Keeping the top of your countertop clutter might feel like a never-ending battle. This is because kitchens are the center of most homes, hence they rapidly become a catch-all for all the random things that don’t have a home anywhere else.

When you combine that with their practical function, the surfaces quickly get overrun with junk.

What is the best way to keep your modern kitchen counters clear? You need to make tiny but significant adjustments rather than making large commitments.

When the clutter becomes unbearable, it’s tempting to believe that a major kitchen renovation is required, but as any expert organizer will tell you, it’s the simple improvements that make the most difference.

Adopting a few basic habits and incorporating them into your normal routine will most benefit keeping your kitchen countertops tidy rather than just the short term.

To help you out, here are methods and suggestions for clutter-free countertops that you can immediately implement in your home.

Give your homeless items a place to live.

What’s the first step toward a clutter-free kitchen counter? Providing a home for all of your possessions. It’s all too easy for a stray utensil or a stack of letters to become permanent fixtures on your surfaces, but the key is not to let them stay too long in the first place.

You should allocate them a home. Begin by making room in your cupboards. You should collect anything lying about on worktops, shelves, and tables, and assign it a place. Label the shelves or containers so everyone in your house knows where to return the items.

Get countertop organizers

It may seem obvious, but investing in some creative organizer purchases is one of the finest ways to organize a kitchen. There are some kitchen organizers that no one should live without, from sliding countertop gadgets that make it easier to access your heavy equipment to a good old-fashioned spice rack to keep all your ingredients contained.

Countertop organizers help to ensure that everything in your kitchen has a place. When you lack systems of organization and don’t know where to place things, they’re likely to wind up in general locations, like countertops, where they make the surfaces dirty and ugly. You don’t want this, do you?

Put the dirty dishes in the sink.

We’ve all been guilty of stacking dirty dishes by the side of the kitchen sink or allowing them to accumulate on a spare countertop – especially if you don’t have a dishwasher. Unfortunately, this is a proven way to have cluttered surfaces.

To avoid this, place the dirty dishes, mugs, and glasses straight into the sink to keep your counters clean and neat.

This will keep them out of sight and urge you to wash them once the sink is full, preventing a washing-up marathon later on.

Keep the appliances you don’t use out of the countertops

Countertop gadgets like toasters, coffee makers, and air fryers can make meal preparation much easier, but only when they’re not taking up too much space. If your counters are cluttered with gimmicky equipment you rarely use, put them away when not in use.

Thankfully, it’s a quick and basic task.

Most people rarely use the crock pot, standing mixer, or automated drip coffee maker (they prefer pour-over coffee). Appliances take up important real estate, so consider storing them in a cabinet and enjoying the extra space they generate.

Have a kitchen command center.

Everyone has that one area of the kitchen island or the spot in front of the windowsill where they keep their daily essentials. These can be things like keys, glasses, and letters, which easily pile into small clutter. When it’s been a fixture on your kitchen counters for so long, getting rid of it is easier said than done.

To keep your countertops clean, create a designated drop zone for these often-used things. This could be anything from a fancy catch-all dish to a box or shelf.

A command center will help you keep your paper, keys, spare change, bills, and school assignments off your kitchen’s surfaces.

You can create a command center in a corner of your kitchen or near your entryway by adding hooks, magazine folders, calendars, and whiteboards. It’s all on you and you don’t have to complicate it.

Have a one-touch rule.

If you want to break bad habits with your belongings, decluttering ideas can be life-changing, and the ‘one-touch’ tidying guideline is ideal for kitchen counters. This rule does exactly what it says on the tin. If you pick something up, you have to return it.

Returning an item after using it reduces clutter and saves time.

You should make it a routine to return items to their proper places as soon as you have finished using them. For instance, if you run the dishwasher overnight, unload it as you wait for your toast or oatmeal to be ready in the morning.

That way, anytime you use a glass or another dish, you may rinse it and immediately place it in the dishwasher.

Have a kitchen closure routine.

Kitchens get more traffic than any other room in the house, and while they’re a social hub for the entire family, there has to be a point where you draw the line.

Set a bedtime boundary when everyone should vacate the kitchen so that you can work on it.

You should load and run the dishwasher every night, wipe down the worktops, table, and appliances, put your belongings away, and quickly sweep or vacuum the floor.

You could even go the extra mile and arrange the breakfast table for the morning.

Follow these steps, and before you know it, your entire family will be on board with your structured habits, and clutter-free granite countertops Raleigh will soon become the standard in your kitchen.

best quartz countertop

Marble is known for its beauty and elegance, but that’s not enough when you are looking to install the countertops. You should know how long the countertops will last. How long does marble last? Is a question you should ask yourself.

Natural marble countertops are tough and durable, and when properly maintained, they can last for over 100 years. Cultured marble countertops, on the other hand, need replacement every two decades.

As mentioned, the countertops won’t last this wrong out of the blue—you need to take good care of them. How do you do this? Here is a guide on how to do it:

Clean the countertops

It’s a no brainer that you should clean the countertops to keep them looking clean and polished. While this is the case, be cautious of the cleaning products you are using.

As a rule of thumb, avoid household chemicals, as many of them are known to cause more harm than good.

For best results, go for neutral cleaners containing conditioning agents. If you don’t have these cleaners, use stone soap designed specifically for marble.

When you repeatedly clean the countertops with the right cleaner, you keep your countertops looking fresh, and you add a natural luster to the stone.

It’s normal for spills to happen and when they happen, always move with haste to remove them before they stain your counters.

Avoid grit at all costs.

Grit is the leading cause of scratches on the countertops, so avoid it in your home as much as possible. Of course, you can prevent it from accumulating on your counters by cleaning the surfaces regularly, but you should take it a step further.

For example, ensure everyone removes their shoes when they are getting in the house. If you have many people living in the house, dust mop the floor daily and clean the counters.

Seal the countertop

Like granite, marble is porous, so it needs sealing to prevent water and other liquids from getting into the stone’s inner layers and staining it. For best results, seal the counters at the time of installation and at least once a year thereafter.

When you are in the stores buying the sealing product, go for the highest quality as it will provide a better seal and improve the look of your counters.

Polish the surfaces

With time, it’s common for countertops to lose their factory shine. Don’t fret when this happens or move to replace the counters. Instead, contact a professional and re-polish the counters.

Polishing will remove light marks left by cleaning agents and chemicals, but it won’t remove deep scratches, so if your counters have large, deep scratches, you may have to replace them.

You can do the polishing if you have the skills or hire a professional to help you out. When you hire professionals, they sand the stone with various grinding grits, making the surfaces flat and establishing a new finish.

When hiring the polishing professional, hire experienced ones. The last thing you want is someone to damage your countertops in the name of polishing them.

Protect the surfaces from damage

Although, properly maintained marble is durable, it’s often brittle when mishandled. So for your countertops to last for a long time, protect them from damage by always having coasters, protective mats, hard mats, and other items on the counters to prevent the surfaces from getting damaged.

Never stand or sit on the counters as you risk cracking them. If you have to reach the top shelf, don’t stand on the counters. Instead, stand on a ladder or stool.

Many people sit on the counters when they are having company in the kitchen. To prevent your guest from sitting on the counters, always have a chair in the kitchen so that when the guest tries to sit on the counters, you ask them to sit on the chair instead.

Install a high-quality stone

When you are in the store, you will come across a wide range of marble stones. Some cheap and others expensive. For your kitchen countertops Raleigh to last for long and also have an easy time maintaining it, go for a high-quality stone.

While it will be expensive at the time of purchase, the high cost is worth it.

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Tricks to Keep Your Kitchen Countertops Clear of Obstructions