How to Declutter Kitchen Counters: 4 Hot Tips

1. Cooktop

When we first moved into our house, it was a blank slate. We have a galley kitchen with our designated cooking area only 2 feet deep and 3.5 feet long, which means that our cooking space is very limited.

We started out using an electric double burner stovetop that worked very well for a while.

However, we eventually realized that we only needed one single burner and rarely ever had two things on the stove at the same time.

This is why we upgraded to this single induction cooktop.

Not only has it been more efficient, but it also forced us to downsize our pots and pans because it only works with pots and pans that are magnetic on the bottom. 

2. Spices

Together with the magnetic pots and pans, we purchased some magnetic spice shakers that attach perfectly to the fridge.

This allows for easy access to spices when we are cooking.

Still, we needed some more storage for our spices and oils we use for cooking.

This is when we found this bamboo spice rack on Amazon. It fits perfectly in front of our window on the counter and does not take up much counter space at all.

It is only four inches deep, and the way it utilizes the vertical space is just perfect. Now it feels like we have a lot more space to use when we are cooking in the kitchen.

3. Dish drying rack

On the other side of our kitchen, it was a total mess. We were constantly playing catch up, trying to keep up with the endless pile of dirty dishes.

The most annoying part was that, even when we finally cleaned them all, they were still sitting on the other side of the sink drying, which was keeping the area visually cluttered.

We put up so many shelves for open storage that they ended up being full of things we barely used, and the whole space became an eyesore.

The solution was radical. In order to open things up a little more, we had to scrap everything.

So we tore down all of the shelving and gave the walls a fresh coat of paint.

We also purchased a stainless steel dish drying rack from Amazon. It was pretty easy to put together, and it fit perfectly over our sink.

I think this would be a great addition for anyone who lives in a small space, like a studio apartment, or anyone just with a small kitchen space, because it really makes things more functional.

This helped us utilize more vertical space in the kitchen, but even more importantly, we were forced to remove items that we did not use anymore or that did not fit on this rack.

This was definitely a big step on our kitchen declutter journey, and we made awesome progress on creating a more functional minimalist kitchen for our family.

4. Microwave shelf

I had a piece of live edge wood lying around, that I had originally intended to use for another project but never did.

Therefore, I decided to finally put it to good use by turning it into a shelf for our microwave. I gave it a little bit of mineral oil and beeswax and got some supplies to add an industrial pipe to the wall to give it a nice look. The result is, I believe, a Pinterest-worthy shelf for our microwave.

How to declutter kitchen counters

This is how we transformed our kitchen with just a few super useful additions.

If you have any other ideas on how to declutter a kitchen that you would like to share, feel free to leave a comment down below. Good luck decluttering your kitchen!