The kitchen is the center of the home, after all, who doesn't love food? Unfortunately, it is also an absolute magnet for messes. Dirty dishes, pesky clutter, and crowded countertops plague even the most organized of home-chefs. If only there was a way to simplify the tedious cleaning process that haunts us after every home-cooked meal! Enter Marie Kondo, cleaning expert and star of Netflix's Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Here are 6 incredibly simple tips from Marie herself that you can apply in your own kitchen to shorten cleanup time and maximize your efficiency.
1. Keep Those Counters Clear!
A core principle of Kondo's method is having usable space in the kitchen. Countertops, she advises, should be kept clear when not being used for a direct task like cutting vegetables or preparing a dish. It may seem counter-intuitive (no pun intended), but having that free space will help relieve the crowded feeling that comes with cluttered counters, letting you focus more on cooking and less on how little space you have to do so.
2. Keep Only What You Need
When's the last time you used every pot, pan, and appliance in your home? If you can't answer that question for any of your kitchenware or accessories, it's time to get rid of that item. (And yes, that includes cookbooks too!) Kondo recommends avoiding the hoarding mentality at all costs. It is far easier to cook efficiently when you have easy access to what you need, plus, once you get rid of your collection of unused cookware and appliances, a whole world of space will open up inside the kitchen. Just imagine, clear counters and extra space in the cupboards--I can feel the stress melting away already.
3. Stack Everything Vertically
Kondo's organizational philosophy is simple: maximize space and usability. From years of experimentation, she recommends stacking everything in the kitchen vertically where possible. Think of each shelf or cupboard in your kitchen as having multiple layers, heavy things on the bottom, lighter things on top. Similar to how groceries are bagged, you can incorporate a vertical mentality to just about anything. The only limit is how creative you are, and of course, gravity. To go a step further, try keeping similar categories of items together and in easily accessed places. For example, if you make tea every morning, you could keep the tea itself in a cupboard stacked on top of the tea kettle, with your tea cup, tea ball, and any other accessories or mix-ins nearby. That saved 30 seconds in the morning searching for your favorite mug adds up, and like Kondo says, every little thing helps.
4. Use Organizers to Your Advantage
The most common organizer in the kitchen is the humble silverware drawer, separating forks, knives, and other utensils neatly and in their own compartments. Kondo recommends taking that concept further and spreading it far and wide across the kitchen. Adding racks to shelves and cabinets can clear up space and useful hooks on which to hang items. Using an old shoebox as a spice container is easier to access than a spice-rack and is also vertically stackable. Adding plastic caddies under the sink keep cleaning supplies and sponges within reach. Kondo even mentions that plastic toolboxes can be a wonder for keeping measuring cups and spoons organized along with egg timers, thermometers, and any other small kitchen gear that is so often lost or in a disorganized place.
Keeping a kitchen clean sounds easy on paper, but any home-cook will tell you it is quite the challenge. Following these four simple tips from the tidy mind of Marie Kondo will help transform your kitchen into an uber-efficient workplace that is easy to maintain, clean, and use for generations.
