I grew up with the dishwasher in the kitchen and the daily dishes all in the breakfast room. It's a small kitchen and no room for any other system. It's really not a problem. Yes, we carry the serving dishes into the kitchen before every meal, and carry the clean dishes into the breakfast room. There's a pass through by the sink which aids the removal of the dirty ones.

Occasionally, my mother grumbles that she has to empty the dishwasher, but I think that's mostly so the people in earshot will know it needs doing and "surprise" her.

The most important part of the flow for this is that the dishwasher is to the BR side of the sink, so that Mother can prep while Father empties. The fridge is in between so can create a bottleneck, but it has to go somewhere :)

I have a hutch in my dining room (right off the kitchen) where I store my dinner dishes and serving pieces and some glassware and silverware. I have a snack prep area with a cabinet with our "bistro" dishes and glasses and a drawer with silverware. The dishwasher is on the other side of the room from both of these dish storage locations, about oh, 15 feet? I simply unload the dishwasher onto a tray and carry everything in at once. It makes it much nicer not to have people underfoot when I am trying to prep or cleanup dinner and they're trying to have a snack or dessert.

I go by numbers...it would be a real pain for me to walk across the kitchen to put away everything in the dishwasher so we store beside it. However, it's not much of a pain to grab 2-4 coffee cups out of the dish hutch and walk across the kitchen to the coffee/tea zone.

Our island is central to all snack foods, the fridge and just a few steps from the dish storage.

Okay, I confess...my DH or DSs (when here) set the table and clear the table for me if I'm cooking. I usually put away the dishes when they come out of the dw. They have a great attitude about it. They say if I cook for them, they'll clean up and assist me in the kitchen. Of course, if they are cooking, I do the same for them. Cooking is a family sport!

Cameron

Hmmm. We don't really do formal sit-down meals. Although we sit down together to eat, we tend to make plates in the kitchen and take each plate to the DR. Although I have nice china (a set of 12, even), it's pretty much for looks and has really only been used 3-4 times over the span of a 13-year marriage. Our everyday dishes, glasses and "silverware" are all of the Costco-Phalzgraff-Target-earthenware variety because we tend to overload the DW, drop and chip with frequency and I want to be able to replace as needed. I can't really see myself or anyone else in my family carrying dishes on a tray (or storing said tray). Maybe it would be best to store the dishes near the DW to make clean up easier, and just make the longer walk for prep/snack?

Nobody will be making snacks at the same time as cleanup, so I can't see anyone getting in the way of cleanup at that point, and when we do have formal holiday dinners (all parties are informal buffet/bbq style), we generally clean up dinner before serving dessert so that everyone has a chance to digest and chat before moving to the next course anyway.

We have the same arrangement Cameron!

I would store the dishes closer to the DW since you're usually unloading a lot of dishes at one time and you would be constantly walking back & forth....even if you load some things on a tray, there's only so much weight you can load/carry at one time. OTOH, when setting the table, we usually get out the plates, put the flatware on the top of the plate stack, and take that stack to the table. We then take the glasses (we've all mastered the art of carrying 4 glasses at once) to the table. The serving dishes don't go to the table until they're filled with food.

After dinner, we all take our plates to the sink (and usually we each take a serving dish as well), so it's just one trip for each of us.

As to snacking, parties, & holiday meals...ditto what Sarschlos' said!

HTH!

Thanks everyone! This has been very helpful, and has (once again) changed the direction of my layout! Good thing this remodel is not an emergency (well, actually, considering that I have only a toaster/convection oven to bake Christmas cookies or Christmas dinner, I suppose it was an emergency, but that ship has sailed and now I have nothing but time -- LOL).

I prefer storing things close to where they will be used. The dw is usually unloaded at the unloader's convenience (and usually only takes about 5 minutes.) Dishes are usually used in a much more hurried state throughout the day by 4 family members. I like to keep them out of the heart of the kitchen as much as possible. Getting things on the table for dinner (dishes, food, drinks) is complicated enough without having to go off and fetch the dinnerware.

We have coffee mugs near the coffee maker, teacups near the kettle, cutlery in a drawer with dividers in the eating area, measuring cups and mixing bowls near the mixer, prep tools in the prep area, pots and pans near the range, dishes and glasses in a hutch that can be opened from the eating area side or kitchen side(and close to the fridge.) I usually unload the dw by "zones"--i.e. I grab all the mugs for the trip across the kitchen to the cabinet next to the coffee maker.

I guess you've already kind of figured this out, but I also can't see trucking/traying all the dishes across the room, over and over, while unloading the dishwasher. The other thing I thought of is that you're assuming you're starting at the fridge/micro area when you decide to make a snack. You will likely be elsewhere and many times will probably pass by the dish storage area on the way to the micro/fridge area and it really won't be the back and forth you're thinking of. And when it is, as wonbyherwits pointed out, it's only a few dishes, not a whole dishwasher load.

Too true that it depends on your personal circumstances. Generally speaking, though, I agree with Zelmar, especially for family members who drop in and gets their own food in a relatively casual disorganized way. Carrying one stack of clean plates and bowls, etc., to an end-use position and a pile of cookpots to its end-use position, etc., is much less trekking overall than the whole family making their individual ways back and forth to the cleanup area throughout the day.

Unless the organization required up front would mean the dishwasher would seldom get emptied before it absolutely had to be. In that case, by the dishwasher would probably function better because it would make emptying easier.

I generally make three trips from dishwasher to storage area...once for the plates and bowls (stacked), one for the glasses and mugs (loaded onto a baking sheet for easy transport) and once for the silverware, which I usually transport in the silverware basket from the DW, but would put on a tray otherwise.

When I'm in the kitchen cooking, I don't want people underfoot trying to set the table!

I store most plates, flatware and glasses near DW. Serving pieces, bakeware and cooking stuff plus mugs are all elsewhere. I empty the DW by putting the near stuff directly in the drawers and the far stuff goes on the island. From there, I put it all away. The DW is to the right of my sink, the dishdrawers etc are in the island opposite DW and my BR is to the left of sink (as is flatware) Easy to set table and unload DW.