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The kitchen is one of the first rooms you enter in a home, so it doesn’t take long for it to become an unofficial dumping ground. The counter gets cluttered with groceries or utensils that haven’t found a spot, or the barstool chairs have become a part-time coat rack. Some messes are more obvious than others, but one of the worst offenders is hiding in plain sight. As much as you need to clean the space inside your refrigerator, the outside often needs some decluttering as well.
The fridge door accumulates clutter in a way that blends it into the space. Layers upon layers of paper pile up like the flaky bark of a birch tree, sticking around long after they’re needed. Miscellaneous bits of mail, grocery lists, and any sort of card — holiday cards, business cards, postcards — take up too much space. Magnets fight for territory, holding up the carefully arranged quilt of two-year-old receipts, and you’re left in a constant battle of picking up and re-sticking the same five scraps. There’s nothing wrong with keeping some kitschy charm with children’s drawings or Polaroid photos, but there are better ways to organize your thoughts and memorabilia while sticking to your kitchen aesthetic.
Declutter your fridge door while keeping what’s important
The reason so much stuff ends up on the fridge is because it helps to have eye-level reminders in a place you frequently visit. Once you’ve found a place for the important stuff, you can turn the fridge door into a functional storage space with a few basic items. A transparent magnetic dry-erase board from Amazon is a total game-changer when it comes to keeping kitchen inventory or planning meals for the week. Add a stylish magnetic marker and eraser holder to your cart for convenient access — it’s also great for fun doodles from family and friends.
Not all clutter is bad. If keeping those little things like children’s drawings or Polaroid photos is important to you, putting these items in a frame will keep them safe and make them look like an intentional part of the home. Make new memories by putting together a scrapbook with these items as something guests can flip through as a coffee table book or keepsake to pass on later.
Instead of keeping important reminders on the fridge, scheduling a notification for a certain day and time through a calendar mobile app can help you keep track of upcoming events. Sensitive information such as passwords, bills, or grandma’s top-secret key lime pie recipe is better kept within the confines of a private notebook or online document. Putting all these scrap papers away makes more room to display any magnetic decorations that fit your personal aesthetic, without any clutter.
