Tips for Reducing Clutter in Your Kitchen
If there’s one room where you don’t want clutter and mess, it’s the kitchen. No one wants to juggle hot food and cluttered sides, and in the same manner, no one wants to have to do a deep clean right before cooking a big meal. That being said, it is exceptionally easy for kitchens to become overrun with cluttered with items.
From food and crockery to pans and appliances, you need to fit a lot into one room, and for some people, their kitchens are one of the smallest spaces in their house. Considering it’s often the heart of the house, strict organization systems need to be implemented within your kitchen, although sometimes that’s easier said than done.
If you’re struggling to keep your kitchen free of clutter and random debris, here are some tips you can take on board that hopefully you find helpful.
- Have a designated mess draw
You might be wondering why the first tip on our organization strategy is to not be organized, but there is a method behind the madness. Everyone has those random items that they reach for regularly, but that don’t necessarily have a place anywhere else in the house. Examples include batteries, precision screwdrivers, Allen keys, sticky tape, BluTac, screws, chargers, remote controls, birthday candles and takeaway menus.
These are all things that you would naturally look for in a kitchen for easy reach but that don’t necessarily have a place of their own. Rather than forcing them into a place where they don’t belong, designate a drawer for them. This will keep them off the countertop and make things tidier overall.
- Reduce packaging to save space
We all know that brands have a tendency to over-package items. Whether it’s peeling the natural skin off an orange and putting the orange in a plastic box, or if it’s having to open three boxes to get to the final product like a game of pass the parcel, we’ve all seen how obscene packaging can be, especially for food which will take up a large part of your kitchen’s space. Some brands, like Packaging For Retail, use nothing more than cardboard that can be flat-packed and recycled, but not everyone takes this approach.
Instead of overfilling your food cupboards with bulky boxes and bags, invest in storage boxes and de-package your items. This goes for thing like packs of cereal (which have a plastic liner inside so the cardboard box is just taking up room), snack bars which tend to be pre-packaged anyway, and anything else that is wrapped up within more packaging. You will be able to save lots more space by removing excess packaging were possible.
- Always put things away
It’s so easy to get in from a long day at work and leave items like diaries and keys on the kitchen sides, but this isn’t where those items should live. Rather than putting things down, put them away. Taking those extra two minutes to put things where they actually belong will save you a job in the long run. You won’t have to spend a lot longer in the future putting said items away, nor will you need to scramble for a place to put your hot pots and pans when you’re in the middle of cooking a gourmet meal.
It might seem like a hassle to start off with, but your future self will thank you when you wake up to a clean, de-cluttered kitchen every day.
Summary
Everyone has their own method of de-cluttering and organizing. What do you do to keep your kitchen looking neat?
