JASPER, IN —

Tempting as it may be to peek inside another person's medicine cabinet, researchers lately have been turning to another room of the house – the kitchen – to learn what consumers' storage habits say about who they are.

In an effort to find innovative new ways to organize America's kitchens, researchers from Diamond Cabinets worked side by side with anthropological scientists to observe how homeowners "interact" with their kitchen cabinets.

The results underscored the need to rethink cabinetry not purely for functional purposes, but also for emotional purposes, since cabinets can help foster powerful social connections within families.

According to officials from Diamond Cabinets, a division of MasterBrand Cabinets Inc., the team of researchers lived with homeowners in dozens of different households for one full day to observe, photograph and videotape families as they interacted, cooked and cleaned in their kitchens.

The ethnographic study spanned a geographically diverse area of the U.S. and represented a cross section in terms of demographics and the general state of kitchen repair, from newly remodeled kitchens to kitchens "desperately in need of an overhaul."

The information the researchers gathered is being used to develop new cabinet products with organization features designed for the way people really live, according to Diamond Cabinets.

"Today's kitchen is the most utilized, multi-tasked space in the entire house, so cabinets need to be as multi-functional as the kitchen and as utilitarian as a Swiss Army Knife," says Mark Norris, senior director of brand marketing for Diamond.

WHERE LIFE HAPPENS

According to Norris, today's kitchen "is where life happens."

"It's a cooking and dining room, baking center, mudroom, bill-paying center, wine bar, home office and more," he observes.

"Often it's the entry point of the home, so things get dropped off in or near it. Yet it must be a comfortable space for homeowners and [their] visitors to congregate and socialize. It's also not just for adults. The kitchen is a place for caregiving, nurturing and interconnecting among social groups and generations," Norris continues.

With so many functions happening in one space, it's no wonder researchers found a fair degree of "storage chaos" inside homeowners' cabinets. They found heaps and piles of mismatched items in odd combinations. In addition to pots and pans, everyday dishes, glasses and baking ware, observers found cabinets laden with vases, candles, seasonal items, kids' toys and office supplies. Drawers held utensils, dish towels, pot holders, craft items, bibs, rubber bands, cork stoppers, corn-cob holders, batteries and pet supplies. Most homeowners also had "overflow" storage beyond the kitchen to hold their belongings.