After posting photos of my kitchen on Instagram, I seem to get a lot of questions. I’m surely not perfect at keeping my kitchen clean, but our kitchen is the heart of our home – and is literally in the center of it – so it makes me motivated to keep it clean. (Also, a clean kitchen has been ingrained in me from a young age. Thanks, mom!) We have an open concept home so they kitchen is central to everything on our main level. While I personally wouldn’t want a dirty or messy kitchen in general, this placement of the room just makes it that much more imperative to me to keep the mess under control. I believe if we live in clean and simple environments, that energy can transfer to the rest of our mindset, actions and lifestyle, too.

A few things come to mind when I first get asked about a clean kitchen:

• (Mostly) clear counters
• Designated spots for chaos
• Clean floors
• Nightly routine

 

Clean Counters

If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have anything sitting on our counters, because that’s just what I prefer. But, reality is we have to have some things sitting out. Yes, I even had a hard time adding our Vitamix blender to our counter space – my husband had to convince me to leave the base out, but I wanted to claim that prized counter real estate for blank space. We do use that item enough though to justify leaving it out. (Seriously, the blender is SO good!)

Here are my top recommendations to keep things off your counter:

• Hanging basket: Hang a basket below your cabinets to be a catch all for things you set out now. Bananas, bread, little snacks and avocados are examples of what I keep in my basket. I love how it’s lifted off the counter + keeps everything contained. You can literally pick any basket with handles and just use hooks and hardware to attach it to your cabinet. My recommendation would be this basket and this + this hardware. (hook + chain)
• Hanging paper towels: Just another thing you can lift off your counter! Rather than purchase this paper towel holder, buy this one instead.
• Have a home for everything: Have a place for items. Have a designated cabinet or drawer for everything so there isn’t any question on where things get put away. One other thing I have sitting out by our stove is a container for utensils. As long as it’s pretty, I’m okay with that. ? Check out this container, or this one.
• Make a “junk drawer”. 

Designated Space for Chaos

The “make a junk drawer” recommendation is actually what I would call a designated spot for organized chaos. I have a drawer in our kitchen that I can throw miscellaneous items into that would normally clutter our counter. Little toys, sunglasses, pony tail holders, you name it. It gets scooped up by me if it’s sitting out and put into this “junk drawer” because out of sight, out of mind, right?! I then clean this drawer out every few weeks to put things away appropriately, or more often than not, many of the items just get tossed in the garbage because they were just little knick-knacks anyway.

Clean Floors

I have a love-hate relationship with the dark floors in our house. On the one hand, they are very beautiful. And on the other hand, they show every. little. thing. With a dog, two little kids, a husband and a high traffic area in throughout the lower level of our home, it feels nearly impossible to keep our floors clean. But, clean enough is good enough for me. So, two things that help me do so:

1. Our cordless vacuum. This Hoover is my absolute favorite and it’s affordable. I seriously don’t think I could live without this convenience.
2. Our Norwex mop. If not the Norwex mop (so simple because it only uses water!), I’m spot wiping with baby wipes. Because in motherhood, I’ve learned very quickly that baby wipes are good for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. ☺️ {My friend Lauren is my Norwex master. Tell her I sent you!}

I have to say – The vacuum is a life saver. I keep it in our pantry and recharge it every few days. I literally zip around the kitchen a few times a day without even thinking about it. Gets all the crumbs up and I don’t have to mess with a broom – ever. It doesn’t have any bags and is super simple to empty the canister.

Nightly Routine

My nightly routine consists of cleaning up the kitchen after the kids are in bed. I don’t leave dishes in the sink or pots + pans on the stove. Counters get wiped down, floors get another once over if need be. Dishwasher is loaded and set to a delayed start later in the evening. It allows me to end the day with some organization and it’s welcome, knowing I will wake up to a clean and fresh start in the morning. For some, this may feel like just another thing to do at night, but once you get into a routine, I promise it helps. I’m usually in the kitchen anyway at night, packing lunches or prepping items for the next day, so it’s easy to do a final clean up. Some days it only takes me five minutes to put everything away and wipe everything down and other days takes me a few extra minutes if I have a few dishes to wash or wet dog prints streaked across the floor. Either way, it leaves me feeling good that the mess is cleaned up + allows me (us) to wake up happy.

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If this seems overwhelming to you, take a few baby steps: find a place for everything in your kitchen, hang a basket and designate a junk drawer. Slowly implement the rest and you will be well on your way to conquering the secrets to a clean kitchen.

As for me, I’m working to create this type of system and organization in our back entry because our “drop zone” as our builder so nicely named it, is literally just that: a drop zone for any and all miscellaneous items. Thank goodness for now I can’t see it from our main living area, so it doesn’t bother my minimal + clean tendencies. But, it would be nice to carry over these principles that work so well in the kitchen to that space, too.

Sending you simple, clean + happy vibes, friends! ✌

XO