Clutter holds serious power over us. Did you know a cluttered kitchen can actually cause you to overeat?! That’s just one example of the power of clutter. That’s why decluttering the kitchen countertops is one of the most important things you can do to take control of your kitchen and reduce the stress in your home!
Want to start eating healthy and lose weight? Want to start saving money by eating out less? It all starts with a kitchen decluttering session! Decluttering your kitchen will make it easier to prepare, cook, and serve healthy, home cooked meals!

PSST… DON’T FORGET TO PIN THIS FOR LATER SO YOU CAN EASILY REFER BACK TO IT!
I don’t know about you, but in our home, there is some kind of magnetic vortex that pulls everything in our house to the countertops!
The kitchen counters are kind of the catch-all for all the random things in our home. The mail comes into the house and ends up on the kitchen counter. We go shopping and bring home bags that end up sitting on the kitchen counter, etc.
I’ve found that one of the best ways to reduce stress in the home is to have a clean kitchen, and that begins with the countertops. Follow the steps below to get rid of the clutter on your kitchen countertops today!
Want to declutter your entire kitchen? Click the button below to sign up for my FREE kitchen decluttering challenge!
How to Declutter Your Kitchen Countertops
1. Take care of the food and dirty dishes.
First, clean up any food and dirty dishes that are sitting around. Load the dishwasher and wash everything in the sink so we can get the easy stuff out of the way before the real decluttering begins.
2. Gather up the things that don’t belong in the kitchen.
Next, begin tackling the things sitting on the counters that don’t belong in the kitchen. That means the paperwork, purses, diaper bags, briefcases, lunch boxes, electronics, books, toys, and random odds and ends that always seem to accumulate in the kitchen.
All of these things should have a place where they belong that ISN’T on the kitchen countertops. If they don’t have a “home,” make one! This is an absolutely essential habit for creating a clutter-free home! Make sure those things always end up back where they belong, and not on your kitchen counters.
If you have a lot of paper cluttering your countertops, it’s super important to come up with a system to deal with all the paperwork that enters your home.
3. Tackle the large appliances.
Large appliances like the microwave, coffee maker, mixer, blender, toaster oven, slow cooker, etc. tend to take up a huge amount of countertop real estate. Make sure that the only appliances sitting on your countertops are the ones you use on a regular basis.
In order for an appliance to “earn” a spot on your countertop, you should use it AT LEAST weekly, preferably even more often than that. If you don’t use it that often, it doesn’t deserve a spot on your counters. It’s only taking up valuable space that could be used for something else.
If there’s an appliance you use, but you don’t use it regularly enough that it needs to sit on your countertops, try to find space in your cabinets, or see if you can relocate it. If it’s something you never use, it’s time to donate or sell it if it’s in good condition. If not, it should be recycled or tossed!
4. Go through the smaller kitchenware.
Likewise, go through any utensil caddies, knife blocks, spice racks, baskets, soaps, sponges, and anything else that seems to have a permanent home on your counters. The only things on your counters should be things you use almost daily–the things you reach for every time you go to make a meal.
If you have things sitting on your counters that you can’t remember the last time you used them and they’re gathering dust, you’re probably better off throwing them away, donating, or selling them!
I thoroughly believe decluttering the kitchen countertops can be a total game changer for your home. You’ll actually be able to use your countertops without needing to push a bunch of junk to the side and move a ton of stuff.
5. Take care of any other miscellaneous counter clutter!
By now, you should have gone through just about everything sitting on your kitchen counters. But if there’s anything we missed, make sure to take care of it now!
If it’s something that doesn’t belong in the kitchen, find another place to put it. If it is kitchen or food related but you don’t use it regularly, it should go in a cabinet or drawer. If it’s something you never use, out of the house it goes!
Get those countertops cleared off and you’ll be amazed at what a world of a difference it makes. The next time you go to cook, you’ll actually be able to use your countertops for their intended purpose!
6. Declutter your entire kitchen!
Now that you’ve decluttered your countertops, you’re on a roll! Want to keep going and declutter your entire kitchen? I created a FREE kitchen decluttering e-mail challenge just for you!
Every day for a week you’ll get a new task that should take no more than 30 minutes. Follow along with the tasks and you’ll end the week with a completely decluttered kitchen. And good news, you already have a head start with your counters! Click the button below to join the challenge.
Running a home is stressful, but it doesn’t have to be that way! It’s my goal to take the stress out of your home life and give you more time to spend doing the things you love. Decluttering your kitchen countertops is one of the ways you can help de-stress your home!
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to pin it for later so you can easily refer back to it! And don’t forget to share it with friends and family on Facebook who could use the help decluttering their kitchens, too!
I am always looking for new ideas and love to see how I can apply them to my home.. Thank you for the many great ideas. My creativity is now inspired. I’m eager to put some of the ideas into practice.
the whole house is one big clutter , this is somewhere to start
I would open my post in the kitchen and create a pile that needed to be dealt with. Of course this pile grew as I only dealt with the really urgent important stuff. While clearing a house I took an old piano-stool, painted it white and reupholstered the seat to match my kitchen chairs. Now I use it to place all those bits of paper and make a point of sitting down for half an hour a month to file/deal with/throw out and my kitchen table is clear.
I never really noticed it, but I just checked our kitchen countertops and it is filled with a lot of things that don’t belong there. Like recipe books not stored away in the cabinet, and pill boxes after taking medicine ha. Thank you for these tips!
Great share! Here in this article, you explained it very well as how can we remove the dirt or tidiness from Kitchen countertops. Thanks for sharing clutter-free kitchen countertops guide!