Top Tips for Decluttering Your Kitchen

The kitchen is often termed the “heart of the home” and whether you’re cooking up a culinary masterpiece for your family or entertaining guests, there’s always a crowd in the kitchen. Speaking of crowds, this is also one of the areas of the home most prone to clutter, especially with all of those kitchen gadgets, pantry items and appliances. This is why, if you’re looking to get a jump on decluttering in the New Year, the kitchen is a great place to start. It may seem a bit daunting, especially once you take a look at the overflowing pantry or that junk drawer that hasn’t been gone through in years; however, with a few easy-to-implement tips, you’ll be on your way to a clutter-free kitchen in no time.

Here are our top tips for decluttering your kitchen.

Clear Your Counters

Clutter on the counters can make a kitchen seem way more disorganized than it actually is, so our first tip is to get rid of as much as you can from your countertops. This way, you’ll have a proper place to work. Find spaces to keep small appliances and gadgets that you don’t use regularly, and get any unnecessary items, like keys, mail and other junk off the counter and into a special spot. We recommend a filing drawer or cabinet for mail and incoming documents. These items have no place on your kitchen counters.

Get Rid of Duplicates

Clearing out your kitchen cabinets and drawers, you may come to find that you have way too many pizza cutters for one family and an abundance of gadgets that you don’t even know what to do with, which means it’s time to say goodbye. It can be easy to accumulate duplicates of certain items, but in most cases, you really only need one can opener or one corkscrew. Remove the spares, as well as any gadgets you’ve never used and consider donating them to your local Goodwill or charity facility.

Organize Your Pantry

The pantry. It can be one of the hardest areas of the kitchen to keep organized, especially with the weekly influx of snacks, canned goods and other recipe staples. Taking time to organize this part of the kitchen is imperative though. When your pantry is stacked with clutter, you run the risk of food expiring and ingredients getting lost in the abyss. When it’s organized, you know where everything is, which means less food waste and an easier time finding what you need.

Other Helpful Kitchen Decluttering Tips

Having an organized kitchen helps to reduce your stress levels, especially since many of us spend more time than we’d like to admit in this area of the home. Keep some other tips in mind when you’re looking to declutter this popular space, like:

·         Think of what you need most often and have that front and center.

·         Don’t forget your fridge and freezer! Like the pantry, you can really benefit from being organized here.

·         Consider scaling back on items that take up space, like cookbooks and unnecessary decorations.

If the New Year is bringing organization to your home, get started in the kitchen and see just how big of a difference a clear space makes in your everyday routine.