Kitchen Clutter Control

Counter tops and drawers in your kitchen are the talk for this week.

A lot of people don’t have space for storage in their kitchen so they use their counter tops as storage. Well, sometimes this causes havoc and ends up creating too much clutter.

Here are some ways to reduce the appearance of clutter and get better organized in the kitchen.

• Use baskets or pretty canisters, they can be set to match your décor or get clear canisters for cereals, cookies, snacks, etc.


• Lazy susans are great for gathering items that might be messy (oils, spices, foods or liquids that are hard to contain elsewhere without some spillage or getting sticky)


• Keep a big jug or container to hold big spoons, spatulas, etc. near the stove.


• Keep an area or counter space for mail – those coming in and those going out. You can even use letter trays. Letter trays, if they have two levels, could do double duty. The top can have incoming mail and the bottom can either have outgoing mail or little items that you drop on the counter, such as your keys, ID for work, etc.


• You can also remove items from the counters by putting them instead on your wall - such as your calendar, to-do lists, folders, even your mail can be put on the wall if you have an insert to hang up that can hold papers.


• Behind pantry doors put a hook to hang up aprons as well as anything else that has a hook.


• For drawers, use dividers, bags, and caddies for silverware, plastic ware, napkins, dishes, baking supplies, spices, etc.


• Group similar items together (i.e. keep sandwich bags near the aluminum foil, etc).


• We tend to keep our kids’ paperwork in our kitchen, their drawings, school or camp items, etc. So, although we can’t dedicate a drawer to them in our kitchen, we have kept their items in folders in a drawer along with our items.


• Menus as well as recipes that you see in a magazine are great to be held in folders as well.


• Store items as close as possible to where you would use them, (i.e. pots and pans should be closer to the stove than glassware should be).


• Items that are not used as frequently can be stored in the back of a cabinet, while items that are more frequently used, should be kept up front.

Enjoy your week!

Marlin