You know, I had worked on my layout, laid out where all of the things were going, and how I would work in my kitchen long before the remodel even started, so everything is pretty much exactly where it should be to make sense with it's use. Really it was more of an annoyance to me to deal with the old kitchen not having things where they *should* be for so long while we were waiting for the remodel to happen! I could tell you right now where every single thing is in the kitchen without even looking. I could tell you that about 90% prior to ever having demo start though...the other 10% is stuff that I've found works better somewhere different from where I first imagined it.

My layout was extremely thought out, so I move almost effortlessly in getting the things that I want or need from in the cabinets where they reside.

The main challenge: I switched from gas to induction and it has been a slight adjustment - I was used to the height of the flame being what tells me how high temperature I am working with, but the induction was using numbers (and obviously there's no flame!). My first week or so working with the induction cooktop, I was struggling a bit to figure out what numbers were needed to get the same level that I would have seen when cooking with gas. But within a week of using it, the cooktop and I became good buddies.

Because I was working in my kitchen long before it was ever finished, we never really had a true inaugural meal. Our oven was installed several weeks prior to the cooktop and I think that I may have reheated some leftovers in the oven the first night it was functional.

Our kitchen isn't really finished (may never be) but it's been functional for over a year, maybe longer. It took several weeks to start prepping at the island. I was used to our linear kitchen with a tiny bit of countertop between stove and sink for years, so I kept trying to prep in the 27" on either side of sink and range instead of the 7' on the island. I'm still not sure I needed the prep sink either. It's not bothering me where it's at, I just don't use it as often as I thought I would. It's mostly the clean-up sink for the kids/dh before meals. I've moved my mixer to the pantry cabinet a few months ago and I still look for it under the prep sink every time. Pretty sure I'm going to move it back to it's original spot.

my garbage is a completely not even close location from where it used to live. that is really taking some getting used to.

I have several different answers:

Getting used to needing some less used item and having it flash in my head where it was in the old kitchen probably took at least a year to get over, even though I had been out of the old kitchen for the better part of a whole year.

Getting used to the new cooking appliances and how to get the most/best out of them took almost no time to start, but really a year or two to perfect.

Getting used to the way more functional layout took the blink of an eye.

I've done almost no rearranging since I settled in, and what I have done has been because of new items that the new kitchen enabled me to use. So no time for getting used to what's where, assuming I remembered (easy to remember where the knives are, but I lost my grill press when I was first putting things away (the drawers weren't lined yet, so I put it in a cupboard) and I still haven't found it four years later after looking absolutely everywhere three times.)

Getting used to the way it looks so that I don't constantly go "oooh" every time I walk in took about half a year. I still sit back and admire sometimes, but that frisson does dissipate as familiarity grows. From crush to love. :)

Getting used to cooking in general? I had trial by fire. Other than a few sandwiches and the like, the first thing I made in my new kitchen was Seder for more than 25 people. There's none of that worry about messing up the new things when that many people are coming for a dinner which has to be made completely from scratch. And once you've used every single part of the kitchen in one fell swoop, it becomes a real working kitchen. So that took about a week. :) All of it spent prepping and cooking and using everything.

I'm still moving things around a bit, but it's easy to work in a much more functional kitchen. I am still learning how to use some of the functions of the induction cooktop.

The first meal for us was scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns. That's ths kind of thing I just couldn't make when the kitchen was demolished, and that's what the kids asked for. The most expensive "breakfast for dinner" ever ;)

This might sound kind of trite but, after 4 years I'm still not used to the fact that this beautiful, amazingly functional kitchen is all mine.

Every time I open a pot drawer I sigh in satisfaction, every time I prep on my long counters I make sure I use all the space, and every time I use my prep sink I thank my KD for pushing me into putting one in.

I did have to move some things around a couple of times for ease of use but it didn't take long to settle in to the new space.