Ask HN: What if we got rid of the kitchen?

Most homes have a bathroom. What if we got rid of it? What if society evolved in such a way that people no longer need to take a shit?

- Cost: Houses and appartments would be smaller and cheaper. No more bathroom. How much does a toilet, sink, shower, vanity, and towels cost?

- Environment: No need to use water to flush your toilet. No need to buy toilet paper . Much less waste, and plumber doesn't need to go to your house as every other week to unclog the toilet.

- Safety: Less hemorrhoids and prolapse. Less expensive insurance?

- Time: No need to spend 3-4 hours every day taking a dump, cleaning skid marks and blood out of your underwear, etc.

Looking forward to a new city or district without any assholes.

What if we got rid of the modern toilet and replaced it with a hole and you had to squat to take a dump? With a hose instead of a sink? Less hemorrhoids, less space. Less paper.

Food can wait. You go to your local cafeteria to eat.

Not so much when you need to take a piss or shit.

Except that, for many, eating is a social activity that is enjoyed, not just outside of the home, but especially in the home.

For many, time around the dinner table is a highlight. Inviting people into your home becomes more hospitable with the addition of food and drink. Even if it is not a full meal, taking all means of food production from the home seems like a step back.

Also, when someone is sick, should they have to go out to get food? Wouldn't it be better to be able to have something in the fridge?

Yeah, at some point hyper efficiency seems much like a dystopian nightmare. At some point we need to enjoy the human condition and slow the hell down.

Taken to the next step, food isn't necessary and you just get nutrients intravenously. A step further and you just skip the whole messy body thing and go digital.

Not quite there yet, so I'll stick with my hacking at meals.

Do you believe that in 100 years, most houses will have kitchens and people will cook for themselves? I don't think so.

Yes because cooking is not just a physical chore. It's how people customize and decide what to suit their personal tastes, and it's an action that requires thinking and intent. The act of choosing one option over the other given variety.

Unless you get every single possible option through some magical food provider, you will still have to put in work towards the food you eat. But even then, if I got to eat burritos every day (my favorite food), I would still eat something else.

This is all moot, because for a lot of people cooking is fun and a social activity.

Until we get something akin to a replicator [1], I think we will. I would propose that even afterwards, there will still be some who will cook the "old fashioned way".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Star_Trek)

My guess is that in a hundred years people will either not need to eat, and thus few will have kitchens, or people will need to eat and will generally be more resource-poor than today, thus requiring them to have kitchens and to use them more often than we do.

Yes

When I travel for work, it always surprises me how quickly I get sick of eating in hotels and restaurants. To begin with it's a great novelty, and it's nice when my employer is paying, but there always comes a time when I'd rather just buy some simple ingredients and make something for myself. I'm pretty sure I'm not unusual in this regard, so I think the kitchen is here to stay.

On the other hand, when I'm at home, cooking every day becomes a real chore and takes up a lot of time.

I think there is some very real potential for new approaches to communal cooking and eating, with more opportunities emerging as the cities we live in become more densely populated. Just don't pitch it as "getting rid of the kitchen".

I think that this is interesting question.

It has been already pointed out, that cooking/eating at home is not just a way to provide fuel for your body. There are many other reasons, like: - pure fun - social activity - adjusting the meal to your taste - not having to go outside (especially when the weather is bad or you're sick) - a way to save money (but you've proposed an alternative for this) - eating healthy (it's very hard to eat the right amount of good quality food outside)

On the other hand, I've recently heard about a new marketing campaign by IKEA in Poland, where they opened a "social kitchen", where you could book some time and hang out together with your friends.

Sounds like you would enjoy the military. Barracks, no kitchen...at least not in the Marine Corps. You don't get to choose what you want to eat you just eat what is served whether you like it or not. If you miss the chow hours because of work, traffic, or any other activities tough luck. Maybe you won't miss the next meal. Oh yeah. Don't forget to get in the line early because if you don't get in line two hours before the meal actually starts you might have to wait in line for two hours and actually miss the meal anyway. And since everyone eats at the community kitchen you run out of food before the meal hours are even over.

Sounds like a good plan.

We joke that I choose our current house for the walk-in pantry and large kitchen. What's the point of an home if you can't cook in it? That would be so sad, may as well sleep in a dorm.

I wouldn't mind getting rid of grocery stores buying in bulk for our family if the option was available, and have easy to compost packages so I wouldn't have to throw them in the trash. Those improvement could happen even if people cooked at home.

