Keep Your Kitchen Counters Clutter-Free With These Easy Tips

The kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s a place where we cook meals, gather around the table to eat, and spend time with our loved ones. That means that the kitchen counters can easily become cluttered with all of the things we use on a daily basis.

When the counters are cluttered, it can be difficult to enjoy spending time in this space. If you’re looking for ways to declutter your kitchen counters and keep them tidy, you’ve come to the right place!

In this blog post, we will discuss ways to organize kitchen countertops and keep them clutter-free! We’ll provide tips and habits that will help you stay tidy, steps to declutter your countertops, and storage solutions that will help eliminate clutter on your counters. Follow these tips and you’ll be able to enjoy a clutter-free kitchen!

Why do kitchen counters get messy?

Before you can really start on your kitchen counter organization, you need to get to the crux of the problem. Why does the kitchen counter often get cluttered?

Well, it’s usually due to a combination of things. People often forget that their kitchen is the hub of activity and use it as an extra space for all kinds of items, from mail to grocery bags to random accessories.

Another factor is that people tend to leave out items like pots and pans on their countertops because they’re too tired to put them away or if you have kids, they might not know where they go!

You might also find that your kitchen counter gets cluttered with a build-up of paper clutter, paper towels, dirty dishes, clean dishes, dish soap, and more!

Now, some of your items have to be on your kitchen countertops. Unless you have a lot of cabinet space or pantry space, you probably have things like a stand mixer, toaster, microwave, coffee maker, and other appliances on your counter.

You probably can’t keep your counters clear from everything, but the goal in this post is to help you create an organized countertop so it looks tidy and not like a dumping ground.

Decluttering Your Counters

The first step of any organization process is decluttering, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to organizing your kitchen countertops.

Before you start organizing your kitchen counter space, go through all of your cooking utensils and kitchen items and decide what should stay and what should go. You may be amazed at how much unnecessary stuff you have on your countertops! Make sure you go through your junk drawer or junk bowl as well.

You don’t need to get rid of all of your pots and pans or throw out your extra whisks, but make sure all of the cooking utensils and tools are in good condition and you actually use them often.

How to Declutter Your Kitchen Counter Space

Even though we are talking about kitchen counters, I’d suggest going through your drawers and kitchen cabinets as well. When you declutter your cabinets and drawer space, you now have more storage space for the things on your kitchen counters. When you have enough drawer space to move things from the counter to the drawer, you are freeing up countertop space!

So take it one day or week at a time and go through your kitchen. Evaluate which tools, utensils, and even small appliances and find the ones that are everyday essentials. If you haven’t used something in a while or it doesn’t work well anymore, consider if you think you’ll use it again in the future or if you can fix the item. If not, it’s time for it to go!

Once you’ve gone through all of the items, it’s time to organize and declutter your counters. Group items together in categories so you can create zones in your kitchen to make everything easier to find.

Kitchen Storage Solutions

One of the best ways to keep your counter space organized is by properly storing your kitchen tools.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You probably think you’re already doing everything you can to utilize the storage space you have in your kitchen. And maybe you are! But here are a few tips to help you organize that precious counter space and try to create more space in the kitchen for cooking tools.

Figuring out how to store everything on your kitchen counters is what kitchen counter organization is all about! When you have your kitchen counters organized and everything is stored properly, then you have a tidy kitchen! So these countertop storage suggestions go hand in hand with our kitchen counter organization ideas.

Add a rod under your cabinets

One way to create more room on your kitchen countertops is to add a rod under your upper cabinets. You can add cup hooks and store mugs, utensils, or other items.

Install hooks under your cabinets

If you don’t want to add a rod, you can just install small hooks directly into the cabinets. Then you can hang your kitchen prep tools directly from the hooks. Just make sure they are screwed in properly so they don’t fall! Here are some other great ideas for organizing kitchen cabinets.

Get tiered displays

One great way to take up less space on your counters is to get tiered displays. If you want an organized kitchen, you want to create more space on your counters.

To do this, get a tiered organization system that you can use to store cups, utensils, and more. You can even use shelf risers on your counters to get the tiered look!

Put things in nice baskets or vases

Don’t underestimate how easy it is to make things look pretty! If you have nice wooden cutting boards, you can use those as displays. Set them up on your counter with a fruit bowl on top. You can store cutting boards and get a pretty kitchen countertop display at the same time!

If you invest in pretty containers for things like olive oil and salt and pepper, you can keep a lot of things on your counter that will still make your kitchen look pretty! Focus on aesthetic value if possible when looking for countertop items.

Get nice vases or coordinating containers to place wooden spoons and other things. Get a big, flat basket and group things together on it so your countertop items look more intentionally placed.

Don’t forget about vertical space

Using the open wall space is a great way to store things without using kitchen countertop space. Add a magnetic strip to the wall and hang knives on it so you can remove your knife block from the counter.

You can also add an open shelving unit on the walls to organize large cookware, cake stands, and other kitchen items. Vertical storage is a great way to save space!

Keep space clear when possible

All of that being said, you do want to reduce visual clutter when possible. Look around your kitchen and decide where you can add shelf risers, wall storage, baskets, or other containers to help clear off the counter or make them look more organized and intentional.

If you have a charging station for electronics in your kitchen, you can use extension cables and extension reels like those from RS and hide them inside a basket so your counter can continue to look clean and uncluttered.

Tips to Stay Tidy

Once you’ve implemented a few of these kitchen counter organization ideas, you should have a more organized kitchen. Now comes the tricky part – keeping it organized!

To do this, make sure you (and all of your family members alike) put everything back where it should be. When you use a cutting board, clean it and put it right back where it was right away. And make sure you’re not adding to your junk drawer!

To prevent your kitchen from becoming a drop zone, spend just 10 minutes every night making sure you clean up any paper clutter, clean off the counters, and restore your kitchen to its organized state.

If you take a few minutes each night, you can start off each morning with an organized home. And that always makes my day better!