Modern Homemakers

No to Krazy Kitchens: 9 Hacks to Keep Your Kitchen Clean and Clutter-free

by Kevyn Gohu
April 2, 2024

Nothing annoys us more than a cluttered and messy kitchen. Here are some hacks to ensure it stays clean and organized!

A cluttered kitchen is demoralizing. When we look at it, we can picture how much messier it’ll be when we start cooking. And when our counters are stacked with tools, appliances, and ingredients we don’t need, we end up having a smaller space to work on. It’s easy to get distracted and overwhelmed, and it can even be an excuse for us to just avoid being in there altogether.

On the flip side, a clean kitchen is a haven for cooking many delicious meals. From creating one-pot dishes like the usual pasta or rice cooker recipes because it’s easier to store and clean, meal planning, or just cooking one big meal for everyone, you can exercise total command in your domain if your space is clean, well-kept, and organized.

Here are some kitchen hacks to keep the space clutter-free!

9 Hacks for a Clean and Clutter-free Kitchen

1. Use existing jars from our bottled goods to store spices.

What usually causes clutter is all the spice bottles that we buy whenever we need to restock on items such as granulated garlic, minced garlic, black peppermill grind, ginger powder, onion powder, Spanish paprika, and the like. Instead of buying more bottled spices, you can just buy the sachets or pouches—which are much cheaper—and refill your existing jars.

You can also use the jars from bottled goods like sardines and tuyo, or preserved meats and sauces as containers for your spices. These jars are airtight, which stops your spices from clumping up. They can even hold more spices than the regular little bottle!

To remove the label from these old jars, some prefer using a label remover, but we’re more fond of using hot water, soap, and a bit of oil. Since soap is slippery, it helps the label slide off, while the oil gets rid of any sticky residue left.

2. Practice your knifework.

Nothing like going back to basics! And while gadgets that supposedly make cutting, chopping, and processing easier are convenient, they are also, in a way, part of the clutter. Yes, some dishes like cauliflower rice are better done in a food processor, but chopping garlic still requires us to use a knife anyway because we have to peel it open.

What’s more, knives give you better control over the size of whatever it is you are chopping—plus they’re easier to wash.

3. Keep old juice bottles to store soy sauce, oils, or non-acidic sauces.

We often indulge our sweet tooth by drinking bottled juices. Since the plastic is food-grade anyway, give it a quick rinse and use it to store leftover condensed milk, soy sauce, or hot sauce from all our take-outs. Bottles are as big as 1L (with some soda brands going for as much as 1.5L) and have tight caps to prevent spilling in the fridge.

We don’t recommend plastic bottles for vinegar or acidic sauces because they wear down over time. If you’re drinking soda from glass bottles, you can use those instead and plug it with a cork or cover it with silicone bottle plugs, which you can buy online.

4. Use the oven for storing pans.

Although we have cabinets, storing pans in there means having to check if there are lizard or rat poop and/or wood shavings in it. This just means extra work for us, as we have to wash them again before and after using them.

Ovens are much more secure, as they are designed to keep heat in. This comes in handy, especially if we use our pots and pans often. And if we only have small pans, they’ll most likely fit! To prevent mold from building up inside, make sure to dry the pots and pans well.

5. Practice the Matryoshka doll principle but with pots!

Even little toys can give us storage ideas for the kitchen! The Russian matryoshka doll, also known as the nesting doll, demonstrates how we can store our pots. This kitchen hack involves putting the smaller pots within the bigger ones. Keep going until the biggest one is left. Then, cover it with the lid.

At least now, only the covers need their own space which we can usually just put on a rack.

If our family loves those soups in sachets then, we can store them in cookie tins or the buckets for biscuits instead. The best part is that they have a cover, they’re airtight, and for the bucket—it comes with a handle to easily pull out of the cabinet.

So if we’re the kind who love to snack, it’s time to put those cookie tins to good use as a food container instead of a sewing kit!

7. Kitchen countertop trashcans are a must!

Nothing annoys us more than a messy countertop filled with all the trimmings and peelings of our ingredients while we’re cooking! To prevent that, keep two countertop trashcans: one for dry trash like plastic wrappers, and foil, while using the second one for food trash. The dry trash can go to our local recycling hub while the food trash can be turned into compost for aspiring plantitas or plantitos!

To clean the trashcans less, you can use paper bags as liners for dry trash and plastic bags for the wet trash. Or if there’s no room on the countertop, there are “floating” trashcans that you can hang on the cabinet doors below the counter. It’s also easier since we can just sweep them all in.

8. Use metal shelves or buffet cabinets instead of wood.

Wood may be nice to look at and all, but that’s only if we don’t cook in the kitchen. All that oil, fumes, flavors, and scents end up getting absorbed into the wood. Eventually, the cabinet will become a nest for all the bugs because they smell food in it.

Unfortunately, this can also damage wood in the long run, which can be costly to repair or replace. Metal, unlike wood, isn’t porous, so you don’t have to worry about infestations. It’s also easier to clean compared to wood since water can warp and destroy wooden cabinets.

9. Have mesh nets for the drains!

Bugs thrive in clogged drains and having those mesh nets to catch food debris keeps those invaders to a minimum. It’s also easier for us to throw scraps and wet trash away since it’s all in one place. Mesh nets are also useful in keeping solids away from pipes or grease traps, as these can clog and be a pain to clean out.

Some plumbers also shared that to preserve the drains from building up oil, pour hot water down the drain every other night—even more so when we cook oily food. The mesh nets won’t be able to catch the liquid gunk after all!

These kitchen hacks help keep our space clean, too!

With fewer things in the kitchen, it means less things to clean, too. Because of all the grease and grime building up from both heavy and light cooking, the kitchen becomes a potential source of germs and bugs.

At the same time, kitchens are getting smaller. Not many people cook now because it’s so easy to order delivery. These kitchen hacks at least will assure us that nothing’s growing in our walls. But that doesn’t mean neglecting the kitchen. After all, it has served us well during the pandemic and it’s what fed us during Holy Week when all the restaurants were closed for the holidays!