How to declutter a kitchen, step by step: counters, cabinets and drawers

The short answer. Clear the dining table to use as your sorting space, and have a basket, a box and a trash bag ready, for things that belong in another room, things that leave the house, and trash. Then work one zone at a time: counters, sink, drawers, upper cabinets, lower cabinets, fridge. Empty each zone completely, put back only what gets used in the kitchen, and finish it before you open the next one. Never empty every cupboard at once.

Before you start: a clear table, a basket and a box

A kitchen declutter fails in one familiar way: every cupboard is open, every surface is covered, and dinner still has to happen. The fix is to have somewhere to put things that is not the kitchen itself, and to work on one zone at a time. You need:

• A clear dining table, or any flat surface outside the cooking area. Everything you take out of a zone goes here, so the counters stay usable.
• A "goes elsewhere" basket. For the mail, the chargers, the children's things, the tools that live in the garage. Empty it once, at the end, not one trip at a time.
• A "leaves the house" box. Duplicates, gadgets nobody uses, mugs beyond what the household drinks from. A box rather than a bag, because a lot of it is breakable.
• A trash bag, and a second for recycling. Expired food goes straight in.

Then decide how much you are doing today. Steps 1 to 3 are the part that changes how the kitchen feels. If you only have thirty minutes, do step 1 and stop: a clear counter is most of what makes a kitchen look calm, and it is where you cook.

Step 1: Clear the counters

Take everything off the counter and put it on the table. Wipe the bare counter, lifting the toaster and the kettle rather than wiping around them, because the crumbs live underneath. Then put things back by one rule: does it get used in this kitchen most days? If yes, it can come back. If it is used weekly or less, it goes in a cabinet. If it belongs in another room, it goes in the basket.

What ends up on the counter is usually the same short list: the cutting board, the knives in a block or on a strip, the salt, and the kettle or the coffee maker you use every morning, standing back against the wall. The rest is what counters collect without anyone deciding to put it there: mail, keys, chargers, the fruit bowl, the stand mixer used twice a year. The prep counter zone has the full standard: one clear run at least as wide as your largest cutting board.

The mail deserves its own word. If the counter is where it lands, it is because the kitchen is the first flat surface after the front door, and it will keep landing there until it has a home nearer the door. Put today's mail in the basket and move on.

Step 2: The sink and the cabinet under it

Empty the dish rack and the sink, then open the cabinet underneath and take everything out. This is where cleaning products multiply: four half-used sprays doing the same job, sponges still in their packaging, bags of bags. Keep one of each thing you use, use up or give away the duplicates, and throw away anything empty, dried out or unlabeled.

Before you put anything back, look at the pipes. A drip or a damp shelf under the sink is the one thing in a kitchen declutter that should not wait, and anything you store there will hide it. Put back only what you use at this sink, with the pipes visible around it. The sink and dishwashing zone covers what belongs there, and it is about thirty to forty-five minutes.

If children are in the house, cleaning products under the sink need a child lock, or a higher shelf. Tidy is not the same as safe, and this is the clearest example.

Step 3: The drawers, one at a time

Tip one drawer onto a dish towel on the table, wipe the drawer, and put back only what belongs in it. Give each drawer one job before you refill it: flatware, cooking tools, wraps and bags, and one for everything else. All the drawers together are about fifteen to thirty minutes, except the one drawer that holds everything.

That drawer is its own small project, and it has its own guide. If you are running short of time, leave it and do the rest. A kitchen with three working drawers and one honest junk drawer is still a kitchen that works. The utensil and utility drawers zone has the standard: every drawer closes flush with one push.

At this point you have done the part that changes how the kitchen works tonight. Empty the basket, take the leave box to the car, put the trash out, and stop if you want to. The next three steps are a second session.

Step 4: The upper cabinets

Do one cabinet at a time, emptying it fully onto the table and wiping the shelf before anything goes back. The slow part is the mugs and the glasses, because they arrive as gifts and freebies and nobody counts them. Count the mugs, then count the people who drink from them, and keep a few more than that for guests. The rest can leave.

Put back what you use daily between shoulder and eye height, on the side nearest the dishwasher, so emptying it is a short walk. Things you use less than once a month go on the top shelf. Heavy and breakable things do not go above head height. The upper cabinets zone takes about thirty to forty-five minutes.

Step 5: The lower cabinets and the pans

Empty one cabinet onto the floor, because pans are too heavy for the table. Decide about each pan and its lid together: a lid with no pan goes, and if you own three of the same frying pan, keep the one you reach for. A pan you have not cooked with in a year is a pan you do not need.

Put the two pans you use most nights at the front of the cabinet nearest the stove. Nest no more than three deep, stand baking sheets on end, and keep the cast iron and the heavy pot on the cabinet floor. The standard in the lower cabinets zone is simple: nothing has to come out to reach anything else. It is about forty-five to seventy-five minutes, most of it deciding.

