
Cooking and preparing food in a cluttered kitchen is annoying at best, and utterly dysfunctional at worst. If your kitchen looks messy no matter how recently you cleaned it, you may have less obvious contributors to kitchen clutter that need to be addressed.
In this post, we’ll look at 9 such contributors to kitchen clutter, along with quick and easy fixes that will help you reclaim your space. You might be surprised by the difference in your kitchen once you’ve tackled them!
9 Little Things That Contribute To Kitchen Clutter

1. Small Appliances
Nothing will clutter up your kitchen counters like small kitchen appliances! Take stock of all your small appliances and sort them according to how often you use them. Those you use daily, like your coffee maker, can stay on the countertop if you have space. (Keep cords tidy using my favorite hack!)
Related: This One Easy Hack Will Solve All Your Cord Problems
The appliances you use less frequently should be stored in a cupboard or closet. The idea is to keep them accessible without sacrificing your precious counter space.

2. Ill-Adjusted Shelves
It’s easy to forget that many shelves, whether in your kitchen cupboards or a shelving unit, can be adjusted to different heights according to your needs. Inspect the heights of your shelves to ensure they make sense for what’s stored there.

3. Old Papers On Your Fridge
We all have our tastes and preferences about what we hang or don’t hang on our fridges. I prefer to keep the front of my fridge uncovered, but if you hang stuff on your fridge, clear off old papers or reminders regularly. If it isn’t useful or meaningful in some way, get rid of it.

4. Numerous Cooking Utensils
If you keep a wide assortment of cooking utensils out on your countertop, they’re likely contributing to the cluttered feeling in your kitchen. Choose a few of your most frequently used cooking utensils to keep in a utensil crock, and store the rest in a drawer nearby.

5. Overflowing Junk Drawer
Most of us have a junk drawer in or near the kitchen, and while it’s nice to have a spot to dump miscellaneous items, it can quickly become a hot spot for kitchen clutter! Go through your junk drawer regularly to clear out things you don’t need, and keep the remaining items tidy using drawer organizing bins.

6. Unused Items
Our tastes and eating habits change over time — it’s a fact of life! But hanging onto utensils or appliances you no longer use wastes storage space. For instance, if you stopped drinking fresh juice for breakfast every morning, selling or donating that bulky juicer can free up storage space for something you use more frequently.

7. Mountains Of Junk Mail
It’s easy to let junk mail, bills, and catalogs grow into an unmanageable mountain of clutter. To prevent this from happening, stash your mail in a small basket or letter sorter and sort through it daily. Recycle the unimportant stuff right away to keep things tidy.

8. Numerous Kitchen Gadgets
I love a good kitchen gadget, but it doesn’t take long for them to start cluttering my kitchen drawers. If your gadget situation has gotten out of control, pull them out, take an inventory, and set anything you don’t need aside to donate.
Remember, there are plenty of ways to use your more versatile kitchen tools to do the same job as those “unitasker” gadgets!

9. Bagged Foods
Bagged foods often end up looking cluttered or haphazard, so when you buy foods that come in bags (like dry beans, rice, pasta, or bulk spices), transfer them to stackable airtight containers.
What’s your best tip for keeping kitchen clutter under control?