12 Epic Ways to Get Your Kitchen Countertops Clutter Free

Looking for the best tips on how to keep your kitchen countertops clutter-free?

You’ve come to the right place.

If you’re like most moms who like to have everything at arm’s reach, there’s a good chance your kitchen counters are a little overcrowded.

No judgment here — I know first-hand how easy it is for countertops to become a hotspot for clutter.

I bet, your kitchen is a high-traffic room in your home, which makes counters the easiest target of clutter -courtesy of our family members.

We all love the convenience of reaching for things with ease, and kitchen countertops often seem like the perfect ”catch-all.”

I am also here to tell you that having a clutter free kitchen will make a huge difference to your life, you’ll enhance your kitchen’s overall look, be able to do meal prep with ease, and have a much easier time cleaning and tidying up your kitchen.

So let’s start working on getting your surface area cleared!

How To Keep Your Kitchen Countertops Clutter Free

Here are 12 tips for keeping your kitchen countertops clutter-free:

Clear off the counters
Try using trays
Only keep necessities on countertop space
Try a roll up dish rack
Try a lazy susan
Get rid of Small Knick Knacks
Don’t over-decorate your kitchen counter space
Use layers
Take advantage of wall space
Keep paper clutter off your countertop space.
Clean as you go.
Do a last minute check each night

Kitchen countertop with dish rack and knife set

12 Simple Ways to Get Your Kitchen Counters Clutter-Free

Life would be much easier if we could simply wave a magic wand over our kitchen countertops and make all those dirty dishes and paper clutter disappear instantly without breaking a sweat.

Unfortuantely that can never happen, but that doesn’t mean that having a clutter-free kitchen is impossible.

There are easy steps that you can follow to avoid a clutter build-up situation on your kitchen counters.

#1 Clear Off the Counters

Sure, your knife block, stand mixer, and cake stand feel right at home on the kitchen counter. But do they really need to be there?

Unless you’re baking every single day, there really isn’t a nedd for them to be on your kitchen counter!

To keep clutter contained, carefully consider every item on your kitchen counter and ask yourself whether it deserves to take up precious counter space.

If there are things on your countertops you go for weeks or months without using, store them away in your kitchen cupboards or drawers. Yes, you may need to get a step stool to bring them down, but so what.

The only thing I keep on my kitchen counters these are days are my air fryer, my coffee machine, knives (If I had an extra drawer, they would be in there),.

I make tea every morning, I use my air fryer most days – so both of these larger appliances need to have a place on my kitchen counters.

#2 Use Trays to Store Several Items On

Instead of letting related items scatter on your counter, get a few eye-catchy trays to hold these items together (especially if they are things you use frequently)—for instance, cooking oils. I purchased this oil dispenser and mister to get oil off my countertop and into a cupboard – it works great.

I used to have my dish soap on my kitchen counters, but then I purchased these for my dish soap and now I keep them under the sink.

Grouping some items on a tray will not only make your kitchen countertop look orderly but also make cleaning easier as you’ll lift everything at a go when wiping your counters.

#3 Only Keep Necessities on Countertop Space

In order to keep your kitchen counters clutter free, you should only keep countertop items that you use daily.

Rather than showcasing all your small appliances and cooking tools on the counters, store away those you barely use and leave the frequently-used ones, like your coffee pot machine on display.

It simply wouldn’t make sense for you to pull out your coffee machine every single morning! It does however make sense to take your toaster out each morning. With such a small appliance, it’s easy enough to pull it in and out. I use my handheld every few days to clean up the crumbs.

I use my cutting boards every single day, but I don’t keep them on my counter. I like to store my cutting board in a thin cupboard I have, and they fit perfectly in there.

Anything that you use on a daily basis and cannot be put away, should be left out, like a coffee machine. If you can, purchase a coffee maker that goes with your kitchen decor, that will help the look of your kitchen countertop . We have a stainless steel one, because it goes with our design.

Where can I store my fruit?

If you’re trying to keep your counters from getting covered in stuff, what do you do with your fruit basket? You can always store your fruit in the fridge, or try using a hanging basket, or these could be attached to the end of a cabinet or somwhere inside your pantry. They would look super cute anywhere.

These storage baskets could fit in your pantry and they are stackable so they wouldn’t take up too much space.

Using these options, you can see how you can easily get your fruit basket off your kitchen counter.

#4 Try A Roll Up Dish Rack (Can be put away when not in use)

Having a bulky dish rack on your countertop can be quite an inconvenience if you’re dealing with limited kitchen counter space.

Fortunately, there’s a space-save dish rack that can sort your clutter and little counter space woes — a roll-up dish rack.

The best thing about this rack is you can lay it across the top of your sink, that means there’ll be no sight of a dish rack on your countertop. And when it’s not in use, you simply roll it up and store it away from your sink. We had one in the RV and it worked perfectly, and kept things neat and tidy.

