How to maintain a tidy kitchen

Of all the rooms in a modern home, the kitchen almost always leads the hardest life. It’s the one room where messy activities are routinely undertaken, and usually the only room with enough items to fill numerous cupboards. From white goods to coffee machines and kettles, it contains more appliances than any other apartment. It has worktops which act as a magnet for clutter, windowsills that tend to end up accommodating vases and cookbooks, and drawers which are ideal for stuffing occasional-use items into.

This raises a wider issue about how kitchens often end up being used as dumping grounds. A tidy kitchen might seem unachievable, especially in a busy household or one with young children constantly demanding your attention. Yet there are numerous ways to ensure your worktops remain tidy and your cupboards are always composed.

A place for everything…

The most chaotic kitchens are those where there’s no particular order to where things go. It’s far better to designate one cupboard for crockery and cutlery, another for long-life foods, and so forth. We’re all familiar with the concept of an under-sink cupboard accommodating cleaning products, but other storage spaces should also have specific roles. Not only does this make finding things easier, it prevents clutter and allows you to rotate the items you use.

…and everything in its place

Dedicating a few moments every night to tidying up means you’ll always know where to find lunchboxes, scissors and clean dishtowels the next morning. Dirty pots piling up around the sink are unnecessary if you have a dishwasher, which saves time and labour as well as keeping worktops and draining boards clear. Bread bins and bookshelves keep vital items where they belong, while adding extra shelves inside cupboards could double storage space.

Don’t let drawers become dumping grounds

Drawers are great for shovelling junk into, which is exactly why you shouldn’t. Buy a post rack for mail, keep stationery in a desk drawer, and store spare lightbulbs or cans of juice in a garage/shed/understairs cupboard. Kitchen drawers should only be used for relevant items –full-width cutlery trays that use every available inch of space, for instance. If objects from elsewhere in the home begin stealing kitchen space, clutter and mess become unavoidable.

Clean as you go

Don’t be tempted to go to bed with pots unwashed and worktops unwiped. Not only is this a depressing sight in the morning, it allows germs to fester. After every meal, wipe the units down, rinse out the sink and quickly vacuum the floor – doing the same around the dining

table if you have young children or messy eaters in the family. A multi-section bin helps to recycle as you go, and put items away once they’re not in use to minimise clutter.

Make use of wall space

A Cruden Homes’ kitchen will be generously fitted with a blend of base and wall units, leaving spaces in between. This is the perfect environment to position kitchen roll holders, coffee pod dispensers, knife racks and other space-saving items. Blank walls are ideal for noticeboards, where the inevitable clutter of family life can be housed – birthday party invitations, pens and paper for list-making, and so forth – while preventing them being lost forever in a drawer.

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