Do you have a sink in your kitchen island?

[tropicalkitchenisland]

Moved to this house a few months ago. Not had a kitchen island before, although our previous kitchen had a very practical layout.

The kitchen sink and drainer are built into the island so I'm finding it gets filled up with dirty plates etc for washing up (there is a dishwasher but not everything will go in it, or porridgy bowls etc need soaking first). Also a draining rack where dishes are drying, as well as hand soap, washing up liquid, sponges etc.
I try and use half of it as prep space as it's so near the fridge and oven but I like my areas properly 'zoned' without dirty plates and cloths creeping in!

Would you choose to have a sink in the kitchen island? I've included a not-to-scale diagram (hopefully) - it looks like I have a lot of countertop space for prepping but the back wall of it is all filled up with eg kettle, toaster, microwave, storage jars, utensil storage, fruit bowl, cake tins etc so not so good, and it's on the narrow side. Any tips for keeping a prep space clear?

I have two pre-school age kids so stuff just gets put wherever I can in the mornings and I don't really have the opportunity to keep it all clear as we go. By the end of the day there's stuff everywhere - I usually cook an easy tea for them and cook ours after they go to bed.

I have a sink and a half in my kitchen island. It's quite big, and the sink is right in the middle, with the dishwasher below and to the left of it. We have trained the kids to rinse their dishes and put them in the dishwasher so that we don't have stuff all over the island. I like to keep it completely clear as much as I can.

I don't think I'd have it on the island if it's the only sink. I have a small prep sink on our island and the main "washing up" sink is at the side.

I don't have a sink on our island at all. I use it as a prep/dishing up surface. It has storage cupboards (and wine racks - important) underneath, and is two tier so has a breakfast bar the other side.

It depends on the size of the island. Mine is well over 3m and 1.4m wide. It has curved ends and I have a stainless steel veg prep sink at one end. It’s near the fridge. Near the other end, is my hob, so my prep area is in the middle.

I do, however, have a double Belfast sink and dishwasher on a wall. I soak in the second side of the this sink and they are both full size sinks. The dishwasher certainly takes a family size set of dishes. I do not have a drainer. I used to have grooves etched into granite but water sits in them. If I need to drain anything now, I just put a tea towel on the work top and drain on that or in the sink if nothing is soaking!

Therefore I would not like my only sink on the island. You appear to have a long wall with no appliances. Could you get your sink and DW moved there? Get a bigger dishwasher? I do get that if you are a family of 6, the dishes pile up. Families of 4, less so. Rinse out and then put in DW. I soak very little except casserole and oven dishes.

3m!! Mine is about 1.75m.
I had thought about putting a sink on the worktop, but the ideal place for it is taken up by the dishwasher.
Much as I love our kitchen we had the perfect layout in the old one. Corner for making tea/coffee, long 'peninsula' for prep and adjacent countertop, separate area for massiiiiive sink and space for dishwasher/dishes. Only the cooker was on its own with no space for shelf/worktop to the side.

I think training the kids up (in time!) to put stuff in dishwasher is the best bet. Plus it's the dumping ground for stuff (letters etc) coming in/going out/ kids putting toys on so I need to engineer another dumping ground. Much as I try to resist dumping, the dumping is going to happen...

Yes it’s a big island and that’s why it accommodates a lot! Is there no cupboard you could sacrifice for a decent sink near the dishwasher? My big sink is next to the DW so if anything needs rinsing or soaking it’s adjacent. I think I wouldn’t be happy with your layout but of course it’s ecotbsive to change! Can you have s wider or longer island? This would give more work space.

Hope DC can be trained.

We have a medium sized Island i think 1900 by 1000 and decided rather than having a normal 1.5 bowl plus drainer, we actually went for a single bowl, then we put a small round bowl in the corner of the main worktop run between the hob and kettle.
Our reasoning was the half bowl is mainly used for draining pans, rinsing cloths and filling the kettle, so why have it on the island.
On the down side we needed a second tap plus all the plumbing and drainage, but to be honest we were piping everything up ourselves anyway so that was negligible cost.