Five Ways to De-Clutter Your Kitchen Countertops in 15 Minutes or Less!
Making the Most of your Family’s Favorite Room
If your house is anything like ours, the kitchen is the family gathering place in the home. It is the conference room, eatery, comfort space, and homework central all rolled into one room. Although this is a good thing for familial relationships, it can often become a problem area for clutter and mess. Here are five simple ways to de-clutter the space, and restore order and function back to your Katy kitchen.
1.      Keep the paper piles out – Put together a letter sorter or binder for your family paper flow; mail, school handouts, and menus – to keep them organized and off the countertops.  Just keeping the paper piles out of sight eliminates clutter and streamlines the function of the kitchen. (You can find more details on streamlining your family paper flow in an upcoming piece.)
2.      Hide small appliances behind closed doors – The only appliances that should be visible are the ones you use every day, like the coffeemaker, for instance. Otherwise, place them in cupboards or the pantry, where they are easy to grab for the next use, but don’t add to the clutter in your living space.
3.      Organize daily use items in easy to reach areas – What items do you use daily, maybe even several times a day? These should be easy to reach for use, and easy to put away. A tray near your stove works well for those items you use to cook with every day, for instance, salt and pepper. Utensils for stirring and turning can be placed in a convenient holder near the cooking area as well. Knives and cutting boards should be within easy reach of the food prep station in your kitchen. It will save time and mess to have these items available, but kept organized for use.
4.        Remove non-kitchen items – for good! – Just making a conscience effort to organize handbags, keys, and school bags in another place besides the kitchen will greatly reduce the amount of clutter that builds up. If hairbrushes, cell phones and school supplies are all plopped into the kitchen area by habit, they build up into mounds of items that don’t belong.
5.        Cut back the décor – All of us cooks love our little pretties – figurines, plants, candles, plaques, you name it, we’ve got them in our kitchen! Some have too many – and by cutting back on the amount that are out on display, the kitchen will look cleaner and clutter-free. If you follow a standard, like one item (décor or working item) per two feet of counter space, you will achieve a cleaner appearance.
If you would love to have a cleaner, more organized Katy kitchen, but don’t feel you have the time necessary to achieve it, then, you will love these easy steps. Take fifteen minutes out of your day to try these quick ideas, and your family will thank you!
