A Cute Way To Declutter Your Kitchen Counters

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We are still in spring cleaning mode here so I’ve been organizing and cleaning everything. My focus this past weekend was on our kitchen. Since it’s the most used room in our home it’s the hardest to keep clean. Every time I think all the dishes are done I discover another one in the sink!

While spending all that time in my kitchen I dreamed of one day being able to update it. I’d change up the color palette to reflect my style, update the appliances and add more counter and cabinet space. I’ve been entering contests (like this Scotch-Brite™ Scrubstakes one where someone will win a $20,000 kitchen makeover for sharing if they are team sponge or team dish cloth-I’m team sponge btw!), in hopes that I can update my kitchen sooner rather than later. There are so many things I’d want to change but in the meantime I have to make do with the kitchen space I have.

Yesterday one of the things I worked on was cleaning and organizing my countertops. A lot of things tend to get left on the counters, from cups to mail to items bought at the store that never found their way in to the pantry. Since we have such a small home, our counters get crowded very quickly. To declutter the sink area and make it look nicer I used a metal cake stand to hold things that needed to stay out. Now, instead of things just sitting on the counter, they had a home and were part of the decor.

The first things I did was put dish soap in a pretty container instead of setting it out in the bottle it came in. I used a mason jar with a pump on the top and added some decorative ribbon to it.

Along with the dish soap I put out some sponges in a sponge holder that would keep them upright and allow them to dry. Sponges have always been my kitchen cleaning tool of choice. I used them as a child when I did my chores and I still prefer them now as an adult because they make cleaning up messes so much easier. I really love the ones that have scrubbing sides so that I don’t need to use as much effort to wash the dishes or scrub the stove top.

Since we go through a lot of sponges I like to buy the multi-packs so we don’t run out. We bought our Scotch-Brite sponges at Food 4 Less in the cleaning aisle. Make sure to grab the coupon below from coupons.com before you head to the store! You can save $1 on any two packs.

There are a variety of sponges and I recently learned that each has different uses and is designed for specific surfaces. I used to use the same sponge for everything not realizing that I was ruining my non-stick pans and porcelain sink with materials that weren’t meant for those surfaces.

Now we mainly use two different types of sponges- Scotch-Brite® Heavy Duty Scrub Sponges and Scotch-Brite® Non-Scratch Scrub Sponges.

Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scrub Sponges (the green ones) are great for the kitchen, garage and outdoors. They can be used on pots, pans, oven racks, grill racks, tools, tires and sinks. They also clean tough, baked-on messes 50% faster than other competitive sponges.

Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch Scrub Sponges (the blue ones) can be used on Non-Stick cookware, counter tops, cook tops, tubs, shower tile, windows, and dishes. They can safely clean non-stick cookware without scratching surfaces.

I’d love to hear how you keep your kitchen clean and organized. Share your tips in the comments below.

Find more kitchen tips and inspiration here.