collaborative post | With limited worktop space and overflowing cupboards in a small kitchen, cooking is more chore than pleasure. In fact, research shows that of all the rooms in the house, 30% of people in the UK consider kitchens the hardest to tidy and organise.
Photo by JOSBRA design on Unsplash
If your kitchen is driving you mad, here are 10 top decluttering tips to help you reclaim the space and finally enjoy cooking again.
Purge Duplicate Utensils
This first step doesn’t cost a penny and can free up lots of space. Empty your utensil drawers and group similar items together. Most of us end up with duplicate peelers, parers, tin openers and wooden spoons. You probably don’t need all of them,
Be ruthless in ditching the duplicates. You can give them to charity or just bin them if they don’t work well, and keep the best ones. Cutting down on the contents of drawers makes it easier to find what you need, when you need it.
Use the Insides of Cupboard Doors
This often-ignored area can actually be a big help when you need additional storage in the kitchen. You can attach adhesive hooks for instant storage of smaller items. Pot lid holders work well, or you could hang measuring spoons, oven gloves, tea towels or even narrow shelves for spices and herbs.
It clears up precious shelf space inside cupboards that’s better used for heavier items like tins or bulky boxes and containers.
Invest in Stackable Cookware
A good set of pots and pans is vital, but traditionally they’re hard to store. With long handles preventing effective nesting, they tend to topple and take up more space than they should.
An alternative would be a set of nesting pots with removable handles. They might be a good upgrade if you’re fighting to find the right pot for the job every day.
Use the Vertical Space
Standard kitchen cupboards tend to be quite tall, ending up with lots of empty space at the top. Freestanding wire shelf risers can sort out that issue immediately but you’ll still be able to easily grab what you need. You can also get wire baskets that hang beneath shelves that also help with minimising empty spaces at the top of cupboards.
Another hack is to use tiered shelf inserts to stack plates and bowls more effectively without creating a wobbling pile of crockery.
Clear the Worktops
With cupboard space at a premium, lots of us end up storing appliances on the worktops. From air fryers to food processors, stand mixers and bread makers, the list grows ever larger. And that’s not counting the kettle and toaster.
If your cooking passion goes in phases, like home baking or bread making, you may have lots of expensive equipment that lies idle for months at a time.
You don’t want to get rid of tools that cost hundreds, so one solution is a small self storage unit or locker where you can safely keep appliances you’re not using. Self storage is also helpful for larger seasonal cookware and accessories, such as best tableware only used on special occasions or large roasting tins that only come out at Christmas.
Other ways to clear worktops of common items include magnetic strips. Use them instead of a freestanding knife block, or to hold metal spice jars instead of having them on a rack. Magnetic strips can also hold other metal items like scissors or whisks.
Switch to Square Food Containers
Square food containers beat round ones hands down. Square ones are easier to stack and take up less space on the shelf.
If you haven’t already, invest in a set of clear, square, stackable containers for dry goods. Label the ones that hold items that are hard to identify (like self raising flour or plain and bread flours).
Decant as much as you can out of the original boxes and into the containers to instantly create a better-organised pantry with no wasted space.
Install a Tension Rod Under the Sink
The under-sink cupboard is often a chaos zone. A common solution is to corral cleaning sprays and liquids in tubs and baskets.
A simple tension rod fitted horizontally across the top of the cupboard is another solution that works well for spray bottles or cleaning cloths. Hang the bottles by their triggers to keep them up off the bottom of the cupboard so there’s more room for bottles, bin bags or whatever else you keep down there.
Don’t let a tiny kitchen put you off being a creative or enthusiastic cook. There are so many storage solutions for kitchens available these days, and hopefully these tips have given you some ideas of your own.
If that’s still not enough, don’t forget the option of inexpensive self storage. When you’ve paid a lot of money for kitchen equipment but don’t have time to use it at the moment, storing it somewhere safe is far better than having to buy again in the future.
