This morning as I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes, I was thinking about the changes I made when I reorganized my kitchen for my Organize Your Kitchen online video class. It occurred to me that my favorite change was a simple one. I moved my toaster off the kitchen counter and into my pantry. This switch, while simple, made a huge difference in my kitchen. You see, my kitchen is quite small and my toaster is rather large. The toaster simply took up too much physical and visual space on my counter. Moving it provided instant and ongoing clutter relief.
If your kitchen counter is cluttered, it can dramatically reduce your desire to be in your kitchen. There’s a barrier to cooking when you have to clean up before you even start the main project of preparing a meal or baking some cookies. If you can get one big item off your counter and stored elsewhere (like I did with my toaster) it can make a big impact.
So your assignment for today (if you choose to accept it) is to move just one item that currently lives on your counter to another space in your home. The bigger the better. If it’s an item you use frequently, like a toaster, declutter your cabinets or pantry to make space for it behind closed doors. If it’s something you use less frequently, then look for a new storage location in another area of your home, such as in your basement, the storage area in the garage, or a storage closet down the hall.
Once you’ve moved your one item, step back and see how good it feels. Want to keep going? Simply do what you just did one more time.
Remember, sometimes the best organizing ideas are the simplest ones. What simple change can you make today? Share your ideas in the comments!
Happy organizing!
I have been thinking about this! I want to remove my knife block from the counter and put these knives in my silverware organizer (a large section is currently unused). I also want to remove my spice rack from the counter and a cooking utensil organizer. I already have a small enclosed kitchen and all this “stuff” on the counters really makes me dread cooking sometimes
Great idea to move the knife block. Those can take up a lot of space! Spice rack and utensil organizer are good ones to move out of the way, too! Thanks for your comment.
Oddly enough, I had been pondering this very thing! So, thanks for giving me a little, but much needed push! I moved my George Foreman Grill and my vacuum sealer. As soon as I figure outa place to store my toaster, it will go too. Sandy
Great minds think (or ponder) alike! 🙂 Love the idea of moving the Foreman Grill and vacuum sealer, too!
After purchasing a toaster oven that will be used almost daily, I moved my huge Kitchen Aid mixer to my pantry. The mixer was purchased more than two years ago, and I’ve never used it. This change made my kitchen more efficient. In general, I do not like any appliances on the counter, but it doesn’t make sense to pull them in and out every day.
Great inspiration. I moved our small George forman into a space in a cupboard that just recently cleared out and reorganized. One less thing on my counters.
I also don’t like too many appliances on the kitchen counter but we have no pantry, and no cupboards other than one for glasses and plates. Our countertop is our only prep surface, and it’s got no more than 1 1/2 ft (1/2 m?) square accessible workspace.
On the counter there is a soda stream, coffee maker, kettle, toaster, blender.
The coffee maker and kettle are used multiple times per day, the blender/toaster used about 4X/week and the soda stream about 2X/week in winter but a couple of times a day in summer. So I do want them accessible, but short of actually doing an expensive gutting of the (rental) flat on our own (Europe: the renter is responsible for renovation, upkeep and repair, the owner does nothing except collect rent; flats don’t even come with kitchens normally, no cupboards, cabinets, counters, or appliances). You lose a huge amount of invested money when moving from one rental to another, then you also have to pay 3-5 months damage deposit) point being: I cannot afford a true renovation to solve this problem. We are cooks, we use everything, we are also by necessity big purgers of the unused and unneeded.
Of course I wonder if there would be cleverer eyes than mine which could see things I’ve become immune to.
I just did this very thing last weekend. The coffee maker was taking up some much needed space next to the stove so I moved it to another counter. I don’t drink coffee; dh does, but he rarely uses the coffee pot but he prefers to buy his cup of coffee each morning. So I might even move it to inside a cabinet in a few weeks or so.
This has made a very big difference in counter space when prepping meals. Now there is a wide open space right next to the stove, making things much easier when cooking.
My simple change involved a toaster, too!
Last month, we found a great four-slice toaster at Salvation Army, so that went on our counter (’cause we use it almost daily), and our old two-slice toaster went into an already-crowded cupboard in my baking center, making it hard to put away the other appliances that are also stored there.
I’m not ready to part with my old toaster yet, but after reading Aby’s article, I decided to relegate it to remote storage in our basement. I hopped up to do it RIGHT NOW. This meant I could finally put the rice cooker and crock-pot that had been sitting out for days (weeks?) back into the cupboard. Then I took care of the dirty cup, partial grocery list, and pen that I’d left on the counter a few days ago. Once those were gone, I really noticed the big box of granola bars and the bag of taco seasonings that needed to go into the pantry. (Amazing how clutter becomes a magnet for more clutter!) Then I wiped off my baking center, cleaned up a couple of the cannisters, and felt really GOOD about my accomplishment. Now I can go to bed with peace of mind.
Amazing what a BIG change and LITTLE change can make!
I put my mixer on the counter because i did not use it much when it was in a cupboard, but after som weeks i realize that i do not use it much more now when on the counter. So this mixer will go back in the cupboard. Will keep you posted about the effect.
Nice shared experience here, love it!
Lili from Provence, France
My Mr. Coffee coffee pot broke early in the summer and I began relying on my french press daily. I keep looking at coffee makers as I’d like one that drips right into the carafe but, they are so large and I really like not having a coffee maker on the counter. Please don’t suggest a keurig I don’t like them the expense and the plastic taste. My mixer has always been in the dining room on the floor shelf of a built in corner hutch. It is not convenient.. but I love not staring at the mammoth thing.
I wanted to have a different place for our coffeemaker, grinder, and the jar of the beans. It took up a lot of visual space on our counter. I couldn’t decide where else to put it, but decided at a flea market to buy a cabinet that fit in the space beside my kitchen counter and used the top as a “coffee center.”
We love it–moving the coffee maker to the top of that cabinet has such a nice effect on the total look of the kitchen. My girlfriends, who didn’t quite understand what I was doing, love the result. Now I have wonderful room on the cupboards above the dishwasher. It’s amazing what a little space will do to the look of the kitchen.
Now I think I will take your advice on moving the toaster. It sits in the corner area of my stove and would make a dramatic difference to move it. I use it a couple times a week, but my husband rarely does.
Great idea to move the coffee maker to the little cabinet. Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks for the inspiration! I just cleaned up my counters, including moving the hot water pot (my only appliance that appears to have taken up permanent residence on my counter) into the pantry. Tomorrow is going to be baking day, so I won’t have to clean anything up in order to have plenty of counter space. Yeah! A clean kitchen feels so good.
Hi Aby
I read you article & I totally agree with you , just a single move can change give better look to kitchen. my kitchen i little bit compact i kept all the snack boxes under the dinning table as my dinning table covers lots of area,well it really looks so clean and even i am enjoying more in kitchen compare to past days. Thank buddy 🙂
wow this really make sense…This post is so inspirational, I love doing this in my kitchen too as my kitchen is too packed and i need to manage it. Thanks Aby