You can never have enough storage space in a kitchen. Kitchen items like spatulas, wooden spoons, washing-up liquid and crockery are essential, but they shouldn’t obstruct the worktops. In addition, it is best to position waste receptacles within easy reach of the sink. One underrated storage space in the kitchen is the sink cabinet. Here’s how to make good use of the space beneath the sink and instil order in your kitchen.
The waste collector is hidden away in the base cabinet
The most-used space in the kitchen is the worktop area around the sink. Here you can prepare food for cooking, clean cooking utensils or keep food in practical bowls attached to the sink. Cutting up fruit and vegetables and pre-rinsing dirty dishes results in waste that you’ll want to get rid of as quickly as possible. It therefore makes sense to integrate your waste collector into the base cabinet directly beneath the sink. There’s a waste system suitable for every sink cabinet.
There are two options for integrating a waste collector into the sink cabinet:
1. Waste collector for pull-out cabinets:
modern kitchen fronts tend to feature fully pull-out units. These can be pulled out completely from the sink cabinet and thus make the most of the entire depth of the unit. This has space for a smart waste separation system that is also easy to access from the sink above. The BLANCO SELECT II waste separation system is specially design for such fully pull-out fronts. The various waste receptacles are placed alongside one another to save space, so that the available space is used to the full. There are a number of other convenient features such as an extra organiser drawer to ensure even greater order in the kitchen.
2. Waste separation systems for hinged doors:
there are also waste collectors in the correct dimensions for conventional sink cabinets that open with a door hinged to the left or right. These can be pulled out with the door open, making it easier to dispose of waste. With its flexible waste separation system, the BLANCO BOTTON Pro waste management system represents an upgrade to your classic kitchen unit and is almost invisible from the outside. The collector comes in different models to fit with the respective width of the sink cabinet.
Sink and waste collector: a perfect pairing for streamlined workflow
Daily kitchen tasks essentially consist of repeated actions. A well-planned configuration of kitchen areas, such as sink and waste collector, will save you from to-ing and fro-ing and enable optimised workflows. After all, when you’re working at the sink you often end up with waste that you can be disposed of by simply reaching down to the waste collector in the sink cabinet. Having cleaned leftover food from dirty plates and bowls, you can then simply arrange them in the dishwasher to the side. If the dishwasher is directly beside the sink, having a fully pull-out sink cabinet makes this streamlined process even easier, as you can have the unit with the waste collector open at the same time as the dishwasher. You can also install hinged doors in such a way that they open on the opposite side to the dishwasher. This prevents the door from getting in the way when you’re loading the machine.
Whether you’re preparing dishes, washing up or disposing of waste, having a clear layout within the sink cabinet allows you to perform many of your daily tasks quickly and efficiently. What’s more, you can keep walking across the kitchen to a minimum. You can make the most of the limited surface space in small kitchens, too.
Room on the upside: the organiser drawer
Having a waste collector leave enough space in the sink cabinet to stow away additional kitchen aids. An extra level can be installed above the waste separation system to serve as an additional storage space, so that you always have cleaning sponges, rubber gloves and bottle brushes to hand. Handling a pull-out drawer is even easier, as reaching any object at the back never presents a problem. Waste separation systems like BLANCO SELECT offer a fully fitted organisation drawer with three removable bins.
Little things like batteries or rubber bands, which often don’t have a fixed place in the home, making them difficult to locate, can be stored here. This effective system allows you to bring even more order to your kitchen and make sure that you have the little things you need every day within immediate reach. If you house dishwashing equipment in this kind of pull-out drawer, you’ll need to reach quickly into the drawer to get out a scouring sponge when rinsing dishes or glassware, for instance. The AutoMove function is highly practical in such situations, and is available for BLANCO SELECT waste separation system models. The electric system makes the drawer open with just a gentle tap. This saves you energy and allows you to operate the drawer with ease, even if your hands are wet or dirty.
Smart organisation for your sink cabinet
Clever technology without taking up lots of space
To ensure complete order in the kitchen, the technology also needs to be effectively configured within the sink cabinet. If you have opted for an additional organiser drawer, all of the hoses for the sink water connections should be well arranged and firmly fixed. This will prevent smaller items from hanging out for the drawer and getting snagged on the hoses, or stopping the drawer from fully closing. A hose guide is useful for this purpose. This is attached to the wall behind the sink cabinet. It keeps the hoses for the water inlet and outlet and the connecting hoses in the right place.
When planning your new sink, think about how you can create additional storage space. You can do this with a space-saving pipe for the water supply, which has a shape that takes up as little space as possible in the sink cabinet. If you want to retrofit a waste collector, but the boiler under your sink is in the way, then BLANCO SINGOLO represents a clever solution, with a depth of 220 mm. The waste collector is simply installed on the inside of a hinged door. Thanks to its slender shape, it also fits into less deep base cabinets. For fully pull-out units, BLANCO SELECT Compact – with an installation depth of 320 mm – is a space-saving model that is ideal if you have limited space in your sink cabinet.
Combine the three areas of sink, waste disposal and sink cabinet with professional, convenient equipment to get the most from your sink area.