Kitchen Deals -> Kitchen tools

If you enjoy washing by hand, no! However modern machines use less water, detergent and power than ever before and wash hotter using really powerful cleaners giving a hygienic wash result. You can save around 500 hours a year so it is worth thinking about. If you have a small kitchen or live alone, choose a slimline model.

When shopping for a new washer, look for a front loading (horizontal-axis) machine. This machine may cost more to buy but uses about a third of the energy and less water than a top-loading machine. With a front loader, you'll also save more on clothes drying, because they remove more water from your clothes during the spin cycle. Look for the Energy Star label.

By custom, the sink is placed beneath a window, both to provide daylight for chores done there and to give one a view outdoors. I suppose the custom derives from the days before dishwashers, when the task of washing up was a tedious affair done by hand. Yet working at a sink with a window is still much more pleasant than working at a sink without one. Designers often place the sink first and lay out the rest of the work triangle from there