We use this extendable dish rack, so later when the dishes are dried and put away, it can be adjusted back to its smaller size and it fits under the kitchen sink.

#5 Try A Lazy Susan (Store several essential items together)

If there’s a clutter buster loved by many on Amazon, it’s the lazy susan organizer.

This rotating storage unit is the perfect kitchen accessory for households with too many countertop items. It offers extra storage space for things that would have otherwise cramped up your counters.

I don’t have one in my current home, but I had one previously and used it for storing tupperware and appliances in my kitchen cupboards. You could use it to store your paper towel, or cooking utensils on it – but again, you don’t want it to take over your kitchen counter space.

#6 Don’t Over-Decorate Your Kitchen Counter Space

Decorating kitchen counters is often a great way to inject some personality and vibrancy into your kitchen. But to keep your counters looking organized, avoid displaying too many décor pieces.

Always remember your kitchen counter space is mainly used for meal prep or maybe you eat your meals around your kitchen counter.

A couple of knick knacks is one thing, but don’t go overboard!

Knickknacks add flair to any room, but they are notorious for making countertops look like clutter zones.

Instead of displaying all the small knickknacks, remove them from the kitchen and find a better place for them to be seen. If you don’t have anywhwere to show them off, maybe it’s time for them to move on!

Your countertop can still stand out with something as simple as a beautiful fruit bowl or a vase with fresh flowers, maybe you could look at some art decor for the walls, or on top of your cupboards, as opposed to on your kitchen cupboards

# 7 Use Layers

If you are reading this article and you’re thinking to yourself, there is no way I can take anything off my countertop space, everything on there, I absolutely need!

Rather than crowding your kitchen counters with a million things, make use of layers for the much-needed extra storage.

Think vertical shelving so you can get most of what you need off the countertop space, but still have it accessible to you.

Something like this would work well to keep kitchen counters clutter free. You could use this space for things like your trusted cookbooks or some knick knacks you like to have around.

#8 Take Advantage of Wall Space

If you’re dealing with limited counter space, invest in a wall-mounted storage unit to avoid congesting your counters. This can work well to get your pasta containers or cake stands to help reduce any counter clutter.

The area above the countertop provides an opportunity to create additional storage. Install shelving or hanging organizers to keep pots, pans, and other kitchen tools off the countertops. This not only creates space but also adds a decorative element to the kitchen.

A good example is a kitchen pegboard. You can mount it on your wall and add hooks on it to hang wooden spoons and various cookware. But again, you want to declutter your kitchen, not add more of a cluttered look.

KITCHEN MAGNETS AND MAGNETIC STRIPS;

If you’re yet to use magnets to keep your counters organized, you’re missing out.

Magnetic strips are a game changer if you want to free up space on your kitchen counters.

In the RV, we used a magnet strip to hang knives

If you’re yet to use magnets to keep your counters organized, you’re missing out, here’s a brilliant way to use a magnetic spice rack organizer off your countertop using magnetic strips.

Magnetic strips are a game changer if you want to free up space on your kitchen counters.

You can get magnetic strips for hanging spices and metallic cooking utensils that tend to crowd counters.

WALL HOOKS:

There’s no need to let a lot of kitchenware crowd your countertop space when you have the option of installing hooks on your kitchen wall for extra storage.

With hooks, you can hang knives, mugs, wine glasses, spatulas, and other kitchenware that you often dump on your counters for “easy access.”

Small red, orange, blue, and gree cups hanging on wall

#9 Keep Paper Clutter Off Your Countertop Space

Mail is one of the biggest culprits of your kitchen countertop clutter.

If your kitchen counters have become a landing strip for mail and paper clutter, take advantage of your vertical space by fixing a wall-mounted file hanger somewhere out of the way.

I have one upstairs in a closet, no-one can see it but me, I keep to go menus that we like, and important school information, or a family command center works well too..

It’s better to keep the mail and paperwork neatly in one central place rather than letting them pile up on your countertop. Also, always remember to get rid of the old junk mail and unneeded paper clutter.

Be sure to go through the mail regularly and throw away any junk mail as soon as it comes in the door to keep your system organized.

DO NOT let mail sit on your countertops for days, deal with it ASAP.

#10 Clean As You Go

If you can commit to cleaning as you go, this simple process will help tremendously to keep your countertops clutter-free. When you deal with the clutter immediately, you save yourself the trouble of tackling a bigger cluttered mess later.

Once you’ve finished using an item, immediately return it to its designated storage space.

Once meals are finished, get the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and clean up your kitchen countertops asap.

I know this is a hard one when you have kids, just continue to quietly remind them to put things away after each use. Teach the kids to put their dishes in the dishwasher.

This small habit can make a tremendous difference in keeping clutter at bay.

#11 Do a Last Minute Check Each Night

Each night before you turn off the lights on your kitchen and close up for the night, look around for any visual clutter.

