The kitchen is a prime space in a home. I’m a food blogger too. And according to me, this is the heart of our home. It’s our responsibility to keep our kitchen clean. Here I will help you in decluttering your kitchen with a list of 25 basic things to declutter from the kitchen now for a minimalist kitchen.
Minimalist Kitchen Idea
This is the first and my favorite part of the decluttering mission. When I decided to declutter my home, my kitchen was on 1st priority in my checklist.
So I focus more on a minimalist kitchen with good not-so-overwhelming decluttering tasks and minimalist kitchen organization ideas that makes us feel good about our kitchen and living space too.
Three aspects of a minimalist kitchen:
Why Should you declutter your kitchen?
How to declutter your kitchen?
Everyday habits to avoid cluttering
Why Should you declutter your kitchen?
We tend to buy new coffee mugs, utensils, gadgets, and increase the stuff in our storage unintentionally. Sometimes I forget the inventory I already have and end up buying them again.
All these make the pantry crowded. And we get attached to these kinds of stuff many times which stops us from discarding the unwanted and unused ones too.
When your countertop is crowded with lots of appliances or cutleries or snack boxes, etc, you are less likely to remove the stuff every day and clean it.
Apart from space issues, this has also a direct impact on health factors. Unorganized places are difficult to clean on regular basis.
And this increases the chance of the growth of insects, bugs, cockroaches which is not healthy for the family. So we must take the utmost care of our kitchen cleanliness.
Declutter The Kitchen – Emotional Aspect
While we know how important it is to take care of our kitchen, it’s overwhelming to start the decluttering of the kitchen. Also, it’s difficult to decide on which things to declutter from the kitchen.
This may be because of our emotional attachment to a few of them. Some might be gifted ones, some might be some memories from past tours, trips, relationships, stages of life, etc.
So start with small targets and easy tasks that you can do quickly in 10 minutes. This is just cleaning out the things that you know are not required at all now. i.e. the things to declutter from the kitchen now.
Some of the strategies to decluttering from money crashers. You may love to use the Konmari method of decluttering your kitchen. Konmari method is not about minimization. This is about getting rid of objects that are not required.
Read here 21 quick decluttering tasks to help you plan your stress-free decluttering mission. Also, read why should you make your house clutter-free.
15 Things to declutter from the kitchen to keep it simplified
To make your planning easier, here is a list of 25 Things to declutter from the kitchen and get a simplified dream kitchen. Keep two large boxes with you during this process of decluttering your kitchen. 1. Trash box 2. to donate
1. Kitchen Fridge Magnets
Luckily I’m not a big fan of fridge magnets. They look so clumsy. Just get rid of the unnecessary magnets.
Stop this habit of making frames for any tour trip, any lovable memories in the form of magnets, etc. You can make a photo frame instead.
2. Flyers and Menu cards
These are not necessary to keep as you can browse anything instantly on the internet.
You can store the restaurant contact number on your phone only.
Store other visiting card details of plumbers, mechanics, AMC cards, etc, etc, in your e-wallet or in your laptop/ desktop/ phone in soft copy.
3. Old storage boxes, jars.
Old, dirty, cracked (box or lid), discolored storage boxes.
Large boxes that occupying a lot of space unnecessarily. Buy some fancy and new compact storage boxes instead.
4. Old coffee mugs that are not in use
If you have a habit of collecting cute coffee mugs (just like me) then trust me you can declutter 30% of space by donating excess ones in good condition.
Check out for the mugs that are microwave-safe or dishwasher safe and analyze whether you want to keep it or simply disown them. And I was so much attached to each of them with some memories.
But luckily, my toddler did this job easy for me (by breaking one or two every day). So now I don’t have the habit of buying more coffee mugs ;).
But before they (kids) hurt themselves, you discard. If at all it’s in a condition that can be used, then please don’t hesitate to donate them to needy people.
Oh yes, and if you love art and craft, you may use a few to make some paintings on the mugs for decoration or for some crafts. But don’t again hold everything back for a purpose that is not going to happen sooner. So decide and take a firm decision.
5. Broken coffee mugs:
Take out old coffee mugs that are just not used for more than 6 months or a year. Throw away the mugs, cups, glasses (drinkware) that are cracked or broken. And you know you are not going to use them further.
