My mother still does this, drives me nuts.
That looks a lot like my mom’s stove - the part to the left was a skinny, tall drawer where we stored our pots, and the bottom was a wide, short drawer where we kept the broiler and roasting pans. I don’t remember the pans to the side getting greasy and grimy, but we probably used them often enough that they wouldn’t. I do remember having to scrub the dusty grime off the big roasting pan before every Thanksgiving.
Why does it drive you nuts? It’s not a bad idea.
I don’t usually; but I also don’t usually preheat the oven, I put stuff in and then turn it on. So I’ve already just looked in there anyway, when I put things in.
A few things do really need pre-heating; but a lot of what I make doesn’t.
It’s an oven, not a storage drawer.
A specific issue with my mother is that she lives in an apartment so her oven runs off 208V instead of 240V and takes FOREVER to heat up, so if we are using it we always preheat.
Meh. People have been known to stick something briefly into the oven to warm, or to get it out of the way; or to leave something in the oven after it’s finished cooking, to keep it warm or because they mean to eat first and then put it in the fridge, or because it’s almost done and they don’t want it to overcook if they forget to turn the oven off while they do something else – and then to forget that it’s in there.
I put large pans in the oven to dry. Nothing lived there, but lots of items might be lurking there.
Storage. It’s where grandma kept her sheet pans. Old time kitchens didn’t have much storage space.
Ah. Hadn’t seen that type of arrangement. Under-oven drawers are of course familiar, but not that second compartment.
Lotta people think otherwise. If one of them is a guest in your kitchen, surprises can happen. Who knew your kid’s fiancé did stuff like that? The people who routinely use the oven as storage would never think to mention having put something in there. They’re thinking: “Of course everyone keeps their [whatevers] in the oven; that’s what I/we do at home.”
As your Mom gets older and becomes forgetful, these habits will prove their worth. She only needs to 350F preheat a tupperware once to burn up her house.
Just FYI, the NEC in the US has mandated a minimum of two 20A circuits for countertop “small appliance” duty in kitchens for decades. The fact that the circuits are 20A usually isn’t obvious because it’s perfectly legal to install 15A receptacles on 20A circuits (the plural is important - a 20A circuit may not have just a single simplex 15A receptacle and nothing else). Builders mostly use 15A receptacles because they’re legal and they’re a few cents cheaper. You might have more power than the average kitchen if you have more than two circuits, but just seeing 20A receptacles doesn’t prove you have any more power available than any other kitchen built in the last 50-60 years.
You do have the small advantage of being able to plug in appliances with actual 20A plugs, but those are exceedingly rare - very few such things are made because they would sell in very limited quantities because 20A receptacles are pretty rare.
Conversely, the CEC also requires 2x 20A SABC but does not allow the use of 15A receptacles on 20A circuits so we have 20A T receptacles up here.