5 Easy & Quick Habits To Keep a Messy Kitchen Tidy

Did you know that in order for a new habit to stick you need to feel instantly successful, even if it’s small? That’s why easy cleaning habits that you can implement quickly work better than big changes that are harder to follow.

This is why in this post I’ll show you 5 new cleaning habits you can try right now that are easy and quick to do so you can see the difference they make right away.

Because keeping your kitchen clean is not only essential for your mommy’s sanity, but also for your productivity, which impacts your income.

But you don’t have to be a cleaning-obsessed kitchen wizard to turn your kitchen into a messy-free zone, I am certainly not. It really just comes down to finding habits that work for you.

You can make a few small changes, and see massive (sparkling clean) results.

Maybe a dirty kitchen gives you anxiety or affects your sleep. Seriously, that’s how much a messy kitchen can affect your mood and productivity. And that’s why it is so important to put easy habits in place so that your kitchen stays mess-free.

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I don’t know about you, but when I have a messy kitchen (or a messy house, for that matter), I cannot concentrate on blogging until I clean it up.

And it doesn’t take a lot for my kitchen to get messy because most days I only have a very brief window when my baby is sleeping to open my laptop to work on my blog and do the chores. And of course, I would rather spend my valuable free time writing rather than cleaning.

And so I find myself constantly having to decide what to do first – write a blog post or empty the dishwasher?

However, I know that if I don’t empty the dishwasher now, the dirty dishes will start piling up next to the sink and I’ll run out of bowls to prepare food for my baby, and then I’ll just wing it and use something else and soon the kitchen is a big mess.

So the trick to making the most of my free time as well as getting more work done is to get on top of my kitchen and prevent it from getting messy. Because the truth is that if one area gets messy, other areas get messy too. Luckily it’s the same the other way around. If one area is clean, I tend to keep other areas clean too.

And with that, here are my 5 super easy and quick habit tips you can do to prevent your kitchen from getting messy so that you can sit down in peace and focus on your blog (If you need help getting started you might want to check out my FREE tutorial here that teaches you how to set one up step-by-step).

Here are my top 5 habit changes I kicked into place to a clean, messy free kitchen:

1. I empty with my shopping bags and put everything away

Before, I would just dump my shopping bags on the floor and unpack them later when I had time. Some days they would sit there for days and I would step over them.

Now I make a conscious effort to unpack them RIGHT AWAY.

You’d be surprised how easy and quick it is to pack all your groceries away and it gives you this weird sense of achievement to replenish your stocks.

I also put my shopping bag back in its dedicated space ready to be used again next time.

2. I open my mail immediately

We have a “man tray” on our kitchen counter, which, you’ve guessed, can get messy.

Usually, the man tray becomes a dumping ground for mail, flyers, and supermarket magazines (because there was a recipe SOMEWHERE that I wanted to save. Does that sound familiar to you?) But now I deal with my mail and all lose papers immediately and decide whether to keep it or to recycle it.

And yes, that also means throwing out the supermarket magazines with the gazillion recipes I want to make but am, realistically, never going to make.

My mindset around this has changed and I no longer want to hold on to all these “someday I’ll make these recipes” because they are readily available everywhere. If I wanted to cook it I could easily pick up a new magazine or scroll through Pinterest when I am ready to cook. But I prefer to have a clean kitchen counter instead of feeling weighed down by all the paper clutter.

The same goes for mail. I’ll open it, read it and either throw it in the recycling bin, or I put it in my folder where it belongs.

3. I “treat” myself to using the dishwasher

Normally I don’t like dishwashers because I am a bit funny about the smell.

But now that I have a baby, I value my time a lot more than getting hung up by the smell. That means I don’t want to waste my time on things I could get done without involving myself. And one of these big time-saver to keep the kitchen clean is to throw everything into the dishwasher.

And I mean it when I say everything because this is my only rule: nothing gets hand washed. Everything goes in.

Because if I “only” wash the pots then that results in the pots drying next to the sink and the kitchen looks messy again. Putting it in the dishwasher means, my kitchen looks clean and everything is neatly tucked away.

It’s also a nice feeling to know that I can afford my dishwasher tablets and don’t have to use them like only on rare occasions (believe it or not, but I used to think that the dishwasher is something that should only be used on rare occasions).

I know this is just a small thing, but if you want a clean mess-free kitchen, then don’t cut corners as your mental health and productivity will benefit from it massively. Just imagine how good you’ll feel to wake up to a clean kitchen every morning? So go on mommy, treat yourself to a load of dishwashers tonight (even if it’s not completely full. You can always run it on an Eco cycle as I do).

4. I put cooking appliances away

I love my air fryer, steamer, and flat sandwich toaster.

Seriously, that flat sandwich press is the coolest piece of equipment ever. I made scrambled eggs on it, mushrooms, toasted sandwiches, or pumpkin. It turns out perfect every time!

Gosh, these kitchen gadgets are so time-saving and I use at least one of them on a daily basis.

And because of that, I used to just leave them out “for next time”, cluttering up the kitchen counter. That’s why now I wipe them down and put them away instead to keep my kitchen mess-free.

And now that I have to grab them off the shelf to use them, it feels even more exciting, kind of as if I am using them for the first time.

5. I wipe kitchen surfaces daily

Do you only wipe your kitchen counter when it “looks” dirty? I used to do that too. But not anymore. Now I wipe my kitchen surfaces daily for a number of reasons.

1. It forces me to move any item on my kitchen counter or next to the sink and then rule 1 applies: I deal with it. That means I either throw it out, put it back to its place or recycle it.
2. But I also like how clean it looks without water splashes, crumpets or small avocado pieces splattered all over it. A wiped down kitchen looks less messy and gives me that finishing touch I need to sit down to work on my laptop in peace.
3. Sometimes I decide to work from my kitchen counter and then it just feels nice if I can put my laptop down on a clean surface, rather than a cluttered kitchen counter. You might also feel like using your kitchen as an office some days and just imagine how good that would feel to sit down in a spotless, mess-free kitchen. YAH!

To wipe down my kitchen surfaces I prefer to use plant-based antibacterial wipes. But whatever you prefer, don’t forget your rubber gloves to protect your skin and also your baby’s skin from chemicals, no matter how soft they claim to be (that’s why they are a MUST).

Closing thoughts on my top 5 habits to keep a messy kitchen tidy

As I mentioned before, I am a firm believer of how you do one thing is how you do everything. That means that if your kitchen is messy, chances are that this messiness shows up in other areas, for example, your finances or your business. That’s because we tend to do things in a certain way, regardless of the subject.

To give you an example of what I mean by that is:

Let’s say, if you always leave your empty coffee mug next to the sink for days, chances are that you’re also having a lot of tabs open on your laptop, half-read ebooks and courses you started but didn’t finish and a gazillion half started a blog post but non published.

Do you see what I mean?

Whereas if you force yourself to deal with the coffee mug right away by putting it in the dishwasher, chances are that you also wrote and published one blog post that day, because you don’t just do things half-baked.

I find that to be true for my business and work ethics. For instance, if I let things slip in my personal life, the same things show up in my business. But when I step up my game in my personal life, I also step it up automatically in my business too.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to stay on top of things (most of the time) and that’s why I am always looking for ways to improve my daily habits because what you do on a daily basis ultimately shapes your entire life.

So there you have it, my 5 top habit hacks that help prevent my kitchen from getting messy. These tips are easy to use so go ahead and implement them. You’ll be amazed how it can transform a messy kitchen into a smart, clean environment that will help you to get more work done.

I’d love to know which one of those tips is your favorite and which habit are you going to try?