The Soviets distrusted kitchens, because the kitchen is something bourgeois. Every family, as long as they have a kitchen, they have some part of their private life and private property > http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/05/20/314054405/how...

Even in cities where most people don't frequently cook and often subsist on eating out, takeout, and delivery, I don't think most people would choose to completely get rid of their kitchens.

That being said, this is an interesting thought-experiment and I'd certainly like to see more experimentation with non-traditional houses, tiny houses and microhouses, apartments, and living spaces.

Especially for young people just out of college and looking for inexpensive housing in big cities, I'd think apartment complexes that were more like college dorms with lots of built-in facilities that take care of tasks for you like cooking/laundry would be appealing to many.

Unfortunately however, I think that in many locations certain things are mandated into legislation that would prevent or at least make this kind of experimentation legally challenging. There's probably housing code in most regions that would make a kitchen-less home impossible to legally construct. This kind of legislation ostensibly exists to protect people, but as many people increasingly realize, often does the opposite.

Everything depends on your income and opportunity cost. If you earn $100+/h maybe it doesn't worth to cook (as obligation), but if you earn $10/h, does this apply?

Imagine a low income family of 4 eating out every single meal. Do you think they could afford it? Probably not even fast food. HN community is the exception, not the rule. By the way cooking is one the most useful skills that you can have: within an hour you can transform a few dollars in a $100+ meal. Not a bad rate.

It's a case of "if it's not broken, don't fix it".

If you can't cook, what are you going to be eating? Junk food? Gourmet food delivered to you?

The cost of feeding yourself will eat into your monthly wages in a hurry.

There're rental apts in New York City where you don't have cooking facilities. Folks in those situations do all they can to get a regular apt where they can enjoy a cooked mean whenever they please.

No, sir, I'll keep my kitchen.

If nobody had kitchens, there would be cafeterias where you could go to eat (most people would get a monthly pass). Meals there would be much cheaper than anything you could cook at home, because of economy of scales.

What about people who want to cook in their kitchen and eat with their family? I think you may be looking at this too logically, not taking into account the emotional part of preparing and eating food.

Too bad if there was electricty outage, a blizzard or something else blocking access to this cafeterias..

You might be surprised what you can cook on just a toasted sandwich maker - we call ours the UCD or Universal Cooking Device. Throw in a rice cooker and you can make all sorts of meals. My mother spent the first 3 years of married life with little else other than an electric fry pan in terms of cooking appliances.

Maybe for single and rich people.

The cost for prepared food is at least 5x what you can do at home.

I guess you could argue that if you can't/won't cook, then paying 5x for food is better than paying thousands of dollars for stuff you'll never use anyway.

That said, I still want a kitchen. Cooking is fun!

Absolutely. My grandfather had a friend like that who was also loaded (DINK + old money) and had no kids. They lived in a fancy hotel suite.

China used to be like this, we called it socialism. Back then, the communities were organized around the companies, although we didn't call them "companies", we call them "units". they are all run by the government. And you don't get a salary, instead, the companies give food tickets (housing was free). you go to eat at the community cafeteria with the food tickets.

apartments had kitchens still. but they were very basic. I remember some apartments had only one kitchen per floor.

But I don't think your idea would work though. not everyone sees cooking as a burden of life. many enjoy it.

others prefer cooking for less living expenses. for connivence. what if you get hungry at midnight? what if the kind of food you like is far away.

making food together is also a good social occasion. it gathers people together.

I like cooking for myself. It's one of the few activities I can do that I can regularly feel productive in. If you take away my kitchen I'll start fires outside.

So, life in a dorm room freshman year?

No thanks. It sounds terrible.

I'd type more but I'm about to trundle off to the kitchen to grab some aged cheese from the fridge, and a great beer.

We were looking to buy a house. One house we were shown, there was something different about the kitchen. There was no stove! We laughed and left.

What were your feelings on the rest of the house? I'd imagine a dream house with no stove is something that can be overcome.

>- Time: No need to spend hours cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, driving to and from the grocery to stock your fridge, take out the trash, etc.

Put part of those things are fun, the cooking and buying different groceries and walking around in stores to explore what they have to offer.

I don't get this "cooking is such a burden" thoughts that is quite frequent on HN

You'd have better luck socializing/sharing/networking the automobile as they're mobile and not a part of literally +99.99% of all domiciles. And cars have an even bigger negative impact than kitchens.