easier it is to cook in and clean up our new kitchen! We have more counter space, which means that even if there's stuff lying about while cooking, it doesn't feel cluttered and overwhelming. Our dishwasher actually cleans the dishes, so post-meal clean up is easier because pots and pans actually come clean in the dishwasher.

As others have said, having storage allotted for various often-used items makes a big difference. The toaster doesn't have to live on the counter, for example.

For us, it really is much, much easier--and there's more incentive to clean it up because it looks so pretty when it's all polished and ready to go!