How to Keep a Kitchen Tidy: 5 Tips to Beat the Clutter

1. Only two small appliances on your countertops

We live in a society where there is a small appliance for every single thing we could possibly want or need. Because of that, it's easy to let our countertops get cluttered.

We have all these different appliances, whether it's our coffee pot, blender, toaster, or whatever else we have. Then in between the small appliances, you have cracker boxes or sugars or your coffee syrups, whatever it is.

It's so easy to let our countertops get cluttered, but I like to just have two small appliances on my countertops, and that's it. Find a home for everything else. I use my toaster almost every single day, but I keep it in my linen closet, which is just right around the corner from my kitchen.

When I want to use it, I pull it out. Then, after I use it, I put it away. It's not that hard. I have a small coffee pot, and I use it every single morning, and then I tuck it away in my cabinet when I'm done. I keep the appliances I use most or are the heaviest on the counter.

2. Do a daily home reset

Basically, the home reset is every morning after breakfast; I reset my home. I reset my kitchen. I start a load of laundry, and I also make my bed. That, to me, is the home reset.

This applies to keeping a tidy kitchen because it is easy to start the day by eating breakfast, putting your dishes in the sink, walking out the door, and then we don't come back. We just let it pile up and pile up. We have such a huge mess by dinner, and it's not even our dinner dishes. It's everything else throughout the day.

It's so important to reset your kitchen after every meal. If you are a working parent, then this is probably not something that you can do throughout the day unless you work from home, but if you could reset your kitchen every morning after breakfast, it would help you so much.

When I come out in the morning, I turn on my sink, and I fill up the left side of my sink with hot soapy water, and then as the dishes come in, the coffee cups or the bowl, whatever it is, I quickly wash it and set it on a towel to dry. After breakfast, the kitchen is completely clean. It will save you so much time if you follow the home reset method.

3. Wipe down your refrigerator once a week

It's important to pick a day, any day, but the day you go grocery shopping would probably be best. It doesn't mean you have to pull everything out.

I do pull out any leftover containers, and I'll weed through them, figure out what I need to get rid of or what can stay, and then I just do a quick wipe down with the wet dish rag and just keep it tidy.

The refrigerator is where things get lost for months, and that is disgusting. I have been guilty of letting that happen in our home. To address those problems as I have and figure out a system that works for you, but make sure that once a week, you keep the refrigerator wiped down.

4. Have a central location for all of your dirty dishes after dinner

Dinner is most likely the time when you utilize your kitchen, and it makes the biggest mess. So after we eat dinner, I have my family help me put anything away that can be put away. We put our linen napkins in the dirty clothes hamper. I take any dirty dishes, and I put them all in one place, the kitchen sink.

Then my countertops are completely cleared off, and I wipe them down. Then the whole mess is in one spot, the sink, and then I can address it.

5. Close your kitchen after dinner

You could even take it one step further and close your kitchen in between meals. Snacking is not customary in every culture, but Americans have made it second nature to snack between meals.

If you're eating hearty, good meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then snacking is not necessary.

You might have small kids that require a snack, and that's fine. I'mI'm not being super strict or judgmental by any means. There's always leniency to these tips, but my kids are older, and they eat a lot at dinner time.

They go to bed early because we have school the next day, so eating after dinner is just not necessary most of the time, so I have just made a rule. The kitchen is closed, and then it is ready to go for the next day.

When I walk out into my kitchen every morning, I want every countertop to be cleared off, and I don't want anything in the kitchen sink. I want a fresh start every new day.

Keeping a tidy kitchen will help free you. It won't bog down your mind. It won't make you feel stressed. Dare I say it will even allow you to breathe better? That is what keeping a tidy space does. It helps us breathe better. We come home, we relax our shoulders, and we feel peace. That's exactly what our home should be.

How to keep your kitchen tidy

I hope I have helped you learn how to keep a kitchen tidy. What tips do you have for keeping your kitchen tidy? Share them in the comments below.