These Small Tasks Will Keep Your Kitchen from Getting Cluttered, Guaranteed (2024)

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Megan McCarty

Meet the Expert

Danielle Dorn is the design director of mDesign Home Organization Solutions.
Morgan Ovens is an expert organizer and the founder of Haven Home Wellness.

Start Fresh Each Season

Don’t stop at spring cleaning—your kitchen deserves a refresh in the summer, fall, and winter too. Once a season, Dorn recommends taking everything out of your kitchen cabinets and giving them a serious scrub. Seasonal deep cleans make everyday maintenance that much easier.

Pulling down empty bins and canisters makes for an ideal time to wipe down the inside of the cabinet, Dorn says.

“While I’m cleaning, it’s easy to see which cereal is low or if I am almost out of snacks for the kids which provides an unexpected upside to my cleaning routine—it keeps me organized in other areas of my life," she says.

These Small Tasks Will Keep Your Kitchen from Getting Cluttered, Guaranteed (3)

Store Oversized Items Elsewhere

Your grandma’s serving platter that you break out once a year for Thanksgiving dinner shouldn’t take up valuable space in your most accessible kitchen cabinets.

If you have overflow storage elsewhere, Ovens suggests moving oversized pieces that you only use for holidays or special occasions there (say, in a dining room cabinet). Keep them dust-free in large clear bins or separated in a cabinet with a soft liner.

“This will give your kitchen cabinets some room to breathe alongside the things you only use on a weekly or daily basis,” Ovens says.

Organize Your Fridge

At some point, we’ve all found a forgotten carton of moldy strawberries in the refrigerator. Poor fridge organization not only makes it harder to find specific items—where is the bottle of mustard?—but also results in food waste. It’s time to organize your fridge, Dorn says.

Keeping similar items together using clear containers and labels makes them easily accessible and ensures that older items are used first, Dorn suggests. This reduces the chances of food going spoiled, or mystery leftovers being pushed to the back.

Utilize your fridge’s adjustable shelves and drawers too. This will maximize the storage capacity of your fridge, since you can arrange them to be efficient for your specific needs, like securing a tall enough spot for your oat milk.

These Small Tasks Will Keep Your Kitchen from Getting Cluttered, Guaranteed (4)

Toss Excess Packaging

Both Dorn and Ovens agree: eliminating excess food packaging streamlines the look of your kitchen and pantry, creating a more visually inviting look. Recycle as much packaging as possible, decanting food into clear bins and airtight containers as soon as you get home from the grocery store.

This not only cleans up the messiness of broken boxes and mismatched packaging, but makes it easy to find the item you are looking for, which saves time, Dorn explains.

“When I’m quickly making dinner after work for my family, or preparing breakfast in the morning, the organized look of my cabinet adds a sense of calm to my usually busy day," she says.

Designate Zones in Your Pantry

One way to keep your pantry less cluttered, says Ovens, is to zone food categories. For example, keep all of your cooking staples (like grains, oils, and canned goods) in one area. Snacks can be organized together in another.

Drawers, meanwhile, can house chips, crackers, and other individually packed snacks, and add a few drawer dividers for an especially tidy look.

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Consolidate Appliances Into One Cabinet

No matter the size of your kitchen, counter space is always in high demand. To clear the clutter, Ovens recommends gathering all your hardest-working appliances—like your blender, toaster, coffee maker, and even a microwave—and storing them together in one cabinet, all on shelves that are easy to reach.

Appliances you don’t use as often, like a food processor or ice cream maker, can be housed in the same cabinet, just on higher shelves.

To take this clutter clearing a step further, Oven suggests installing outlets inside the cabinets. That way you can use them in place, never having to move the toaster, shaking crumbs everywhere. (Keep in mind this will likely require hiring an electrician.)

“Now that you have more free space on your counters, you can select a few pieces to put on display, such as fresh flowers and a chopping board, for a clean, styled look,” Ovens says.