Clean up any cooking utensils you might have left out, make sure all dirty dishes are in the dishwasher and run it before you go to bed.

When you have your kitchen counters organized and tidy, and everything is stored properly, now you have a tidy kitchen ready to greet you in the morning.

How nice would that be?

Declutter Your Kitchen

Here are 2 very quick tips when you need to declutter your kitchen.

These 2 rules tips have helped me to maintain clutter free countertops for over 3 years now!

Tip #1 Use the “One In, One Out” Rule

The “one in, one out” decluttering rule is a simple yet life-changing concept for anyone aiming for a clutter-free kitchen.

It’s as straightforward as it sounds — Each time you place a new item on your kitchen counter, another item must leave. Depending on what the old item is, you can either donate, sell, throw away, or store it in one of your kitchen drawers or cabinets, the choice is yours.

Adopting this rule will help you control the flow of extra clutter on your kitchen counters and achieve your goal of an organized kitchen.

Tip #2 Invest In Storage Containers

If your pantry and cabinets are overflowing with food and other items, it’s natural to start storing things on your countertops. But this is exactly what you don’t want to do!

Instead, take some time to declutter your storage spaces and get rid of anything you don’t need. Consider investing in organizers or shelving units to maximize your space. By making use of your pantry and cabinets, you’ll free up valuable countertop real estate.

3 Storage ideas that changed my life

I realize that sounds a little ridiculous, but I kid you not, these 3 storage ideas have made a huge difference in helping me to get better orgnized in my pantry.

I didn’t want to store my cans on regular or pantry shelves, because I keep a lot of cans (After food shortages during covid, I am always loaded up). I bought 2 of these storage organizers for cans and they are genius, they sit on the floor of my pantry and keep everything neat and tidy!
My pantry is smaller than any pantry I’ve ever had. I needed a place to store snacks but where?. These baskets look so pretty, and they take up no room on the back of my pantry door! I even bought a smaller one to fit on the wall for seasoning packets – love it.
I purchased these food storage containers for my flour, sugar, pasta etc and I love them, I purchased some cute signs so I know what’s in each containers.

3 Genius Cabinet Organization Ideas (to Achieve Clutter-Free Counters)

Tip #1 Put Shelves on Cabinet Ends

Consider maximizing the vertical space on your kitchen cabinet ends by installing open shelves.

By setting up open shelving, you’ll have extra space to store cooking utensils, cookbooks, large cookware, and other things that shouldn’t be on your counters. Doing this will leave your counters clutter free.

Tip #2 Invest In Cabinet Add-Ons

There’s a lot of unused cabinet space in your kitchen you probably aren’t aware of. You can add extra storage in different areas of your cabinets.

For example, fixing wooden knife racks on the inside of your cabinet doors and adding extra shelves inside your cabinets, to name a few

Tip #3 Efficient Use of Cabinetry

To avoid cramping up your kitchen counter space, use your cabinets efficiently.

For example, you can install drawer dividers inside your cabinet drawers to create more space to place items that don’t deserve a prime spot on your counters.

Drawer Organization Ideas (to Achieve Clutter-Free Countertops)

Tip #1 Use One Junk Drawer Only

Being the hub of your home, your kitchen is bound to be littered with the most random items ever. Make sure you store all the junk items in your kitchen in one drawer, or better yet, don’t have a junk drawer at all.

I got rid of miy junk drawer when we moved into this house, I have always hated a junk drawer and I owed not to have one here, and so far I have not needed one and I love that.

Containing all these unnecessary things in a single drawer will ensure they don’t end up on your counters.

Tip #2 Hide Knives and Paper Towels

If the presence of paper towels and knife blocks on your kitchen counter makes the room look too busy, install a pullout knife organizer and paper towel rack inside one of your cabinets.

My sister in law got a gift of one of these and I thought it was brilliant for getting these off your countertops, if, you have an extra drawer you can use that is.

Tip #3 Look for Stylish Kitchen Tools That Save Space

There are so many space-friendly yet aesthetically pleasing storage units on the market today that you can use to store stuff and free up valuable counter space.

Think of tiered organizers, collapsible food storage containers, and foldable cutting boards, to name a few. I used to have spices sitting on my kitchen countertops, until I bought these and cleared up valuable counter space by storing them in my cupboard.

Kitchen Countertops Clutter Free: Conclusion

Keeping your kitchen counters clutter-free will make a huge difference in your life. When you have your kitchen countertops clutter free, you will want to keep it that way!

There’s nothing as frustrating as having to dig through overstuffed countertops to find what you need or having to clear everything from your counter every evening just to create enough workspace for food prep.

Having an organized countertop is a life-changer.

By implementing these decluttering ideas, chaotic kitchen countertops will be a thing of the past in your home.

What are your go-to tricks and habits to keep your kitchen countertops clutter-free? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!