The Easiest Way To Reduce Kitchen Clutter Without A Full Purge

Decluttering your kitchen is about more than just creating open space and shiny appearances. How organized your home is, especially somewhere as lived in and utilized as your kitchen, is proven to foster mental clarity and reduce stress responses like anxiety. But to cut back on kitchen clutter, you don't have to do a full purge of the space. Instead, you can organize your kitchen easily by getting rid of items you don't need or use regularly. This could look like taking an afternoon to investigate the contents of your kitchen drawers, checking for repeat items (looking at you, pile of wooden spoons), rusted or bent utensils, or tools you simply haven't used in ages. But it's those kitchen duplicates you should focus on.

In short, reducing kitchen clutter doesn't have to be stressful. It's the perfect opportunity to take stock of what items you have and actually use on a regular basis. While roll-out drawers are a common culprit for housing excess and random items, it's also a good idea to conduct the same kind of inventory on kitchen cabinets, the pantry, and even kitchen countertops and surfaces. Removing kitchen utensil clutter by getting rid of your overflow dinnerware, possibly donating your duplicates to your local second-hand shop, is a great way to declutter your home.

Among the biggest kitchen organization mistakes people make is using space inefficiently. Decluttering the kitchen by removing, donating, or gifting excess items is an easy way to make space so you can clearly see and access the items you actually use regularly. Once your favorite spatula is not lost in a sea of other "stuff," taking some simple steps to organize your most utilized and important kitchen gadgets becomes a lot more manageable.

To narrow down and sort items with ease, you can assign items one of three words to help you keep only what matters in your kitchen. Go through items and decide which ones are your "best," "favorite," or "necessary" tools, then use that information to place each item in a specific kitchen area. For instance, place your favorite mug on the shelf above the coffee maker, right at eye level. Store your best blender in the front of an accessible cabinet with other often-used appliances.

Additionally, remove the clutter from the top of the fridge and organize necessary items to give them a home to live in. If you find plates you only use for entertaining or special holidays are taking up a bunch of space in high-traffic cabinets, you don't need to get rid of them to get organized. Instead, consider placing these kinds of extra but useful items in a nearby storage closet, specific cabinet, or box for organization. However you declutter, some organization is better than none at all.