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The kitchen is one of the most used areas of a home and it can quickly become cluttered if you aren’t careful. Especially if you have a small kitchen or a large family, trying to declutter your kitchen can be a challenge!

With these tips, you can have an organized and clutter-free kitchen!

How to Declutter Your Kitchen

Toss duplicate kitchen utensils

I have a really small, galley-style kitchen, so I was excited to declutter it. Unfortunately, practicality prevented me from purging much.

I was able to easily get rid of duplicate items (ten coozie covers and three sets of measuring cups, anyone?), but my decluttering stopped there.

I ended up turning to 30 Days To A Clean And Organized Kitchen: A 30 Day Walkthrough To Declutter Your Kitchen And Maintain A Clean, Organized Space.

30 Days to a Clean and Organized Kitchen offered more advice and practical solutions to get my kitchen organized and clutter-free. It helped me clear the kitchen, something that seriously needed to be done, in a manageable, realistic way.

Sort your food storage containers

Go through your food storage containers and throw out all the broken containers. Also, make sure that each container has a matching lid.

Use creative storage solutions

As you’re organizing, you don’t necessarily need to buy new storage containers. This was my one takeaway from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Think outside the box when you’re organizing your kitchen. Store lids for containers in a deep plastic container. You could also cut the top off a box to store small items, like pens in your “junk drawer.” You could also use an expandable utensil organizer to organize multiple areas of your kitchen, including your junk drawer.

Purge your junk drawer

The junk drawer is easily the most cluttered, random area of my kitchen.

While it’s important to have a junk drawer in order to store the random batteries, paper, pens, and more that accumulate in a kitchen, your junk drawer shouldn’t be overwhelming.

As you go through your junk drawer, toss everything that is expired (old batteries, dried glue, etc.) or that has no purpose (random screws that you’ve been saving for the last five years).

For more junk-drawer tips, learn how to declutter your junk drawer in Day 8 of the 31 Days to a Clutter Free Life book.

Clear your kitchen counters

Maybe you have a lack of storage, so you store things on your counter. Or maybe you use your kitchen counter as a catchall for opening and sorting mail. Either way, counter space is a valuable commodity, even if you have a large kitchen. It’s also one of the first places to collect clutter.

A messy kitchen counter can make your entire kitchen look small, cluttered, and dirty.

To make your kitchen look more organized, try to apply the rule of three. At most, only store three things, like your coffee maker, mixer, and knife block, on your counter. Everything else, especially if you don’t use it often, should be hidden in cupboards or a designated storage spot.

If you’re having trouble deciding what to keep on your counter, think about how frequently you use each appliance, as well as how heavy it is. For example, I use my toaster daily, but it’s light, easy to put away, and doesn’t match my other kitchen appliances. On the other hand, my huge Kitchenaid mixer is heavy, so even though I only use it once or twice a week, I leave it on my counter.

Once you have your counters clear, try to keep them that way. After you use an appliance, put it away. Have designated spots for everything (and use them).

Remove “hot spots”

A hot spot is a place that always seems to accumulate clutter.

In my house, our kitchen hot spot was an extra dining room chair that was placed near the back door. Every time someone came inside, they would set mail, school papers, and even food wrappers on the chair. There it would sit until I finally “decluttered” the chair.

Eventually, I removed the chair. Presto, our clutter problem was solved.

If you have a hot spot, consider removing the source. If that’s not possible, try to find another solution. If you can, eliminate the source of clutter, like opening mail over a garbage can as soon as you walk in. Otherwise, create a storage solution, like adding hooks or storage bins for items that tend to accumulate on your hot spot.

Have a minimalist kitchen

Chances are, you don’t need most of the things that you have in your kitchen.

Keep track of what you use regularly and consider getting rid of the rest. At a minimum, move things that you don’t regularly use to their own designated storage spot (and no, the kitchen counter or your pots and pans cupboard doesn’t count as a storage solution).

As you declutter your kitchen, don’t be afraid to toss things that you no longer need or use. Also, remove the source of clutter, like removing a hot spot.

Happy decluttering!

Related reading on Organized Motherhood:

How to Declutter Your Home

4 Simple Tips to Declutter with Kids

The Best Decluttering Books for Your Home and Life

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