If you only have 30 minutes before guests stop by or just need to pick up your kitchen in order to better focus during the rest of your work-from-home day, there are plenty of ways that you can improve this area of the home in just a short period of time.
We spoke with professional cleaning and organizing experts who share a series of small tasks that you should take in order to improve your kitchen in a half hour and set yourself up for a more organized space in the long run.
Define Your Vision
First things first, you’ll want to spend a few minutes determining your vision and goals for the kitchen, Kristin Ziegler, the founder of Minima, explains.
She encourages people to grab a piece of paper or open up the notes app on their phone to get their thoughts flowing.
“Begin by defining your vision (why does decluttering matter to you) and the zones (serving, prepping, cooking, baking, food storage, and clean-up),” Ziegler says.
Establishing a clear sense of what you would like to achieve will help to give you momentum and clarity as you get started in your space.
Want more cleaning and organizing tips? Sign up for our free daily newsletter for the latest hacks, expert advice, and more!
Make a List of Items to Remove
Next up, you will want to make a list of any items that you see in the kitchen that shouldn’t be there. Ziegler explains how this list can include items to sell, donate, relocate elsewhere in the home, recycle, or toss.
You can begin placing these items in a pile or bin to take elsewhere within the home. Anything that you spot right away that you know you’d like to donate can go in a bag, and expired food items you come across can go into the trash can, Ziegler adds.
Go One Drawer at a Time
A kitchen may seem like an overwhelming space to tackle quickly, but going drawer by drawer makes the process feel more manageable.
Jessica Litman, the founder of The Organized Mama, recommends going through one drawer at a time and removing anything that doesn’t belong there. She suggests putting these things in a pile on the counter (you can sort by what you’d like to keep versus donate and then place these items into designated bins or bags) before going on to the next drawer and repeating the process.
“This will help you declutter quickly because you aren’t taking everything out all at once, which does take a lot of time to put back together,” she says.
Create a Maybe Bin
When you only have 30 minutes to tackle a kitchen, you can’t be expected to make a final decision about whether or not to hold onto every item in sight. This is where a “maybe” bin comes into play, Litman notes.
“Set a reminder date on your phone to check that bin in about a month,” she says. “If you need that item during that month, you know where to find it and can then feel confident to store it in your kitchen.”
Items that you haven’t reached for at all are ones that you can feel comfortable selling, donating, or throwing away.
Put Away Stray Items
Your kitchen will look and feel cleaner in a short period of time if you make an effort to deal with stray items that do belong in the kitchen but don’t belong sitting out. Katie Lambert, the founder of Clean Queen Cleaning Services, shares a few tips as to where to begin.
First, put dishes into the dishwasher or drying rack as appropriate. Next, you will want to keep your counters clear and put away anything that is taking up space but can instead be tucked away. You will then want to do a quick wipe down of your space and make this a regular habit every day.
“Wiping down your counters, stove, backsplash, and hood will help grease from building up which can be very hard to clean off once there is build-up,” Lambert explains.
