You’ve probably heard of the “kitchen triangle,” the ideal food prep workflow scheme. For those of you that haven’t, the idea is that the chef du jour should be able to quickly and efficiently move between the refrigerator, the stove and the sink, without bumping into anything and with a minimum of wasted energy.

There are even hard figures worked into the triangle: Experts say that each “side” of the triangle should be no shorter than four feet and no greater than nine, and that the perimeter of the entire triangle should be no less than 12 feet and no greater than 26. (Although frankly speaking, if I could afford a kitchen big enough that the triangle was larger than 26 feet, I probably wouldn’t be doing any of the cooking myself.)

The neat thing about the kitchen triangle is that it works in a variety of kitchen shapes, as you can see in the illustrations below, from Merillat Cabinetry.

One exception to this is the one-wall design, something many of us unluckly apartment-dwellers are cursed with. But for those of you with more space, or who are thinking of remodeling your kitchen, take a look at the various kitchen configurations discussed by home renovation expert Lee Wallender: The One-Wall, the Corridor, the U-Shape, the L-shape, and the aren’t-you-lucky Double-L Shape, the latter being ideal for when there’s two cooks in the kitchen.

You may also want to take a look at a free article from Fine Homebuilding, which asserts that “the introduction of new appliances, along with changes in the way we work in the kitchen, can make applying the traditional triangle concept a challenge. In this article, certified master kitchen and bath designer Ann Morris helps readers understand how to apply this design basic in today’s multi-functional (and often, multi-cook) kitchen.”