7 Smart Ways To Declutter Your Kitchen
The kitchen can also be described as the heart of every home. You and your family spend much time here bonding, making meals, and creating memories. Additionally, a well-maintained and beautifully designed kitchen adds value to your home at resale. A messy, cluttered kitchen is all it takes to make your house feel less of a home and decrease its value. Apart from being unappealing, a chaotic kitchen is sometimes a contributing actor to certain health issues within the family, such as weight gain, and heart disease. Although clutter can be accumulated in any kitchen, smaller kitchens seem more susceptible to this problem. Fortunately, you can avoid these negative effects by taking the right steps to declutter your kitchen. With that said, here are some helpful tips for you to consider.
- Keep your table and countertops clean
Countertops and tables are usually the most cluttered areas of the kitchen, mostly because they are the most used. For instance, your kitchen table may have become the ideal place to leave your mail. Perhaps, it could be littered with books, papers, or homework. Likewise, your countertops may be cluttered with numerous items, such as decorative pieces, and appliances, such as the microwave or toaster. This clutter not only makes your kitchen appear disorganized but also makes it less functional. Making an effort to keep your table and countertops clean frequently is a great way of resolving this problem.
Declare the kitchen table as a space for eating only. This way, other activities that may create a mess and build clutter are avoided. For your countertops, store away items you do not use regularly and those that take up too much space. Although you can leave decorative pieces, keep this at a minimum.
- Utilize your storage effectively
Shelves, cabinets, and drawers are all great storage solutions for your kitchen. However, they become quite ineffective if you allow them to get overwhelmed with clutter. Overloaded and overpacked cabinets and shelves make your kitchen look untidy and pose a safety risk, as items can fall out or cause your cabinet and shelves to break. Your drawers may also contain items you have forgotten about and no longer need, meaning valuable space is wasted. You can avoid clutter in this area by getting rid of items you longer need. For example, if you have several plastic storage bowls in your cabinet, you should consider letting go of a few.
Another way to utilize your storage is by incorporating more storage options. Experts recommend using up the space available in your kitchen to implement storage solutions to avoid creating clutter. You can visit reliable sources such as Designing Idea for tips on how to implement smart storage solutions within your kitchen to keep it well-organized and clutter-free.
- Be mindful of where you store items
Imagine the chaos in your kitchen if items are just placed anywhere! How would you find anything on time? Additionally, it is safe to say that your kitchen would be quite a mess. To keep your kitchen organized and in order, you should be mindful of where you store your items. A smart way of doing this is by dedicating various spaces to your store items. For example, you can dedicate some cabinets to storing your plates, cups, pots, and pans. On the other hand, a few drawers can be set aside to store only cutlery, or a rack on your shelf should serve as a spice rack. However, it is also important to consider practicality when allocating these spots. For example, keeping your spice rack on a shelf closer to the stove would be better. Or, you would want to keep heavier pans in the lower cabinets.
You should also relocate items that do not belong in the kitchen. Since your kitchen is a space the family often uses, it is no surprise that it can harbor various items that shouldn’t be kept there. It is common for odd items such as your mail, homework, and keys to be found in your kitchen. Find an appropriate part of the home to keep these items to keep your kitchen organized.
- Limit the spares
Keeping backups or duplicates of various items in your kitchen is not an issue until it is. Some people, including you, may keep (almost hoarding) duplicates for those “just in case” moments. Although this shouldn’t be a problem, keeping a large number of spares can quickly cause your kitchen to feel and look cluttered. An effective way of avoiding this is to analyze the items and evaluate its need in your kitchen. For example, through your assessment, you may notice that three cooking tongs or different kinds of measuring cups are a bit too much to keep. Another method to avoid hoarding items you rarely use is by investing in kitchenware with multiple purposes. This way, you can avoid buying several gadgets or tools that perform the same task.
For many other households, spare items, such as plates and cutlery, are kept in anticipation of hosting several people. However, that also means keeping a different set of plates, cutlery, glasses, and so on. This takes up a lot of space, often leaving you with little storage options to store away other items! Be sure to keep these items at a minimum and store them away effectively.
- Do regular inventory checks
Statistics show that 17% of total food production is wasted globally. Unfortunately, you may be participating in this problem without knowing it due to your cluttered kitchen space. When your kitchen is in disarray, it is easy to lose track of the foods available and which ones to replace when grocery shopping. This often leads to you getting more foods you already have or forgetting about others completely. Ultimately, you are left with a fridge or pantry that seems to be overflowing with so much food! This is why conducting regular inventory checks is vital. Not only do these checks help you avoid clutter, but they also help you avoid wasting food. Through your checks, you can identify food items you already have, which prevent you from purchasing more— saving you time, money, and storage. You also identify items you no longer need. If such items are still in date, you can avoid waste by donating them.
To further curb the issue of food wastage and clutter, experts recommend avoiding bulk purchases. Due to limited space in small kitchens, bulk food purchases can be quite problematic. You should understand your kitchen’s capacity well and purchase foods with this in mind to avoid creating storage issues and cluttering your kitchen.
- Keep your fridge surface bare
It is a tradition in every home to use the kitchen as a second “wall.” That seems to be the best way to describe it because it has everything and anything on it. From reminders to your children’s several artworks, the surface of your fridge is most likely covered with many things. Although this may not seem like much of a deal, this can be visually distracting, especially if you have a small kitchen space. If you don’t want to leave your refrigerator completely blank, you can consider limiting the number of items you place on it. Better yet, you can give it a specific role. For instance, you can allocate the front of your fridge for artwork or reminders. This way, you don’t create a visually unpleasing space with a cluttered fridge.
- Pick practicality over style
Your dream kitchen features loads of indoor plants on the window sill, Bohemian-styled jars, utensils hanging from hooks, and beautiful decorative pieces. While this may seem like a great design, what you should be concerned with is its practicality. When you consider practicality first, you are made aware of the issues your design may create. For example, although potted plants by the window sill are a beautiful addition, it makes a small kitchen space seem cluttered. Therefore, you would need to consider the number of plants you must include and even the type of plant. You would also want to implement smart storage designs, such as discrete storage spaces, dual-functional furniture, and other smart storage ideas. You should also consider your and your family’s lifestyle. If you spend lots of time together in the kitchen, you should implement a practical design that allows your family to enjoy their time comfortably and safely. However, creating a practical design doesn’t mean your kitchen space should be void of personality and style. You can consult an interior designer or get your inspiration from Pinterest and other platforms on how to add practicality and style to your kitchen to avoid clutter.
Decluttering your kitchen brings some joy and light into the space. It also makes it an ideal space for family time and improves your family’s well-being. Create a plan when decluttering to ensure the process is smooth and efficient. It is also vital to take it one step at a time. Although it may seem like doing it all at once may be a better option, you end up overwhelmed and stressed by the process. This would lead to little to no results. With all this in mind, it is time to give your kitchen a fresh look by removing the clutter.
