The start of a new year is always a great time to reflect on the organization of your kitchen space. In with the newly organized home and out with the old dusty counter clutter.
Your home should be a place that you look forward to seeing when you wake up and come home to at the end of the day. And let’s face it, it’s more challenging to prepare and prep meals with limited, unorganized counter space.
These are the four steps I took to declutter my counter space:
Reduce
Before I removed items from my counters, I got three boxes: keep, donate, and discard. I removed items from all my cabinets, drawers and counters that weren’t being used or were broken and put them into the appropriate boxes. After consolidating and parting with some of these items, I was ready to move the items that were on my counter.
Tip: When deciding which items to keep, remember that you only need one can opener, one potato peeler, one knife of each kind, etc. This will help you know which items can be donated, which will help declutter your space.
Relocate
First, I looked at the items on my counter to see if any of them could be relocated to a drawer, a cabinet, or a pantry. For example, if you don’t use the toaster often, consider putting it out of sight. In my kitchen, I decided to move my knives to a drawer in a knife organizer.
Reorganize
The best layout will always be the easiest one. You know your cooking habits the best. If you find yourself scrambling to get a spatula, but you always have to run across the kitchen to get it, consider moving your favorite spatulas to the drawer closest to the stove. For example, my stand mixer and microwave oven were moved next to the refrigerator, an area I don’t need for meal prepping.
Reset
This is also a great time to reset your kitchen by removing any expired items or items that you don’t eat anymore.
I feel happy with my organization choices when I use my kitchen. Start small, as organization projects can be stressful, especially for those who like to keep everything or don’t have time to organize. Good luck!