A small kitchen only becomes disadvantageous when you let the clutter get out of hand. There’s no organizational system in place, and you have too many kitchen appliances and tools. These are all the makings of a disorganized and dysfunctional kitchen.
You can bid that cluttered kitchen goodbye with these smart tips on how you can minimize clutter in your small kitchen:
Let Go of All The Spares
Every homeowner may have gone through the trap of spares. It’s sale season, and you use that as a reason to buy spare serving dishes, a hundred pairs of spoons and forks, more plates and glasses, spare pots—you get the picture. But be honest with yourself. Are you really going to need all those? Or, when there are parties at home, do you wind up using disposable cutlery to save you all the effort of after-party washing?
Having a lot of spares isn’t a problem if you have a room solely dedicated as your storage space. If you don’t, and you only have a small kitchen, you have to be more realistic. Letting go of all those spares may just free up a lot of cabinet space for other more useful things your kitchen needs.
Donate Regularly
Spring cleaning is something you have to do as every other homeowner is doing as well. This is a good way to declutter your kitchen annually. There are so many homes and institutions that’d love to have your old kitchen items, so why not consider donating them? For example, food banks may need kitchen utensils and appliances. You can make better use of kitchen belongings you’re no longer using by giving them to those who truly need them.
If you’re doing a clean-up soon and you’re looking for ideas whom to donate your old kitchen items to, https://easydonationpickup.com/location/los-angeles/ is a good place to start.
Keep Your Countertops Free
Kitchen countertops, no matter how big or small, are meant to be free of small appliances. There’s no need to display on your countertop those appliances which you don’t even use every day. Keep them in cabinets instead.
Keeping your countertops free allows you to enjoy your kitchen even more. You won’t have to feel like everything is so messy, with lots of things serving as a visible nuisance.
Surely, you’ve seen those kitchens, too. There’s food on the countertop, the dish drainer isn’t emptied, there are too many small appliances, and the seasonings are out on display. Whatever you can hide and store in closed cabinets, keep them out of sight.
This tip is also the reason why you have to declutter regularly to make more room. Otherwise, if your cabinets are filled to the brim, that’s when you’ll have no other choice but to keep other kitchen appliances on display.
Remove Things That Don’t Belong
Take a good look around your counters, drawers, and cabinets right now. Perhaps you’ll come across so many things that don’t really belong there. That’s expected, especially when there are kids at home and you’re always in a rush.
To name a few, some of the things which may make it to your kitchen are hairbrushes, toothbrushes, cards, unopened bills, documents, pens, and school supplies. Every item may only be small, but when there are too many of those at home, they do take up a lot of space.
Don’t let all those clutter pile. Even on the busiest of days, it doesn’t take much time to declutter. For example, after dinner, you can set the timer to ten or fifteen minutes. Go around your kitchen and clean up as much as you can. Be sure to return anything that doesn’t belong in the kitchen to the proper place.
Position Your Food Strategically
You may not be aware of it, but another reason why your kitchen may feel so cluttered is that you can’t see what you have. It’s easy to come up with a grocery list, thinking you’ve run out of certain ingredients all because you couldn’t see it. Next thing you know, you also have multiples of the same food items.
Before going on a grocery trip, shop your pantry or food cabinet first. That way, you can be certain you’re only buying those you absolutely don’t have. Not only will this trick keep your kitchen clutter-free, but you’re also ensuring you use up what you have first before they expire on the shelves.
Categorize According to Use
Even the smallest of all cabinets are useful, for as long as you have a proper organizational system in place. This begins with categorizing your kitchen belongings according to use.
For example, put all the kids’ plates and utensils together. This allows kids to help up with the kitchen cleaning process after meals as they know where to put away their own plates. Put all the entertaining items together like extra disposables and wine glasses. That way, when you have guests over, you can check that cabinet first before shopping for even more disposables.
Creating a system doesn’t have to be complicated. It only needs to work well for you and your household.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, it doesn’t take magic to minimize clutter in a small kitchen. It’s about being wise with your space usage and living a minimalist kitchen lifestyle. When you’re working with limited space, you have to be more intentional with your decisions. Most importantly, it’s also about setting the right habits. Clean and declutter regularly, so your kitchen won’t have to feel so crowded and even smaller than it already is.