Step 6: The fridge and the freezer

The fridge goes last and gets its own session, about an hour to an hour and a half, because it is mostly sorting food by date and then cleaning the shelves. Do it the day before your grocery shop, when it is emptiest. Take one shelf out at a time, throw away anything past its date or that nobody will eat, wipe the shelf, and put back like with like.

In the freezer, everything without a label is a guess, so label what you keep with what it is and when it went in. If you keep finding food you forgot you had, the reason is usually that it was behind something, and why you keep buying what you already own is about exactly that. The refrigerator and freezer zone has the standard for each shelf.

Your kitchen declutter checklist

• Dining table cleared as a sorting space, basket, box and trash bags ready
• Counters cleared and wiped, with only daily-use things back on them
• Mail and anything from another room in the basket
• Under the sink emptied, duplicates gone, pipes checked for drips
• Cleaning products locked or moved up if there are children
• Every drawer given one job, the junk drawer booked as its own job
• Basket emptied, leave box in the car, trash out
• Second session booked: upper cabinets, lower cabinets, fridge
• Mugs counted against the people who use them
• The two everyday pans at the front, nearest the stove
• Fridge cleared the day before shopping, freezer food labeled

A small kitchen, or a kitchen table that fills up

In a small kitchen the order is the same, but the counter rule matters more. Keep the counter to the things used every day and nothing else, and use the wall and the inside of cabinet doors for what would otherwise sit on the surface: a knife strip, a rail for utensils, hooks for the mugs you actually use. If the cabinets are already full before you start, that is usually too much stuff rather than too little space, and more storage will not fix it.

If the kitchen table is where everything ends up, it is doing the job of a landing spot that the house does not have. Clear it with the same basket, box and bag, then give the things that keep arriving a home somewhere else: the mail by the door, the school bags on hooks, the chargers in one place. A table that has nothing to do except be a table stays clear. The dining table zone covers it if it is in its own room.

Keeping it that way

A kitchen stays decluttered through two small habits, not a big tidy. At the end of the evening, clear the counter back to its short list while the dishwasher runs. When you put the shopping away, the old food comes forward and anything past its date goes. If a counter keeps filling up anyway, find the reason it fills rather than clearing it again: usually something arriving with no home to go to, which is the first of the reasons in why is my house always messy.

Common questions

How do I declutter my kitchen step by step?

Clear the dining table to sort on and get a basket, a box and a trash bag ready, for things that belong elsewhere, things that leave the house, and trash. Then work one zone at a time: the counters, the sink and the cabinet under it, the drawers, the upper cabinets, the lower cabinets and pans, and the fridge. Empty each zone, put back only what gets used in the kitchen, and finish it before opening the next.

Where should I start decluttering my kitchen?

Start with the counters. They are the biggest visible change, they are where you cook, and the decisions are easy: things used most days stay, things used weekly or less go into a cabinet, and things from other rooms go in a basket to be put away at the end.

What should be left on a kitchen counter?

Usually only what is used every day: the cutting board, the knives in a block or on a strip, the salt, and the kettle or coffee maker you use each morning, standing back against the wall. Appliances used once a week or less, the mail, chargers and the fruit bowl all do better somewhere else.

How long does it take to declutter a kitchen?

The counters, the sink and the drawers take about one and a half to two and a half hours together. The upper cabinets, lower cabinets and fridge are about two and a quarter to three and a half hours more, almost all of it deciding, and go better as a second session.

How do I declutter kitchen cabinets?

One cabinet at a time. Empty it completely onto a table, or onto the floor for pans, wipe the shelf, and put back only what you use. Keep daily dishes between shoulder and eye height, things used less than monthly on the top shelf, and heavy pots on the cabinet floor. Count mugs against the people who drink from them.

How do I declutter a small kitchen?

Use the same order, but keep the counter to daily-use things only, and move what would sit on the surface onto the wall or the inside of cabinet doors: a knife strip, a utensil rail, hooks for mugs. If the cabinets are full before you start, there is usually too much in them rather than too little space.

How do I keep my kitchen counters clutter free?

Clear the counter back to its short list every evening while the dishwasher runs, and give the things that keep landing there a home of their own, especially the mail, which belongs near the front door. A counter that keeps filling up is usually a sign that something arrives with nowhere else to go.

Keep reading

• The kitchen, all seven of its micro zones with the full steps and standard for each
• How to organize a junk drawer, for the one drawer step 3 leaves out
• How long does it take to organize a room?, with the kitchen at four and a half to just over seven hours across all seven zones
• Where to start decluttering, for when the whole house feels like too much
• How to declutter a bedroom, the same one-day method for the room you sleep in
• How to organize a garage full of stuff, the same one-zone-at-a-time method for the room everything else overflows into