A stand mixer is the worst kind of counter hog: heavy, bulky, and used maybe twice a week. Left out, it claims a quarter of your workspace permanently. You don't have to choose between keeping it handy and having somewhere to chop. The trick is to make the counter movable instead of fixed, so the appliance parks itself out of the way.
The problem with a fixed spot
Most people park the mixer at the end of the counter and work around it. In a small kitchen that end is usually where prep happens, so every meal starts with dodging a 25-pound appliance. The mixer wins the space by sheer weight, and the counter loses the one surface you cook on most.
Roll it instead of lifting it
A bamboo mixer slider tray ($35) sits under the mixer on wheels. Roll it out toward you to bake, slide it back under the upper cabinets when you're done. No lifting, no strain, and the counter returns to being a counter. The bamboo top looks right in a kitchen and wipes clean after a flour fight, so it doesn't read as "appliance garage."
Where it lives when parked
Under the upper cabinets is dead air in most kitchens — too short to stand anything, too shallow to use. The slider tray parks the mixer there, turning that wasted strip into its garage. When you roll it out, you get the full counter and the mixer at a comfortable height at the same time, which is the part people don't expect.
Pair it with wall storage
With the mixer off the counter, the lids and boards that used to share that space can go vertical. A wall-mounted rack ($27) finishes the clear-counter job the tray starts, and the two together usually reclaim most of a small kitchen's lost prep space.
Give the counter back: shop the bamboo mixer slider tray or see the full set.