Does anyone have any advice on having the charm of an unfitted kitchen, with the practicality of a fitted kitchen?

We are buying a new flat and with a very small (next to nothing!) budget, we want to re-do the kitchen. kitchen is 4 metres long, 1.9 metres wide. Window on one narrow end, door opposite on the other end. No space for an island.

We have a one year old and we are both clumsy in the kitchen!! We need to declutter... but we tend to have a lot of "stuff".

We have found second hand free fitted kitchens online. My partner would need to go and dismantle but that is possible.

We are in France so looking at "leboncoin" site.

My partner brought up the idea of a freestanding/ non-fitted kitchen. We could probably find free/cheap second hand items to do this.

However - While I find the aesthetic appealing, I am trying to see if there is a way to have this type of kitchen without being overwhelmed by the mess/cleaning, We don't have a cleaner and I don't want us to spend our free time constantly wiping behind/under/around our free standing kitchen furniture!