9 Simple Tips To Reduce Clutter In Your Kitchen

It feels like I live most of my life in the kitchen – cooking, cleaning, eating, making coffee, leaning on the counter and talking to my husband while he’s doing any of the above. The kitchen counter is where I sort the mail and write grocery lists and display birthday cards. The kitchen is rightly considered the heart of the home…but sometimes that heart gets buried under clutter. It gets littered with papers of varying levels of importance, iPhone chargers, cookbooks, and those bottles of vitamins you leave out so you remember to take them. That clutter ends up creating chaos and stress in a place that’s supposed to be the central hub of your home.

That’s when it’s time to get focused and really tidy up the kitchen. You don’t have to do it all at once (unless you want to) – just set a timer for 20-30 minutes and clean with focus for that time period. You’ll be surprised how much you can get done in a short amount of time with attention. And then do it again tomorrow, and the day after that, and however many more days it takes to return your kitchen to its haven status. 

To help you declutter in the most efficient way possible, here are nine tips to take into consideration:

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Only Keep Out What You Use

Evaluate which small appliances you actually use daily or frequently. Do your coffee maker and toaster get used every day? Leave them out. What about your stand mixer? Probably not. Find a spot for it and any other small appliances you don’t use all that often in your pantry. The same applies to cooking tools and gadgets like knives, cutting boards, hot pads, etc. If you use it frequently, it can stay out. If not, move it to a drawer or cupboard.

Purge

Get rid of tools, gadgets, and small appliances you don’t need or don’t use or you just have duplicates of (how many wooden spoons do you really need?). The same goes for promotional water bottles and excess mugs, plastic storage containers with missing lids, all those crushed red pepper packets from the pizza joint, and anything broken or worn out. If you don’t use it, don’t need it, or have an extra, then trash it or donate it or sell it.

Organize Drawers and Cupboards

Now that you’ve created space in your drawers and cupboards, it’s time to organize them. Invest in organizers and racks to create more space and a system. This will likely allow you to move more things off the counter and out of sight.

Use Your Pantry

Do you keep your most used cooking oil and spices on the counter next to the stove? It’s time to move them back into the pantry. You can keep your salt and pepper out, but your whole spice collection should not be living on your kitchen counter. Get a spice rack or a spice drawer instead.

Don’t Decorate

If your decor piece takes up counter space, skip it. (Well, we’ll permit one vase of flowers, because flowers are always the exception.) Remember, the point is to create more space in your kitchen and to clear off surfaces, so if you want to decorate, stick with pieces that hang on the walls. You can also choose pretty or color-coordinated functional pieces, like a utensil holder for those most used utensils you do want to keep out on the counter. Additionally, you can reduce your necessities down to fit on one decorative tray, which creates an aesthetically pleasing vignette while keeping them corralled and simplifies wiping down the counter.

Use the Wall

Instead of stacking up mail on the counter, use the wall. You can find decorative wall organizers for mail or a corkboard for memos and reminders. Identify what categories of papers tend to pile up in the kitchen and then create a specific place for each of them (not on the counters). Or, find a spot in your home office or bedroom to store important papers and mail that need to be attended to.

Use Hanging Organization Systems

Consider hanging other items to create more storage and get items off the counter. Some ideas are a magnetic strip for your knives, hooks on the underside of the cabinet for mugs, a hanging rack for wine glasses, a hanging system for pots and pans over your island, and hanging baskets on the inside of the pantry door.

Move the Cookbooks

If you’re like me and you still have paper cookbooks, don’t stack them on the counter. If your island has a shelf on the end, store them there, or in the pantry or a cupboard. Invest in an under the cupboard cookbook holder for when your cookbook is in use. 

Keep Devices Out

Electricity and water don’t mix – which is a great reason to keep phones and tablets out of the kitchen. But realistically, I know that will never happen. We use our phones for recipes and to play music while we cook, or we charge our devices in the kitchen. If you must keep your devices in the kitchen, install a floating shelf that will hold phones/tablets and keep electronics and cords off the counter.

Honestly, the challenging part of keeping the kitchen free of clutter is staying on top of your new systems and putting things away in their designated places. But keep at it, and it will soon become second nature!

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