We are guilty of doing this, aren’t we? After all, that open bag of onions or potatoes lying in the corner of the kitchen floor makes it super convenient when we are cooking. However, storing such food products out in the open isn’t a very good habit as it makes your kitchen look unappealing. Moreover, they also run the risk of being spoiled sooner if kept in the open for too long. Raw potatoes, for instance, tend to go bad very fast when stored at room temperature and when they are exposed to direct sunlight. Hence, foods like these are best kept in a cool place away from prying eyes.
2. Too much clutter on the counter
Take a look around your kitchen countertop. Is it cluttered with a bunch of items like plates, food packets, bottles, small appliances, decorative canisters, or even some gadgets? Too much stuff on your kitchen countertops is a total no-no. The more your counter is cluttered with items, the messier your kitchen will look.
Ideally, there shouldn’t be more than a couple of items there. Make sure, however, that these are products that you use frequently – such as a coffee maker and toaster. You can even use a decorative bowl on the counter to enhance the look of your kitchen. The other items should be neatly hidden behind cabinet doors.
3. Dirty dish towels
A really old or dirty dishtowel lying around your kitchen can take away from your kitchen’s attractiveness. Many people tend to forget about that little piece of cloth and simply keep it hanging on the window or on top of a shelf. However, over time, the kitchen towels get so dirty and crumpled that even a good wash doesn’t make them look fresh. Try and opt for a dish towel made from cotton or microfiber as they won’t crease so easily. Also, the color of the cloth should match your kitchen’s overall interior design.
You need not buy a new kitchen towel every single month, though. Just make sure you clean it frequently and hang it in a way that doesn’t look inelegant.
4. Messy sponges
Another little item in the kitchen that often gets ignored is the sponge. Now, we can’t avoid using a kitchen sponge to wash our dishes but we can make sure that we don’t keep a really old and messy one beside the sink. That dirty sponge can be really unpleasant to look at and totally kills the look of your sink area. Buying a sponge holder is a good solution - they're quite cheap and handy, and they guaranteed to improve the look of the sink area.
Also, make sure that you are washing and replacing your sponges frequently. Depending on how much you use it, a kitchen sponge should typically be replaced once a month to once every two weeks. A dirty sponge isn’t just unpleasant to look at it’s also a hotbed for bacteria.
5. Clutter on the fridge
As tempting as it might be to stick your child’s drawings on the refrigerator door, it’s not the ideal spot for an art gallery. Adding a handful of magnets and sticky notes on the fridge door only makes it look more cluttered and it adds to the general disorganized look of the kitchen. You can keep a dedicated wall in your dining room to hang or attach such decorative items.
6. An open ventilation pipe
Be careful while installing a kitchen hood. It has an open ventilation pipe that may be easy to install but it doesn’t look good once it begins to get dirty over time. Since it’s typically located high up by the ceiling, these pipes are not easy to clean and dust eventually keeps piling up on the folds. A kitchen hood with a plastic ventilation duct system would be a much better idea. It’s easy to keep clean as you can simply wipe it with a damp cloth from time to time and it also looks much better.
7. A sink that is reeling with unwashed dishes
A pile of unwashed dishes in the sink is one of the worst and most common things that make our kitchen look unkempt. This happens in all homes from time to time, especially if we simply throw the dishes in the sink after a meal without bothering to clean them right then. That seemingly minor act of laziness becomes a habit that eventually spreads to everyone in the household. Soon, you will find that your kitchen or dish rack is always reeling with untidy dishes that completely wreck the kitchen’s appearance just by their mere presence.
To avoid such a scenario, make it a rule in the house that no one goes to bed unless all the dishes have been cleaned.
8. Disorganized shelves
Many people stuff their kitchen cabinets with countless plastic containers, cups, bowls, and other utensils. However, a kitchen with disorganized shelves looks untidy and messy. You should hence take time and neatly organize containers, cups, dinnerware, and cookware on your kitchen shelves while getting rid of the things that are just taking up precious space.
To enrich its look, you can arrange the items by size and also ensure that specific items have been placed on specific shelves. That will give your kitchen shelves a more orderly look. You can even try labeling the shelves to make it easier for everyone in the house to find the items they need.
Share this post with those who will find it useful...
