8 Tips for a Clutter-Free Kitchen

Your kitchen is the heart of your home and keeping it functional but clutter-free can be challenging. The usual clutter menaces like piles of mail on the counter or homework on the island can take over a kitchen unless you set up simple ways to organize things before they get out of hand. Here are the 8 tips my family and I use most often to keep our kitchen clutter-free.

1. Mail

To prevent mail from cluttering your kitchen counter, separate the junk mail immediately. Place the real mail in a napkin holder, until you have time to look it over. Toss junk mail in the recycling bin, and rest magazines or catalogues in a wicker basket kept especially for the purpose on your counter.

2. Pet Supplies

Clear one bottom kitchen cabinet for pet supplies. Empty large pet food bags into easy-to-store resealable plastic bags. Place grooming supplies in a large plastic bin, with medications in a small plastic bin next to it. Keep any leashes or harnesses in the drawer above the cabinet, for easy access.

3. Kids Homework

Kids can learn to keep the kitchen free of homework clutter by using personalized boxes made just for them. You can buy beautiful lidded storage boxes at office supply stores. Or you can use high-quality gift wrapping paper or wallpaper to coat shoe boxes. In addition, keep a box with pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, rulers or any other office supply the kids might need. Store the boxes in a dedicated kitchen cabinet or on the shelves of a kitchen island.

4. Pots Cabinet

To keep your pots cabinet clutter free, add shelves to it. Kitchen cabinets already come with shelf pin holes that allow you to add as many shelves as you like. You'll find shelves and shelf pins at home improvement stores. Just cut the wooden shelves down to the width of your kitchen cabinet.

5. Hide the Garbage

Keep your kitchen looking and smelling clean. Store a garbage can beside a recycling can in the cabinet under your kitchen sink. Alternatively place two step-open trash cans (the kind that open with the press of a foot) against the back wall of the kitchen.

6. Keys

Instead of cluttering your kitchen with keys (and losing them), create a hanging mirror with key hooks. Drive small hooks into the bottom of a framed mirror, then hang the mirror using a metal chain. See the pictures and instructions for creating a key hook mirror.

7. Bread

Keep bread from cluttering your kitchen countertop by storing it in a wooden bread box or a small wooden chest (found in home decorating stores). You can also store bread inside a toaster oven (if you keep one on the counter).

8. Appliances

To avoid turning your kitchen into a cluttered show-room for kitchen appliances, clear a cabinet or two for storing items you only use occasionally, like a slow-cooker, pancake maker or burger grill. And keep the appliances you do need regularly in the least visible spot of your kitchen counter, such as beside the fridge.

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