Ooh… aah… ouch! Cooking is a tedious task for many. With all that stretching, bending, kneeling, ducking… a kitchen often ends up being a pain in the back.

And this happens because kitchens are not designed ergonomically. Ergonomics are designing principles that focus on making your environment comfortable, convenient and more productive. Here are a few ergonomic principles that you can use while designing your kitchen.

1. Use drawers in your base cabinets instead of shelves, this will save you all those painful bending movements.

2. Use Lift-up flaps for your overhead cabinets instead of doors, that way, you can keep the flaps open while you cook.

3. Use the 5-Zone design principle to plan your storage. Zoning your kitchen in the sequence of your workflow, helps save time and effort.

4. Store your items according to the frequency of usage. So often-used items will be stored in the middle, so they are always handy.Sometime-used items are stored a little above or below the center. And rarely-used items are kept at the extreme top or bottom, in places that are hard to reach.

5. The right height of the countertop is very important for your posture. The countertop should not be too high or too low. It should be just right for you. Calculate the correct height by keeping a distance of 10-15cms between the elbow and the countertop.

Click here to see how you can use the 5-Zone design principle to plan your kitchen