3 ms·

The problem is that a lot of people are used to eating out being cheap. Kitchens have dwindled in size, as have the basic skills of grocery shopping and prepari

The problem is that a lot of people are used to eating out being cheap. Kitchens have dwindled in size, as have the basic skills of grocery shopping and preparing meals. It might be longterm good for eating out to be expensive again (especially for waistlines) but it will come as a big shock and do short term harm.

criddell 5y ago
> Kitchens have dwindled in size Is that true? In a lot of new homes where I live the kitchens are one of the places the builders spend money. It's pretty common to see multiple ovens, a high end stove top, big dishwasher, gigantic refrigerator, etc...
- maxsilver 5y ago
  > In a lot of new homes where I live the kitchens are one of the places the builders spend money. Regular people generally can't afford new homes. Working class professionals usually get shoved into apartments (usually small ones) with small kitchens in 5+1 buildings or renovated industrial buildings. Stuff like this is pretty common - https://images1.apartments.com/i2/5Wguguo1YZBzaUo30bfX2jUIY6wfpriwgayikEX-pXo/102/28grand-detroit-mi-building-photo.jpg?p=1 https://images1.apartments.com/i2/5Wguguo1YZBzaUo30bfX2jUIY6... or this one https://images1.apartments.com/i2/PuDTEuad8QYuGVJfUJAbGHCZISjR3khFzF3U_EJP7LU/102/philip-houze-detroit-mi-kitchen.jpg?p=1 https://images1.apartments.com/i2/PuDTEuad8QYuGVJfUJAbGHCZIS... It's not impossible to cook here, of course. But it's designed around the idea that most of your big meals will be "out" somewhere else.
  - ssharp 5y ago
    Were small apartments of yesteryear more generous with their kitchen sizes? The parent comment said kitchens are getting smaller and smaller but I'm not sure if that's actually true. I lived in quite a few houses (middle / lower-middle class) growing up and it seemed like the older homes all had much smaller kitchens than the ones that weren't as old. Maybe that is happening for apartments for singles and DINKs living in urban areas where your lifestyle may be shifting towards eating at restaurants more than at home, but especially for families with kids, the trend definitely seems to be larger kitchens and kitchens that are more integrated into the home.
    - zippzom 5y ago
      I live in a very old studio apartment (built in 1909) and it has a separate kitchen that is the size of the kitchen in most of my friends' single family homes. It is probably ~1/3rd the square footage of the entire apartment. Obviously that's just anecdotal but I do think that the kitchen used to be prioritized much more, at least in apartments.
- dagw 5y ago
  Is that true? Certainly seems to be true here in Sweden. All new houses and apartments I've seen recently have tiny open plan kitchen with terrible layouts. It's clear that they layed out the rest of the house first and then just crammed in a kitchen in whatever space was left over.
cafard 5y ago
In the neighborhood where I live, most of the houses were build between the late 1920s and the late 1940s. Generally they had galley kitchens, for people who could afford the houses could afford cooks, and why use up space on the cook's area. Kitchen renovation probably came in on the second turnover, about 2000, when boomers etc. moved in.

criddell 5y ago

> Kitchens have dwindled in size Is that true? In a lot of new homes where I live the kitchens are one of the places the builders spend money. It's pretty common to see multiple ovens, a high end stove top, big dishwasher, gigantic refrigerator, etc...

maxsilver 5y ago
> In a lot of new homes where I live the kitchens are one of the places the builders spend money. Regular people generally can't afford new homes. Working class professionals usually get shoved into apartments (usually small ones) with small kitchens in 5+1 buildings or renovated industrial buildings. Stuff like this is pretty common - https://images1.apartments.com/i2/5Wguguo1YZBzaUo30bfX2jUIY6wfpriwgayikEX-pXo/102/28grand-detroit-mi-building-photo.jpg?p=1 https://images1.apartments.com/i2/5Wguguo1YZBzaUo30bfX2jUIY6... or this one https://images1.apartments.com/i2/PuDTEuad8QYuGVJfUJAbGHCZISjR3khFzF3U_EJP7LU/102/philip-houze-detroit-mi-kitchen.jpg?p=1 https://images1.apartments.com/i2/PuDTEuad8QYuGVJfUJAbGHCZIS... It's not impossible to cook here, of course. But it's designed around the idea that most of your big meals will be "out" somewhere else.
- ssharp 5y ago
  Were small apartments of yesteryear more generous with their kitchen sizes? The parent comment said kitchens are getting smaller and smaller but I'm not sure if that's actually true. I lived in quite a few houses (middle / lower-middle class) growing up and it seemed like the older homes all had much smaller kitchens than the ones that weren't as old. Maybe that is happening for apartments for singles and DINKs living in urban areas where your lifestyle may be shifting towards eating at restaurants more than at home, but especially for families with kids, the trend definitely seems to be larger kitchens and kitchens that are more integrated into the home.
  - zippzom 5y ago
    I live in a very old studio apartment (built in 1909) and it has a separate kitchen that is the size of the kitchen in most of my friends' single family homes. It is probably ~1/3rd the square footage of the entire apartment. Obviously that's just anecdotal but I do think that the kitchen used to be prioritized much more, at least in apartments.
dagw 5y ago
Is that true? Certainly seems to be true here in Sweden. All new houses and apartments I've seen recently have tiny open plan kitchen with terrible layouts. It's clear that they layed out the rest of the house first and then just crammed in a kitchen in whatever space was left over.

cafard 5y ago

In the neighborhood where I live, most of the houses were build between the late 1920s and the late 1940s. Generally they had galley kitchens, for people who could afford the houses could afford cooks, and why use up space on the cook's area. Kitchen renovation probably came in on the second turnover, about 2000, when boomers etc. moved in.