Does The Location Of Your Dishwasher In Your Kitchen Actually Matter?

Kitchen construction can take on many forms. A homeowner in the midst of a kitchen remodel might consider a number of ideas that feel somewhat radical when placing cabinets, rerouting plumbing and electricity, and bringing in other amenities to the space. Your kitchen can act as a direct reflection of your own style and personal energy, providing a level of satisfaction and efficiency in the process (via Domicile Design). But one thing that typically can't change when it comes to designing a functional and useful kitchen is the location of certain amenities in relation to one another.

On the most basic level, your dishwasher can be placed anywhere in the kitchen that makes the most sense for you. You can put this feature along a wall as you walk into the kitchen, or plumb it into the island in the center of your room. But logistically speaking, your dishwasher and sink should be very close to one another, and this can dictate where both of these features can realistically fit within the overall layout of any kitchen space. As they both require plumbing to bring water into the space and then back out again, they should be placed near one another in order to facilitate a single route for your plumbing. But of course, there is always a considerable amount of freedom when it comes to building a kitchen from scratch.

Installing your sink and dishwasher together is not only a great way to reduce the overall cost of kitchen remodeling processes, but it makes for a more efficient space that you can use to its full potential on a regular basis (via Dean Cabinetry). It can be prohibitively expensive to install two separate plumbing elements that would be necessary to allow a separation of these water-based amenities.

Aside from this general recommendation, these features can be located anywhere in this space. Although, if you've got a compelling reason to separate them, it is possible to incorporate separate piping aspects to accommodate this need. Strictly speaking, anything is possible when reimagining a kitchen from the ground up, but there are certain design decisions that simply don't have a functional reason to use in all but the most extreme of circumstances.

The layout of these two features can change depending on the size or shape of your kitchen. In a small kitchen, it may be beneficial to place these two elements adjacent to one another around a 90-degree corner. This can give you ample counter space above the dishwasher while also bringing your cleaning features into direct proximity to this primary workspace. Alternatively, in a large kitchen area, you might want to opt for a bit of extra separation between the cooking surface and cleaning areas to make room for increased workspace on your countertop.

Another important consideration to make is whether to place your dishwasher on the right or left side of the sink. This is important for general layout purposes, but it also takes on a more functional role when considering your left or right-handedness. Depending on your dominant hand usage in the cleaning process, it may be beneficial to have this feature on one side or the other for easy access and the elimination of any need to cross over clean counter space and your body to place dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

If you are rebuilding your kitchen from scratch, it's worthwhile to think about which hand you tend to use to load the dishwasher, and which hand you might use to scrub plates, bowls, and other utensils. Of course, there's a high likelihood that a new dishwasher will simply fit into an existing slot underneath the counter if you're conducting a simpler refit. As most people in the world are right-handed (Medline Plus notes that this figure is recorded at 85% to 90% in western nations), there's a good chance that your dishwasher is already on the right side of your sink. But it's worth noting that even left-handed individuals are likely used to this layout and making a change to bring the dishwasher over to the left side may actually decrease efficiency by introducing a foreignness to your established muscle memory.