What's on your kitchen counter? What stuff do you keep out/accessible in your kitchen? What do you wish you could but don't have a solution for (and its converse, what did you figure out an awesome solution for so the thing is always at hand?)→[More:]

I grew up in a house where practically everything was kept on the counter, but as an adult I've always kept as much as I could out and away; it makes it so much easier to clean down at the end of the night.

Food items: We only keep the stuff we use all the time out, so the pepper mill, the salt bowls, the olive oil. Vinegars and other oils live on a slightly-less accessible shelf, instead.

Appliances: Everything - the coffee mill, scales, FP, etc - lives behind cabinet doors, except for the mixer (too heavy), the blender (too awkward), and the electric kettle and coffee percolator (used too frequently).

We do keep all our pots and pans and baking stuff (half and quarter sized sheets, pie and tart tins, ramekins, etc etc etc, we have a LOT of that stuff) and a lot of dry goods (lentils and beans, dried mushrooms, flours, dried Asian noodles, etc) on a big metro rack across the kitchen, since we use them all frequently. Kitchen stuff (potato brushes, sponge, soap, scouring pad, sink plug) are kept in a ceramic thing by the sink.

What I wish we could figure out a way to keep out and handy: Spices is #1. There's just no good place for one of those magnet boards. I'd like a utensil crock instead of keeping all that stuff in a drawer, too, but can't seem to find one (ridiculous). I go back and forth on the knives - we have only a couple of chef's knives, a big knife for cutting bones, and a paring knife, so we keep them in a drawer with covers. Sometimes I miss having a magnetic strip, though.