How to Declutter Your Kitchen in 8 Decluttering Steps!

Learn how to declutter your kitchen and keep it tidy with these simple decluttering tips.

Early this spring you spent hours organizing your kitchen so that everything had its own specific place.

But with the start of summer and kids home from school all day long, and those weekend family outings you’ve not kept up your household chores like you normally do.

And now your kitchen is cluttered with everything from beach towels and toys to those empty dirty cereal dishes and other items you just were too tired to put away.

Now that the clutter is getting in the way of preparing meals and enjoying your kitchen, it’s time to declutter and organize your kitchen again.

So, here is how to declutter your kitchen in a few simple steps.

How to Declutter a Kitchen in 8 Easy Steps

#1. Remove Everything that Doesn’t Belong in Your Kitchen

If your family is like most families, the kitchen table and countertops become catch alls for items that really don’t belong in the kitchen.

That magazine your daughter was leafing through while eating breakfast, your son’s electronic game, beach towels, and even shoes that were just stepped out of may be among the items that are cluttering up your kitchen.

Decluttering, therefore, should begin with the removal of all of those items that simply don’t belong in the kitchen.

You can either use a basket and pile all the items to be put away later or put the items away as you pick them up.

If you want to discourage your kids from leaving items laying around the kitchen, put them in a basket and charge them a ransom to get them back. (A ransom can be part of their allowance or something like doing an extra chore.)

Beach towels and other cloth items should go into the wash, and trash should immediately be disposed of.

Once you remove all of the items that don’t belong from your kitchen, it should look much less cluttered immediately.

#2. Tackle the Dishes Next

The next step in decluttering your kitchen is to tackle the dishes. Start by putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher or strainer and get them out of the way.

Then pick up all the dirty dishes that are in the sink, left on the kitchen counter etc. and rinse them off and load them into the dishwasher and start the dishwasher so that the dishes can be cleaning while you tackle the rest of the kitchen.

Wash any dirty dishes that are not dishwasher safe and put them away.

#3. Declutter Your Kitchen Counters and Other Surfaces

Clear your countertops of everything that doesn’t belong there. Time to put away those small appliances.

Did you leave that hand mixer sitting out on the cabinet? Forget to put away your food processor?

If you have any small appliances that are not meant to be left out on your countertop, then wipe them down and put them in place so your countertops will look less cluttered and messy.

By the time you have completed this task, all that should be left is just a minor general cleaning to make your kitchen looking sparkling clean once more. (Here is a more detailed article on how to declutter kitchen countertops.)

#4. Declutter Your Kitchen Cabinets

Time to declutter and organize your kitchen cabinets. Get rid of anything you no longer need or use, such as cracked or broken glasses or coffee mugs and plastic containers without lids.

#5. Clean Up Surfaces

Now, it’s time to get out that kitchen cleaner and wash off your countertops, stove, refrigerator, and all other surfaces.

Make sure that you clean out the sink and leave it sparkling as well. You may also want to wipe down your cabinet doors and the front of your cabinets as well just to freshen everything up.

#6. Declutter Your Kitchen by Getting Rid of Things You Don’t Need

Here are some of the things you can throw away today that you will not miss:

Expired refrigerator food (any leftover food that is older than 4 or 5 days)
Cans without labels
Chipped or cracked glasses or coffee mugs
Cooking utensils you never use
Plastic containers with no lids, and lids with no containers
Worn out scrubbers and sponges
Worn out dish towels
Mystery frozen food (with no label)
Old pantry items
Expired Coupons
Those little condiment packages from fast food and take out

#7. Sweep and Mop Your Kitchen Floor

If you have accent rugs on your kitchen floor, take them outside and give them a good shaking.

Then sweep and mop your kitchen floor so that it too will be shining and sparkling clean.

#8. Taking Care of those Odds and Ends

Now that your kitchen is looking orderly once more, put away the dishes once the dishwasher has finished and replace your old dishtowels on the towel rack with clean dishtowels.

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