Mid-week, I typically walk into the kitchen and see something like the scene I saw this morning: cut up bits of veggies littering the cutting board, dirty knives and silverware strewn about, foreign sticky substances spotted on the counters, and too ripe bananas that I failed to make something with before they started to turned brown over my the blender, which has splats of something all over it too… Ew.
As someone who loves to cook and basically makes every meal we eat “in-house”, and as a couple that works from home, our kitchen gets messy really quick if I don’t clean it every single day. And, to make matters worse, I’m one of those people who just can’t work in peace unless the kitchen is at least decent looking. It throws off my vibe or something, I don’t know how to explain it! I can’t stand just walking by and letting all that mess just sit there another day. I can’t ignore it– it just feels wrong, which puts me in a fairly common predicament of trying to stick to a schedule of cleaning the kitchen every day.
That might seem like overkill to some, after all, I could just ignore the mess for a day or two, right? However, I’m actually a firm believer in making the kitchen a space that is clean and inspiring as often as possible. I’ve learned that if a space looks clean and is tidy, I just feel better. I think this is especially true specifically with kitchens and bathrooms (but our bathroom is another post entirely, so let’s stick to the kitchen). That’s why I really take the time to put energy into making our kitchen look clean and pretty– so that I can feel like I can do my best work and be in my best attitude throughout the day.
If you’re like me and have this love/hate struggle going on with your kitchen, here’s some tips of what I’ve learned to keep things feeling fresh and inspiring in this area of your home!
*Image courtesy of Premier Surfaces Kansas MO
No. 1 – Set Up a Cleaning Schedule
Trying to have a set time where I clean the kitchen is a real thing in my life. I do this because it stops me from walking into the kitchen every morning and going on a cleaning spree instead of getting my quiet time in or getting my work done. Knowing that I have time set aside in the evening or even later on in the week specifically dedicated to taking an hour or two to just leisurely do the dishes or get some deep cleaning done helps me rest assured that the mess will be tended to when it’s time and helps me stay undistracted and on schedule– and also keeps me from feeling like I’m all over the place and a real big hot mess.
No. 2 – Incorporate Design Elements that Make You Happy
Over on the right side of our kitchen by our blender, I have a print of one of my favorite Bible verses painted by Ruth Chou Simons that has beautiful watercolor flowers on it. It’s not necessarily conductive to our kitchen and the colors don’t match the backsplash or anything, but it makes me happy when I look at it. I also love looking at the pop of color our bright teal blender gives on the other side of the counter. Things like this are really simple and not even design savvy, but they make me feel inspired and happy when the space is all nice and clean. Another thing that always makes me feel inspired in any space is adding a vase of fresh flowers!
No. 3 – Make it Functionally Fast
When I finally get around to cleaning the kitchen, I don’t really want to take three hours to do it. Ideally, I’d like to keep things to like, 45 minutes at the most if I can! One way to cut down on my cleaning time is to do a little bit of tidying up and rinsing/putting dishes away each night before bed, but aside from that, I try to keep things functional so that I can keep this space inspiring and pretty as often as possible. A couple of ways I do this is to keep most of our appliances and such under the countertops to keep counter space free. I try to only leave out the stuff that looks nice set out, like our Chemex or mixer.
No. 4 – Keep it Simple
When in doubt, I feel like keeping it simple makes everything easier. When we had our first place, a duplex, I remember I tried to set everything out on the counter and have all these platters and plates out and displays of pretty things. But it turned out just cluttered looking. Instead, now, I like to keep things minimal with a few touches of color or fun. This keeps things easy to clean, bright and tidy, and always inspiring.
*Image courtesy of Premier Surfaces Kansas MO
I hope that this post encourages you to love your kitchen and make it a space in your home that brings you joy and not headaches!
*This post is written in paid collaboration with Premier Surfaces Kansas City, MO– the nation’s largest fabricator and installer of custom countertops and surfaces.*
