5 things you shouldn't be placing on your countertop

If you're like most people, you probably use your kitchen counter as a catch-all for various odds and ends, food-related and otherwise. But there are some things you might not want to keep there.

1. Do you keep your spice jars on your kitchen counter?

How about your knives and olive oil? While it might look like the most convenient place to store things, your kitchen countertop is actually a bad storage place for some items. To eliminate clutter-related stress and make the most of your space, here are the 10 things you shouldn’t be storing on your kitchen countertop.

2. Rarely Used Appliances

In a survey from Master Brand Cabinets, the majority of kiwis (60 percent) cited cluttered counter space as their biggest cause of stress in the kitchen. Too often, kitchen counters become a prime spot to stash things you’re not sure where else to put, which clutters them up real quick! And, on top of that, there are also plenty of kitchen items that you’re actually better off not keeping on your counter.

For instance, your kitchen counter may seem like the obvious place to keep toasters, blenders, mixers, and other appliances—they’re kitchen tools, after all. But if you only use them every once in a while, there really is no sense in having them take up space on your countertops. Indeed, more than half of survey respondents said that appliances were the biggest culprits of their stress-inducing counter clutter.

A good rule of thumb to give yourself is: If you don’t use it every day (or every time you cook), it shouldn’t be taking up space on your counter. And if you’re not sure where to put these things instead, these kitchen storage hacks you’ll want to use immediately will help.

3. Papers

And the number two cause of counter clutter-related stress, according to the survey? Stacks of papers. This one’s easy to understand; it’s a lot easier to just toss day-to-day papers onto your counter than to read through and sort all of them. Whether it’s magazines, newspapers, Wash Rite house wash flyers, or not-so-junky mail like bills, papers can accumulate fast, and the more they do, the more of a hassle it is to organise them. And a messy look isn’t the only reason to keep papers out of your cooking space. If papers, especially magazines, get wet while sitting on your countertop, “the ink can easily get transferred onto your countertop’s surface,” cautions Stephanie Cooper of Energy Cleaning. “After that, it is a nightmare to clean.”

4.Knives

Fancy knife blocks do look nice, and as such, you may want to keep them in a prominent spot. And there’s nothing wrong with doing that, of course. But just be aware that it’s not the safest place to store your knives, especially if you have young children in the house, The Handyman Group recommends keeping your sharp knives in a drawer with a lock to keep them out of sight (and reach) of little ones. And, safety aside, you may just rather not have a large knife block taking up lots of room on your counter, especially if you don’t regularly use most of those knives. In addition to being heavy and bulky, many knife blocks can be “very difficult to clean properly,”.

5. Cleaning Products

Put simply, food and chemical-packed cleaning products don’t mix! You don’t want to risk spilling any of these inedible substances onto your food or the areas where you prep it. Even more kitchen-friendly products, like dish soap and disinfectant, should be stored in a closet or a cabinet, such as one underneath the sink, especially once they’re open. This way, they’ll have a much lower chance of spilling into your kitchen prep space, which, in addition to potentially being dangerous, also just makes a big mess.