How to Declutter Your Kitchen

Many of us enjoy spending time in the kitchen, be that cooking or baking up a new creation for the family or at a party (why do we gather in the kitchen at a party?). But the kitchen is also where we often have a lot of clutter, overflowing kitchen counters or unorganised kitchen cupboards that overflow with unmatched Tupperware. It's time to declutter your kitchen.

The simple solution to decluttering your kitchen is to go through each cupboard in turn, pull all the items out, wipe them clean and then put the items back that you want to keep and discard items that are no longer needed, wanted or are out of date.

Before you start cleaning all the cupboards and units, it's ideal to do the washing up and put everything in a cupboard. This way, you are not working around dirty dishes when sorting and decluttering the kitchen. Also, remove any items that don't belong in the kitchen and put them in the room they do belong.

Declutter Your Fridge and Freezer

The ideal time to declutter your freezer is when most items have been eaten or used. This can be before your next big shop or before you plan to restock your fridge and freezer space with supplies over a holiday period.

Starting with the fridge, pull everything out onto a spare space on a countertop. Pulling all your items out onto the countertop will allow you to clean down the inside of the fridge space thoroughly and not miss any out of date items.

Make sure you don't forget to clean around the seal inside the fridge door. It can be surprising what can fall inside this space, and keeping it clean and clear will help your fridge function better by keeping a tighter seal.

When putting items back in the fridge, check their dates and that any opened items are still edible. Cleaning out any jars and throwing out any food that is no longer edible will free up space and help keep your fridge smelling fresh.

Add extra freshness to your fridge by cutting a lemon in half and putting this inside the refrigerator for a couple of days. This does help your fridge smell fresh, but do remember to remove it after 2-3 days.

Next, do the same with the freezer. Pull all the items out to allow you to clean inside. To help keep any items frozen while sorting and defrosting your freezer space, you can place them in a cool box. Another option is to cook up any remaining items you plan to eat over the next couple of days.

Declutter Your Cupboards

It's very easy for a tin of something to be pushed to the back of a cupboard and forgotten, only to be found long after it is long out of date.

As with the other areas you are decluttering, it's best to pull everything out of the cupboard, clean the cupboard and only put items back that you will use and are still in date.

Make a note of shorter-dated items and plan when to use them.

It's good practice to regularly work your way through what is in the cupboard. Pull things forward and plan your meals around what you have in the cupboard before they are out of date.

For deeper cupboards, you can put tins on a small stand at the back. This way, you can see what is at the back of the cupboard, and they are less likely to be forgotten.

Kitchen Sideboard and Appliances

It can be very easy to use up valuable counter space with a collection of kitchen appliances. Having a microwave, kettle, toaster, stand mixer and blender are the most common items that we keep on our units in the kitchen. How many of these space-eating items do you need?

These items are all added for convenience, but that convenience comes at the cost of space. Here are some ideas for maximising your space and removing appliances from your kitchen. Ideal if the area is more important to you.

Microwave – Do you really need it?

The space taken up by microwave can easily be reclaimed, and instead of having a microwave, you can use your oven or hob to warm things up. You might think you will miss it but give it a go for a week and see how you get on.

Electric Kettle – It just boils water

Having an electric kettle might seem convenient, but all it's doing is boiling up water. Do you need an electric kettle taking up space? You can use a stove kettle that heats the water and often looks a lot nicer than a plastic kettle you can in the corner.

Toaster Space – Just a big crumb drawer

As a nation, we love our toast, but is that two-slice toaster adding value to the space you give it? You probably have an oven with a grill option that will be quicker and toast your bread a lot more even than the average toaster. You can also typically toast 4-6 slices of bread simultaneously under a grill so that it will save you time.

Clean Your Oven

When was the last time you cleaned your oven? It's not something you're likely to jump out of bed for in the morning, running down the stairs in the excitement of cleaning the oven.

Keeping your oven clean will help improve its efficiency and reduce the odour of cooking smells when used. You'll also be able to see inside the oven and know when your meal is ready without burning or overcooking it.

Cleaning the trays and racking inside the oven can be difficult in the kitchen sink. A way around this is to let them soak in the bathtub for 1-2 hours with some detergent, this allows them to soak, and the extra space means they will be much easier to clean.

Tip – Putting down some old towels inside the bathtub will help protect the inside of your bath.

When it comes to cleaning the inside of the oven, a mixture of baking soda and water paste will help remove the hardest baked-on areas. Scrub the area with a sponge soaked in vinegar, and your oven will be clean in no time.

You can spend your precious time doing this yourself or get a professional oven cleaner that will get the job done in a fraction of the time, and you'll not have to worry about dealing with the mess.

True Up Your Cupboard Doors

Do you have kitchen cupboard doors that are not shutting correctly or need some repairs? You can adjust most kitchen cupboard doors with the screws inside the cupboard. Turning these screws one way or the other will help you line up your cupboard doors.

Getting the doors to align correctly can be a bit of skill, so why not hire a local handyperson to come and do the job for you.

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Decorate Your Kitchen

Last on the list of decluttering your kitchen is to give your clutter-free kitchen a fresh new look. Check out our post on How to paint your kitchen cupboards which will freshen up your kitchen that one step further and feel like a whole new kitchen.

But wait, what about the walls? Be kind to yourself and hire a painter and decorator to give your kitchen the finishing touches it deserves. Hiring a painter and decorator is often the better option, as, after a hall, stairs and landing, it's the hardest room to decorate.