Declutter and Organize Your Kitchen: 6 High-Impact Tips

Most of us spend a lot of time in the kitchen, this is why it’s important to find ways to declutter and organize your kitchen.

It’s often said that the kitchen is the heart of the home. I’ll be honest with you, the kitchen is not my favorite room and I don’t particularly enjoy cooking. Nevertheless, my family does enjoy eating and I want them to eat healthy balanced meals. So by default, I spend a good amount of time in the kitchen each day.

I’ve done my best to simplify my kitchen and at the same time, I do want my kitchen to be both functional and beautiful. To accomplish this I only store the items you use, need, and love.

This means fewer dishes to wash, less deep cleaning, and less stress!

It’s important to remember that decluttering and organizing your kitchen will look different for each of us based on our lifestyle, preferences, and needs. For example, if you love to bake and decorate cakes, what you have in your kitchen will likely be different from someone who rarely bakes.

Also, remember that when you declutter and organize your Kitchen isn’t about having no stuff. Instead, it’s about keeping and highlighting the things that are important to YOU!

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1. Start by decluttering your kitchen

Have you ever gone on Pinterest and looked up kitchens for ideas and inspiration? If you have you’ll see tons of images of beautiful clutter-free kitchens without an item out of place. The problem is those kitchens are usually bigger than my entire house. They’re just not realistic for most of us. This means decluttering your kitchen is vital!

Take this time to just declutter. Decide what to donate, sell, or toss. Do not worry about organizing anything at this point you just want to get rid of the excess.

A good place to start is with Tupperware. It’s inexpensive and most of us have way more than we need. By starting with Tupperware, the decisions are easy and it will motivate you to keep going.

So go ahead and throw away any plastic containers that don’t have matching lids. Then, throw away any that are discolored, stained, or in bad shape.

It doesn’t necessarily matter if you prefer plastic or glass. Personally, I’ve used this style of glass containers for years. I also find glass is easier to clean and maintain than plastic.

Now that the Tupperware is done, start on the rest of the items in your kitchen.

It needs to go if…

It’s cracked, broken, chipped, or stained
You have duplicates
It hasn’t been used in over a year
You have another item that can function in this one’s place.

To make the decluttering process a little simpler, this is a good order to follow when decluttering your kitchen:

Drawers
The top row of cabinets
The bottom row of cabinets
Island if you have one
Pantry
Freezer
Fridge

Do your best to finish one section completely before moving onto the next. But if decisions get too hard, it’s okay to take your time and circle back if you need to. That’s better than getting stuck and giving up!

2. Consider Your Season of Life

As I said above, the items you keep when you declutter and organize your kitchen it’s going to look different for each of us. The season of life you are in is going to have a big part in determining what a simplified kitchen looks like for you.

What I mean by this is if you have little ones at home you very well may have an army of bottles, sippy cups, or plastic bowls and plates that you need for your little ones. If you work full time outside of the home or your kids are involved in lots of extracurricular activities an Instapot or crockpot will be lifesavers. Whereas, if you’re single or don’t have kids at home those extras are not necessary.

Your lifestyle will also play an important role. Do you often host friends and family? Do you cook at home often or eat out do you enjoy trying elaborate recipes or do you prefer simple dishes you rotate through?

Each of these factors will help you determine what’s important for you to have in your kitchen. For all the items in your kitchen that no longer fit with your current season of life or your lifestyle, it’s time to get rid of them.

3. Own Fewer Dishes

If there’s only one thing you’re going to do to declutter and organize your kitchen, having fewer dishes is it!

The reasoning behind this is that most people will automatically reach for a clean cup or dish before they will wash a dirty one. It’s just human nature to take the path of least resistance and do what is easiest. This means the dirty dish pile often grows far beyond the size of your family, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid!

I do not have a dishwasher so I handwash our dishes throughout the day. Since I limited the number of dishes we have, we use fewer dishes, and keeping the kitchen clean doesn’t get overwhelming.

When it comes to limiting the dishes, the best place to start is by looking at what you have. You may be shocked by how much more you have than you actually need.

Look in your cabinets or drawers and literally count how many you have of each:

Plates
Bowls
Drinking glasses and cups
Mugs
Silverware
Serving plates/utensils

There isn’t a set number of dishes you should have. The goal is to try to have only what you need.

As a rule of thumb, I keep two of each item per family member. So as a family of four you would have 8 of each item. This keeps the number of dishes that need to be washed to a minimum but there is always enough if we have extra guests over.

Our bakeware is very basic because I don’t bake very often. I have one favorite casserole dish, and a set of Pyrex baking dishes, and two small loaf pans.

As far as knives go I keep just a few quality knives, and a knife sharpener. A good quality knife is really worth investing in as it will make cooking so much simpler and last forever! This knife was recommended to me by a chef friend and it’s not cheap, but it really is the best!

Another thing I recommend when it comes to dishes is investing in neutral pieces. White, stainless steel, or clear glass are classics that will never go out of style. And they are easy to dress up or down for any occasion.

As I replaced various pieces I always purchased white so today all of my plates, bowls, and serving dishes are white this way everything matches and looks nice if I’m having guests over.

4. Let Go Of Specialty & Single-Use Items

A big creator of clutter in our kitchens comes from having many single-purpose items. For instance, do you have a toaster and a toaster oven? Get rid of the toaster. It serves a single purpose. Do you have a stand mixer and a hand-held mixer? Get rid of the hand-held mixer, it serves a more limited purpose.

