“The kitchen is the castle. This is where we spend our happiest moments and find the joy of being family.” – Mario Batali
There is something entirely refreshing and life-giving about a clean, uncluttered kitchen counter. In fact, it is one of my favorite benefits of minimalist living. It sets the tone and culture for the home. It communicates calm and order. It promotes opportunity and possibility (who enjoys cooking in a cluttered kitchen?). It saves time and promotes cleanliness.
Yet kitchen counter organization is one of the most difficult things to get started with. There are, of course, several reasons maintaining a minimalist kitchen is so hard:
- The kitchen is hard-wired as a natural gathering place for the family.
- The kitchen is physically located in a high traffic area of the home.
- The purpose of the room requires messes to be made during its use.
- The kitchen is often used as a collection area for various odds and ends (mail, etc.).
While kitchen counter organization is difficult, it is completely achievable. We have made it an important feature of our house and you can accomplish it in yours as well.
Decluttering Tips For Keeping Your Kitchen Counter Organized:
1. Remove the unnecessary.
One of the biggest causes of clutter in our homes is our tendency to put too much stuff in too little of a space. When we do, it becomes difficult to store things, find things, and access them. As a result, we dread putting things away and it becomes convenient to leave things on the counter.
Typically, the kitchen is full of this clutter. We have cupboards and shelves and drawers full of cooking utensils, gadgets, things we thought we needed, and items we purchased for one-time use.
If keeping your kitchen counters uncluttered is a problem in your home, this is the most important step you can take. Remove completely any item you no longer use. And store items used less than 3 times/year elsewhere.
2. Relocate anything that does not belong.
Kitchens are notorious for becoming collection areas for all various odds and ends. Unintentionally, they become the storing place for many of them: mail, kids’ homework, purses, keys, almost everything in your junk drawer.
Identify a new proper home for each. Then, change the culture in your home that allows them to stay there. Think of your kitchen as a Department Store Customer Service Area – items may enter there, but rarely stay. You can also extend this thinking to items you already store in your kitchen: televisions, radios, telephone books, etc.
3. Give every item a proper home.
One of the most essential steps in organizing and keeping a home clutter-free is to find a proper home for every item. Designate drawers for silverware and cookware; cupboards for plates, containers, and small appliances; and closets/shelves for food and larger, less-used appliances. After taking steps #1 and #2, you’ll find this easier than you think.
4. Store daily use appliances out of sight.
If your counters are routinely cluttered, there is a good chance you are storing many daily-use items there (toasters, coffee makers, teapots, can openers, spice racks, etc.).They are often stored on countertops for convenience’s sake.
But in reality, these items spend far more time as clutter than they do as needed instruments for food preparation. For example, if you make toast every morning for breakfast, it’ll take roughly 3 minutes to toast your bread. After that, the toaster will sit unused for the next 23 hours and 57 minutes. You use it far less than you think you do.
Rather than allowing these appliances to take up counter space and cause distraction, find a home in an easily-accessed area. In our current home, we store the toaster, coffee-maker, and teapot in a cupboard right next to the outlet. In our previous home, they were stored in an appliance garage.
5. Change your “counter is convenient” mentality.
The fallacy of convenience is a big reason our kitchen counters stay cluttered. We tend to keep things in plain sight because we believe it makes our kitchen more convenient. As a result, our counters fill up with baking ingredients, knife racks, cutting boards, and coffee mugs.
And while it may be more convenient to readily grab those items when needed, we rarely notice the other conveniences we are sacrificing by storing them there. We move them every time we wipe the counters. We sacrifice precious prep space when we cook. And they subtly fight for our attention whenever we enter the room.
6. Finish unfinished jobs completely.
When a counter is clear and tidy, it becomes a motivation to put things away. But a cluttered counter attracts clutter… and unfinished jobs are a clutter.
Granted, some projects take more time than others, but many kitchen jobs (washing the dishes, wiping the counters, returning used items, etc.) can be completed right away before ever leaving the kitchen in the first place. For best results, if a job can be finished in less than 2 minutes, do it. Finishing tasks will do wonders for your attitude the next time you walk in.
7. Reset each evening.
If you are lucky, your kitchen gets used every day. And any room that gets used daily will need to be reset daily. That’s why it has been on my evening checklist for a number of years.
We live our lives and often get too used to them. As a result, we get used to our cluttered kitchen counters and don’t realize how freeing it can be to keep them clear. We may be reminded when we walk into a friend’s house or see a photo of a simple kitchen, but we’ve become so accustomed to the current state of ours we forget we can change.
You don’t need to live with a cluttered kitchen countertop. The solution to your kitchen’s countertop organization is indeed simpler than you think.
Image: Yasu’s Photo
Jodi says
Hmmm…I have 5 kids and we have lots of bowls of fruit and veggies on the counter (tomatoes, onions, garlic, limes, lemons, apples, oranges, whole watermelons and pineapples). What can I do with those?
Rachel says
Jodi why not allow one bowl of fruit for decoration/use? Put some of that list in the fridge. Lemons, limes, garlic, onions, oranges, and apples all do well in the fridge. Watermelon too if you have the room! Keep the rest in one bowl!
Jenn Marie says
Kudos to you for keeping healthy food out for your family. I keep my onions, garlic, and potatoes in the pantry. For the citrus fruit and apples, a three-tiered fruit basket (standing/hanging) or tray works well and is decorative. Watermelons and pineapples can go in the fridge or on the floor of the pantry. If you choose to store citrus in the fridge, remove it 12 hours before use. Cool temperatures cause the fruit to dry out, and room temperature helps restore it.
ANNA BELLE says
this is a great platform upsers
Billie says
I love these tips. I’ve never seen an appliance garage before, great idea. I will work on implementing these steps to help eliminate the clutter in the kitchen. It’s one of the most difficult rooms in my home to keep tidy. It seems like I’m constantly working on it!
Elaine Farrah says
I love my appliance garage … A must have in any kitchen !
Karen says
I have started working teaching cooking & the kitchen there is spotless. At home I cook around the mess & clutter & its driving me nuts.
I even printed this out to keep as a reminder.
Thank you for this post.
Anne Stockwell says
My kitchen is easier to keep neat, because it is the room I control most fully. I do need to implement some of these tips though!
laurie macpherson says
I have a lovely spring table in my kitchen and lots of cupboards for storing stuff!!
Tony @ YouOnlyDoThisOnce says
Wonderful article. I have decluttered my kitchen this way; it is a happy and simple place to cook now. Love it!
Adventurous Andrea says
I love the focus of this post! I’ll definitely be putting this tips to practice and sharing them with my parents.
maria says
Thank you for this. Little by little I am changing this part of my cottage. The kitchen tends to be the hardest one.
Marianne says
I see everyone talking about coffee makers and I forgot what it was like to have that appliance out. Last year we bought a brew express coffee maker that installs into the wall. It comes out about 2 inches onto the counter and hooks directly to the water line. I love clean spacious counters!
Jana says
Good stuff, Joshua. I recently down-sized my kitchen contents, and here are some helpful questions I used to help me let go of stuff: http://www.ohthatstasty.com/2012/10/how-to-reorganize-kitchen-part-2.html