5-Minute Fix: How To Make Your Kitchen Look Better (Almost) Instantly

There are a lot of places stuff can pile up on in the kitchen. From the counters (bills, kitchen supplies, dirty dishes) to the sink to even the floor, there’s one place that doesn’t often get considered when it comes to kitchen decluttering. However this spot, when cleared off, can have a profound effect on your kitchen feeling a lot less hectic and a lot more controlled.

From the kids’ artwork, to baby announcements, reminders, shopping lists, save-the-dates, coupons, family photos, half-eaten bags of chips, loaves of bread, old empty bottles and more, the outside of your refrigerator — the front, sides and up top — can become a magnet of not just magnets, but all kinds of paper clutter and kitchen ephemera you don’t know where to store.

• Consider moving the stuff you file on your fridge with magnets to a side of the fridge not seen when you walk into the room (if your layout allows).
• Or, just streamline the reminders by keeping papers and the magnets holding them up more uniform in both appearance and location.
• Of course, you could eliminate all together this spot as a catch-all by immediately turning invitations, shopping lists and more digital.

→ 10 Easy & Adorable DIY Magnets to Add a Little Fun to Your Kitchen

• For the top, you can try to unload a tool or kitchen item you don’t use (for donation) out of a cabinet to find more room for whatever it is that you’re storing on top of your fridge.
• Or, you can just get creative with how you store things above your fridge if you need to use the space — boxes, baskets and other storage containers can contain your fridge stuff a lot more attractively.

→ Storage with Style: 15 Bins & Baskets

For any spot on the outside of your fridge, it’s not about making it completely empty (unless that’s your goal!); it’s more about making it a lot less hectic and random!