Kitchen chores ergonomics: Research and its application

Abstract

Kitchen is a functionally complex room, where various complex chores, related mainly to meal preparation, are performed. Therefore, apart from gainful employment, it is necessary to devote many hours of work to various household chores. The desire to reduce the time of everyday duties has always been a drive to progress and has led to various rationalization activities. Ergonomics, together with related scientific research, focuses on improvement of performance and work comfort, which, for a long time, has been applied in the “work environment”. Nevertheless, in the “household environment” such solutions were rarely used. Household chores (including kitchen chores) still remain outside the interests of contemporary scientists and researchers. The paper focuses on scientific achievements concerning organization of kitchen chores and improvement of their ergonomic quality. What is more, the paper indicates potential conveniences which are not implemented and popularized; it also presents postulates of further improvement of work conditions in household kitchens.