If your home was Miami, your kitchen would be Brickell: lots of hustle and bustle, and some people never seem to leave it. Because of that, the kitchen can become cluttered and disorganized very quickly. To maintain aesthetics and balance it with functionality, we always work to design kitchens for our clients that maximizes space and minimizes clutter. 

By implementing items with more storage space and choosing appropriate spaces for particular objects, you can restore visual harmony with your kitchen while enhance functionality in the process. 

Here’s how to design a kitchen to minimize clutter:

Only Keep Everyday Items on Your Countertops

And when we say everyday items, we really mean all day everyday items. Just because you use your toaster every morning doesn’t mean it needs to have its own corner of your counter. The first key to minimizing clutter on your countertops is find a purposeful place for these bulkier items you use 1x a day (or less). 

In the example of a toaster: we can design your cabinets to have electrical outlets in some of the cabinets, and (of course) utilize pull-out drawers. This way, you can leave your toaster in the cabinet, pull out the drawer when you want to use it, and then slide it away when you’re done. No muss, no fuss. 

Of course, you should leave room on your counter for the statement pieces you love, like your LUCCA M58 Espresso Machine. The way we look at it is that you should be purposeful about what you store in the open, and virtually everything else should be housed in a drawer or closed pantry. 

Using Pull-Out Drawers in Cabinetry

Even if we don’t build electrical outlets into the cabinets, when items are easy to take out and put away, you’re less likely to leave them on the countertop or island. 

This is why we’re fans of deep drawers. For most people without pull-out drawers, when their kitchen cabinets are only half full they are functionally full. Add anything else, and you’ll have to get down on hands and knees, pull the front half of the stuff out to reach anything in the back. While this is fine for the once-per-year use of your turkey roasting pan, there are only so many things you keep around that you don’t use often. 

For most of our clients, pull-out drawers double their functional cabinet space so that they have everything easy-to-reach – from pots and pans to air fryers. 

Adding a Butler’s Pantry

Another way to maximize space and add storage is by adding a Butler’s Pantry as a sort of appliance garage. An annex to your kitchen, a Butler’s Pantry is a great place to store larger items that are not used every day while keeping easy access, creating a much more open and spacious feel in your kitchen. Depending on the space in your home’s design and layout, we’ve seen great Butler’s pantries built as expanded closets or even into the garage. 

Creating Hidden Storage Space

This isn’t your mom’s Lazy Susan. 

One of the most effective solutions to clearing up counter space is hidden storage. While pull-out pantries and built-in spice racks are becoming the norm, one detail we’ve fallen in love with is toe-kick drawers. They give you more space but don’t look like drawers from the outside, allowing you to store more items without the need for any extra storage space. 

Are you ready to design the kitchen of your dreams? If so, the experts at Debowsky Design Group are happy to help. We can incorporate the most innovative storage elements to create a space that’s just as beautiful as it is practical. Give us a call and let’s bring your vision into reality.