As a general rule, I hate having appliances and clutter on the countertop. I think it looks messy and it's just another thing I have to clean. My husband disagrees and likes things to be out and accessible. The kitchen renovation forced all of our extraneous knick-knacks and appliances to the basement or to our dining table. While this was its own point of contention (we couldn't eat at our table for weeks), it helped identify the key aspects of our kitchen. Did we really need to keep our espresso maker on the counter, considering the last time we actually used the thing was back when Obama was a first-term president? Was it absolutely necessary to display all of our vintage pitchers? Thankfully for me, the answer to these question was obviously, "no," and we were able to simplify our decor once the bulk of our renovation was over.
