Design: Kitchen

The Situation:
As previously mentioned, I currently live with two roommates, both of whom are moving out by the end of summer and will be replaced by two more people I don't know. We have a reasonably-well-designed kitchen - it feels quite spacious when only one person is using it, but when two of the three tenants have a tendency to leave their utensils, empty packages, and leftovers sitting out, it very quickly becomes cluttered.

The Goal:
A kitchen that's easy for everybody to use, nice to look at, and that flows well with the rest of the living / dining area.

Current Look:
White walls, dark grey flecked countertops, pale faux-wood cabinetry. White fridge and dishwasher. All in all, tidy and easy to clean, just not very exciting.

Thoughts on the Matter:
I'm not really planning on any major theme or anything - there just isn't enough space. And with a constant rotation of tenants, the dishes and such are going to change, too, so there really just isn't a point. The biggest issue is really just making convenient, accessible places for the things that get used frequently (bread, spices, knives, utensils, pots and pans) so that tidying up after dinner is as effortless as possible. So far, here's what I've got in mind:

• Small shelves with hooks for hanging washcloths
  At the moment our washcloths live on the edge of the sink. They hardly ever actually dry out, and they're constantly in the way. I think if they were hanging up within easy reach, they wouldn't be as gross - or as annoying. I already bought two mini-hangers from Hobby Lobby. At $1.27 apiece, the price was right. Some white paint, some fresh washcloths (since the current ones are a bit grimy).... I'm going to keep my eyes open for grommets and a grommet tool, since I think hanging the cloths by a corner loop will be easier than hanging them on the current hooks. The hardest bit will be finding a decent place to mount the hangers.
  
• Bread box or shelf
  Somehow we always manage to have at least two loaves. Which is stupid, because we all eat the same kind of bread, and it always results in most of a loaf being thrown away because it's gone fuzzy. An actual home for the bread, preferably right next to the toaster, would eliminate that issue. Originally I thought a breadbox would be great, but now I'm thinking a shelf might be better - it won't hide the bread from view, and I rather doubt the roommates who won't put the dirty spatula in the sink will be bothered to put a loaf of bread back in the breadbox.
  
• Spice rack
  A decent spice rack would be the crowning achievement in that kitchen. Again, with three people doing the shopping, we've got a lot of redundancy - because each person has more-or-less claimed a cabinet and keeps everything in that place. While we don't have enough spices to merit buying a revolving rack (or enough wall space for a traditional wall-mounted rack), we have way too many to just leave them lying around taking up counter space. One convenient spice rack, right next to the stove, would give us a place to keep all of the spices ready-to-hand and would get rid of the growing stack of Tony Saccharee's. The trick here is going to be finding something that will allow spices in different-sized containers to be neatly displayed. I was thinking a miniature chest-of-drawers (again, a Hobby Lobby paint-it-yourself special), but that would present all the same problems as the breadbox. Namely, no one would bother to put things back. So I'm still working on that one. I keep running across the magnetic spice rack, which I think might be really cool, if properly managed. I particularly like this one - it would force people to keep the spices fairly neat, if I end up going with the magnet approach. We do, however, have a fridge handy, so we might end up with something more like this.