6. Any old gadgets you are not using :
If these are in working condition then donate to them who can use it.
If it’s not repairable now or you have not tried to get it repaired for long, then discard it without a second thought. These are just holding the space in your kitchen. Nothing more than that.
7. Old chopping boards:
Many wooden/ ceramic/ plastic chopping boards of different shapes, sizes are accumulated and occupy a lot of space in kitchen cabinets, countertops.
Remove those that are not in use for long. Remove the broken boards.
For chopping 2 – 3 boards is enough. Discard the old and discolored boards if any. Keep replacing the boards every 6 – 8 months maximum (from a hygiene point of view).
Donate the excess sets in good condition.
8. Disposable plastic containers, spoons, forks:
Many times we keep the plastic containers that we get from food delivery thinking to reuse them. Initially used for 1 – 2 weeks also. But after that, they just sit uselessly in the storage area. Discard such as containers, plastic reusable spoons, fork, etc.
9. Container with broken lids:
Throw away containers, fridge boxes, storage boxes that are either in excess, old and in broken condition.
Containers whose lids are either lost or broken discard them without a second thought.
10. Cracked or smelly utensils (glass/ plastic)
Old glass and plastic containers turn smelly over time. This is a must as such utensils are unhygienic to use.
Throw even if it’s only cracked (not broken).
11. Empty sauce bottles:
Check out for empty sauce bottles, pouch, sachets that are just making the pantry, fridge, countertop crowded.
12. Expired food products (cereals, pulses, spices):
Check out the pantry for your stocks, inventory of cereals, pulses, grains that are not used for long. Try to use such products within 30 days of purchase. Otherwise, remove and throw away such expired products.
13. Half broken cooking utensils, spoons, spatula, strainers:
I had a habit of keeping such items. This was mainly because of emotional attachment. So even if I have another similar set of spatula or spoon or strainer, I don’t throw the half-broken ones. I used to keep even strainers, pans with broken handles. Get rid of such stuff.
Even if you don’t have another in good condition, throw away the broken ones. Then will you will buy the new replacement in case you are procrastinating because of
14. Declutter the refrigerator:
Clean the vegetable box. check out for rotten or other veggies that are not used and not in a stage of use.
Clean the freezer. Discard and throw away any old flour, spices, sauces that are in the freezer for more than 6months – 1 yr. (I store my spices, some flour in the freezer as it increases the cell life of products.)
15. Large cookbooks:
- You may keep cookbooks on your bookshelves (not in the kitchen).
- Keep only the converter chart if any.
- Refer to soft copies or ebooks.
- Sell or donate the cookbooks that you know you don’t refer often.
This is a small list of things to declutter from the kitchen initially to make the whole process easier. You may check out some more spaces which can be quickly cleaned.
5 Steps to keep minimum clutter in your kitchen (daily routine)
1 – Keep Kitchen Countertop Clean
Keep minimum tools, gadgets, utensils, on the kitchen countertop. A clean countertop gives a neat and tidy look to the whole kitchen by 80% (my lookout). Clean the countertop periodically. And even better if you keep and maintain the cleanliness on daily basis.
2 – Stop being emotional with broken pieces
As mentioned above, we store the unused because of emotional attachment more rather than use or benefit of the object in our life. But remember this leads to clutter which ultimately brings “unhappiness” to us.
3 – Stop using kitchen as an art gallery
Especially the freeze. We use that as a item where we add magnets, pictures, some gifted memories, etc, etc. But that makes it look so clumsy and untidy. Get rid of it. If it’s a magnet gifted by some one close, make another space like drawer, shelves, or place it on study table in living room but not on the freeze.
4 – Have one junk drawer
Since the kitchen is the center of the home and used often, chances are high that we will dump small day to day things here and there inside the kitchen.
So for that reason, keep one drawer where you can keep such things. e.g. I keep my scissors, screwdrivers, emerson rods, or some sachets, spices that I get with my pizza delivery, etc that are come as complementary with some other items and I’m going to use them soon.
5 – Stop procrastination
Last but not least procrastination is the main reason for creating clutter. I know and felt how overwhelming it is to start the decluttering task. At times it’s emotionally draining too. But if you will keep doing small decluttering tasks as a daily routine, it won’t take many efforts for a big clean up task.