Eliminating or at least limiting the number of single-use items you keep in your kitchen will go a long way towards helping you declutter and organize your kitchen.

If the item you are considering maintaining in your kitchen is not multifunctional, ask yourself whether it’s something you will use often or if it will save you money. Don’t keep items that have limited use or purpose, it just creates clutter and wastes money.

Here are some examples of single-use items I’ve gotten rid of in the past:

Apple core remover
Ice cream maker
Toaster
Egg slicer
Waffle maker
Quesadilla maker
Garlic Peeler
Bread Machine

These single-purpose items were pretty useless and took up valuable storage space in my kitchen.

The same rules apply with things you know you will only use once or twice a year, see if you can borrow or even rent the item. If that is not an option, consider storing them in the garage or basement.

If you’re not sure if you really need something or not, try taking it out of the kitchen and see if you miss it.

5. Start Organizing Your Kitchen

Now that you’ve cleared the clutter and paired it down to the things you truly need and use, it’s time to start organizing. The goal here is to make your kitchen beautiful and functional! To do this, you want to keep your counters clutter-free and maximize storage space.

Here are some tips to maximize storage space and keep your declutter kitchen organized:

Place All Cookware In One Cupboard

Put all your cookware and appliances in one place. This could include pots, pans, crockpot, slow cooker, or any appliance you use to cook with.

A trick I learned for storing pots and lids is to place the lid upside down on the pot and you can then stack another pot on top. This maximizes storage space and allows you to keep lids and pots together!

If you run out of storage space in this area, you’ll know that you’re starting to accumulate too much and it’s time to get rid of something.

Keep All Food Items In One Place

This is fairly easy in most kitchens as food items are easily stored in the pantry. However, in my small house, we don’t have a pantry. Instead, we dedicate one cupboard for storing our non-perishable food items.

If you are like me and don’t have a dedicated pantry, placing all food items in one cupboard keeps things organized and simplified. I also recommend investing in a few storage items to keep things neat and organized. Here are some examples of good pantry organizers.

Organize Food Storage Items

Food storage items, like Tupperware, can easily get out of control.

Before I decluttered my Tupperware we had way more food storage items than we could ever use. Half the time spent putting food away involved searching for matching lids.

However, after clearing out all of the excesses, it’s easy to nestle the storage containers. I purchased a wire basket and all of the lids are stored in that basket side by side. This makes it easy to grab the correct lid without having to fumble around the cupboard.

Use Baskets For Bulk Items

One of the things that can easily make a kitchen look cluttered is big-box Costco type bulk supply items. Ideally and if you have space you want to store these items out of sight. However, if you’re lacking in space, this is a challenge.

What I have done is purchase several square-shaped baskets from Ikea, you can also find similar ones on Amazon. I store all my extra-large bulk items in these baskets on the top of the fridge and my dining room area. It keeps everything looking neat and organized while also being functional. It’s easy for me to grab what I need when I need it!

Store Your Linens In A Drawer

Kitchen towels and pot holders may be my most used kitchen tools. One of the best things I did to simplify this area was to switch them all out for solid white. It helps to keep the kitchen looking clean and organized. Plus it’s easy to wash them all in one load

I do fold my kitchen towels with the KonMari folding method. This actually gives me so much more room versus the traditional method of stacking towels on top of each other. An added benefit is that it really does look so much less cluttered and tidy!

Cleaning Supplies

This is another area where I try to avoid having multiple items that can be used for the same thing. A good multi-purpose cleaner is the way to go when it comes to simplifying and minimizing your kitchen.

Just like the other items in your kitchen, keep all your cleaning supplies together. We keep ours under the kitchen sink. I do keep clean products for the bathroom in that room which helps cut down on what I have to store in the kitchen.

I have a simple wire basket that I store under the kitchen sink for small items like sponges, scrubbers, and dish gloves. It keeps everything neat and organized while making it easy to find what I need.

6. Declutter and Organize Your Kitchen Counter Tops

The last thing I want to talk about when you declutter and organize your kitchen is perhaps the most important. Make every effort to keep counters clear!

Keeping the counters clean is important for any kitchen and it’s especially important for a small kitchen since you have a limited amount of counter space to work with.

First, remove everything from the countertops that do not belong in the kitchen.

Next, take a look at your kitchen decor and remove anything you don’t absolutely love. If you have too much decor sitting on the countertops it ends up making the kitchen look cluttered because it’s such a small space.

Finally, look at what is left on your countertops, is there anything at all that could be stored somewhere else? If it’s not something you use every day there’s really no reason to store it on your countertop, it’s better to store the items in a convenient cabinet.

Another thing that I’ve seen cluttering up a kitchen is storing spices on the counter or on top of the oven. This really does make the kitchen look cluttered and messy. Instead, put spices out of sight. To be honest I do however keep a pretty salt container out on my counter because it’s functional and part of my decor.

Organizing and decluttering your kitchen doesn’t mean getting rid of everything. Instead, it means being intentional with what you have in your kitchen and deciding if you need, use, or love it. Then get rid of everything else!

It won’t happen overnight, but step by step you’ll be so happy you did the hard work to declutter and organize your kitchen!