nightflyer: That is very helpful as my aisle is narrow - i.e. can not stand in front of the D/W or oven when door is open so reaching from the counter on the opposite wall is entirely feasible.

• It would just be a new automatic motor skill I would have to get adjusted to :-)
• I was just worried as to whether I was missing something completely as I read horror stories about people who don't realize that doors can't open or whatever and since I am designing this from scratch to improve functionality of the current kitchen slum, I might as well make sure I am not making any egregious ergonomic errors.

You might also arrange stuff in your french door fridge such that most of the stuff that you buy during small grocery runs goes on the right, so you can have the right door open and use the left landing space. For example, I have milk/OJ in the right hand door, so that would be easy from a left landing space when there’s only one bag of groceries.

I would suggest actually trying out the situation as much as you can. For instance, go someplace where you can stand in front of any possible fridges and see what it’s like to move from a mock-up “opposite landing space” to put stuff in a fridge. Just because it works for me doesn’t mean it will make you happy.

Remember that if you are OK with your current galley kitchen, you’re probably a wiz at working within constraints, so you’re more likely to be able to adapt to just about anything. Someone coming from a larger kitchen might not adapt as well :-)

I do miss my old galley kitchen, as everything was just a step away, but I do like the additional counter space I have in my current kitchen.

I only have an adjacent landing space to the right. I rarely if ever use it. I usually put things across the kitchen by the sink. It's not quite a galley - a little wider but small kitchen. I used to have a galley kitchen with a side by side and landing only on the left. I never put anything there, always on the other side of the galley. I don't think you'll have a problem with it.

Thanks 3katz4me and nightflyer. I took a look at some kitchen layouts and it appears that coming from "behind" makes the most sense anyway if one is doing a lot of loading and nightflyer I had thought of dividing the refrigerator into zones of what I accessed most frequently and it was reassuring to find out that this is actually what real life people do :-)

• The reason I had thought about it as an issue was because I am short and therefore I am installing a side opening wall oven. A standard wall oven that opens from the top would not have increased functionality for me that much because I would still have to access from the side like I do with my current stove - not to mention that with my narrow galley, I wouldn't be able to stand in front of the oven with the door down anyway.
• I had thought about the French Door oven configuration but my designer pointed out that when the door is open, it would seem to be in my face if I am trying to put a pan on the landing spot (to the right of the wall oven). So a wall oven that opens completely to the left would enable me to stand directly in front of the oven with my short arms :-) as well as move directly to the side with a pan.
• But I realize that a French door refrigerator doesn't present the same kind of safety and ergonomic issues.
• And yes nightflyer, having always lived in urban areas - even as a child - I have never had to downsize my cooking habits as I don't know what it is like to cook without having to figure out where to move something in order to do something else on the counter.
• It is going to be a luxury to me to NOT have to store cookware in my oven which means that I have to take out two racks of heavy cookware and find somewhere for it to squat while using the oven - Since I cook, I haven't used the oven for shoe storage like Carrie Bradshaw :-)

To be honest, even though we have a counter next to one side of the fridge, we don't use it as a 'landing spot.' When we get groceries we use large 'Sam's Club' bags to carry multiple bags in at once. We just set them on the floor in front of the fridge for the cats to 'scan' as we sort shelf items from fridge/freezer items. Because I'm having more trouble standing/walking recently, usually I'll bring in 1 large load, then mom and dad get the rest. While they are doing that, I grab a chair and start sorting/putting stuff in the fridge.

For the record, we have a standard side-by-side unit.

I have a french door fridge with landing space on the right side and on the island directly opposite. I use both landing spaces. When I load groceries, I set the bags on the ground to the side of the fridge first... I load frozen groceries into the freezer drawer... then shift bags to front of fridge to load cold groceries. HTH

I have a FD, and have counter space on both sides (fridge is at end of U). Just realize that we only use one of them as the second has coffee maker and grinder, then dish rack, then sink. It seems like it was pretty easy to adapt to— our last kitchen had FD with landing space directly across a narrow aisle from it and that worked, too.

I had same situation, one of the reasons why I got a bottom-mount fridge with single door. The public needs to come to reality that not every kitchen is going to be able to accommodate a French Door fridge.