How to Keep Your Kitchen Counter Clutter-Free

1. Make it mobile

Certain big appliances have to sit on the counter and there’s no real way around it. The best thing to do for these items is to make them as mobile as possible. Try putting a placemat or a clear, thin cutting board under your coffee machine and other bulky utensils.

This will make it easy to slide back and forth when you want to put it out of the way after use. 

2. Color coordinate

Color coordinate your kitchenware. This is a great design trick to help your stuff look less cluttered. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. Dollar Tree has some great options including the gray bamboo kitchenware that I purchased to match the rest of the décor in my kitchen.

It looks great and since it’s all one color, it’s less information for the eyes to take in which enables the space to feel a bit more sparse. 

3. Pre-declutter clean and clear

Start the process by getting all your dishes cleaned and put away. This will help you declutter more easily. It’s important to start with a clean slate when you’re organizing your kitchen.

It is also greatly beneficial to be in the habit of putting dishes away as soon as possible to help your kitchen feel more organized without much extra effort. Clear and clean all of your surfaces. This is another way to help us get organized starting with a clean, blank slate. 

4. Quick wins

Give yourself a quick win when it comes to storage solutions for items that need to stay on the counter. I did this by getting a nice glass jar to keep my spatulas, strainers, serving spoons, and other loose kitchenware.

I like this because it was easy to do and it makes me feel like I’ve already made a lot of progress even though the decluttering journey has just gotten underway. This really simple project gave me the small boost I needed to continue tackling my cluttered counters. 

5. Appliances

Though of course, it looks nicer to keep all your appliances put away in cabinets that’s not always an option. I personally keep everything put away because I have arthritis. It would be unrealistic for me to think I can move my KitchenAid in and out of the cabinets every time I need it. 

I like to buy appliances that serve more than one purpose. My air fryer for example has 13 different features. That means I don’t need a separate toaster or a variety of other counter appliances.

Our coffee maker has two options. You can use fresh coffee beans or you can use it like a regular coffee maker. With multi-use appliances, I don’t need as many items. I can get many things done with one machine. 

Clean your appliances before you put them back on the counter. That way once the decluttering is done, everything on your counters is going to look sparkling and new. Even if you’ve managed to eliminate all of your clutter, putting dirty appliances out on your counter will make the space feel messy. 

6. Find systems that work for you

One way I was able to reduce my counter clutter was to come up with a new system for storing coffee. I moved all my coffee-making supplies into a cabinet. I was able to figure out which things I needed to leave out and which items could be easily stored away while remaining convenient to access. 

7. Letting go

If you’re sentimental like me you probably have a lot of random things accumulating around your kitchen. Take some time to think about which items you truly want to leave out on the counters to see every day and which things could be stored away. The less you leave out, the easier it will be to keep your space feeling clutter-free. 

Kitchen before:

Kitchen after:

How to keep kitchen counter clutter-free

Not only am I really happy with the clean decluttered counters, but I am also feeling confident that I can keep them that way. This is because I have really thought through how I can multipurpose my appliances and figure out what I really need to keep on my counters.

We spend a lot of time in our kitchens, and we deserve to have a space we really love spending time in.