A Practical Walk

When I started getting into decluttering and minimalist videos, I began hearing terms like, “Best real estate in your house” and “What lives here.”

We’re a family of 4. We homeschool 2 high schoolers in this house. My husband is starting a business, this house is his office. I’m starting a small ebay business, this house is also my work space. We sometimes host people, in fact we’ve had a 5th family member staying with us the last few months. I tell you this to explain that this kitchen gets used! We eat 3 meals a day, almost every day that come from this kitchen. Therefore those counters are prime real estate and I need to be wise in what I allow to live on them!

Now, I’d love to tell you that I keep my kitchen counters almost all cleared off, but that’s not the reality. The reality is when my kitchen is cleaned up this is how it looks, this is what I have allowed to live on this prime real estate:

• Fruit bowl and banana hanger.
• Percolator. This guy does get put away occasionally, but because we brew 1-2 pots a day, he usually is right there.
• The kettle on the stove doesn’t get used nearly as often, but because I rarely use 4 burners at one time, it’s not usually in my way.
• The tray to the left of the stove holds things we use on a regular basis: a pitcher of utensils, 2 kinds of oil, butter, 2 kinds of vinegar, salt, pepper, and pepper grinder.
• The spoon holder.

On the other side of the kitchen I have a little metal tray that holds the soap and dish washing things.

I wish that was all that lived here, but in reality we almost always have dishes drying on the racks. And maybe dirty dishes if it’s between meals. My kids take turns and wash dishes after every meal, but when you’re 4-5 people in the house eating all meals and snacks here, there seems to always be some dirty dishes.

Then there’s the breakfast nook. For a while this is where I corrected school work, I liked sitting by the bright window. Then my sprouts took over and it became a plant-mania zone, and looked like this for a while:

Now it’s much more cleared off and can serve as extra work space if I need it.

Also having things hanging helps to keep counters free, like having the microwave on a shelf, and the paper towel holder hanging beside it.

And since we’re talking about orderly kitchen counters, here’s a bonus picture!

Apparently if you put something hot in a blender the top will pop off when you start blending!

What do you allow the most valuable real estate in your kitchen? What lives on your counters?