The kitchen is likely a place where members of your family spend a significant amount of time. It’s used for cooking and eating, and sometimes for working and doing homework. The kitchen therefore tends to attract and accumulate a lot of clutter. Here are some tips to help you tidy your kitchen and keep things organized.
Ask Yourself What Is Truly Necessary
Many homeowners have all sorts of kitchen tools and appliances that they bought themselves or were given as gifts. Often, people only use a fraction of what they own and the rest may take up valuable space. Go through your kitchen and sell or donate things you don’t use. Weeding out the items that you don’t need may free up a lot of usable space that you can use to more effectively organize what you have left.
Assign a Home to Everything That Belongs in the Kitchen
The kitchen tends to be a place where people put things down when they come home. Your kitchen is a place to store items that you use for cooking and eating. It’s not a place to put your keys, mail, shoes and other items. Find places for those things in other parts of the house and designate a spot for every item that belongs in the kitchen.
Keep the Counters as Clear as Possible
Clutter on the countertops can make the entire kitchen seem messy and disorganized. Clutter can also reduce the amount of available workspace and make it more difficult to cook.
Only keep things that you use regularly on the counters. For example, a cutting board and utensils can be kept out since those are items you use to prepare most meals. Small appliances that you use less often, such as a blender, can be stored in a cabinet and taken out as needed. Create an organizational system for cabinets and drawers and consider hanging pots and pans on wall hooks to take advantage of other available space.
Clean and Put Things Away Immediately
After you use something, put it back where it belongs right away or put it in the dishwasher or laundry basket, when appropriate. After you get the amount of an ingredient that you need, put the rest back in the refrigerator or in a cabinet.
Don’t leave an item on a counter or in the sink and tell yourself you’ll take care of it later. That’s how large messes get started. If you get in the habit of putting things back where they belong as soon as you finish using them, you will be able to prevent constant clutter.