A kitchen counter is a convenient place to
store items we reach for daily, but the attempt to keep everything
within your reach can actually backfire, and the result is foods that
spoil faster, a cluttered counter, or even a potential health hazard. Do
you keep a knife holder on the kitchen counter? What about a jar with
coffee, some spices, or perhaps a bottle of olive oil? If you’ve
answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may want to learn why
that’s probably a bad idea, in which case just read on.
1. Olive Oil
Keeping olive oil on the counter near the
stove is one of the most common mistakes we see. Sure, it’s convenient
to just grab the bottle when you need it, but heat and exposure to
direct light can affect the quality of the oil and make it spoil faster.
Of course, the same rule applies to other types of oil, as well as
vinegar and sauces. It’s best to keep all of these ingredients in a dark
cool place, so just move them into the kitchen pantry or a kitchen
cabinet.
2. Dish soap and sponges
The kitchen sponge is one of the most
germ-ridden items in the entire house. Surely, you wouldn’t want to keep
it close to your food. Still, many people do precisely that, storing
the kitchen sponge as well as the dish soap on the counter next to the
sink.
Speaking of dish soap - don’t forget that dish detergent is a chemical
substance that shouldn’t come in contact with food or be ingested and
please don’t keep it near food. The best place for storing dish soap,
disinfectant, and kitchen sponges is in a cabinet underneath the sink.
3. Spices
Like olive oil, spices are very sensitive
to heat and direct light and will lose their flavor and aroma faster
when stored near the stovetop or exposed to direct light. As Stephanie
Bostic, Ph.D., a food safety expert told Reader’s Digest, “light, and
heat from sunlight or cooking surfaces, can degrade the flavors faster
than if you store them in a cool, dark place.”
Therefore, it’s a much better idea to move the spices rack into the
pantry or a kitchen cabinet, right next to other common cooking
ingredients like oil and vinegar, for convenience.
4. Papers and letters
Nothing gives off an impression of a
cluttered and messy kitchen more than a countertop riddled with
newspapers, bills, junk mail, and random notes. And that’s only half of
the problem, as all these papers also seem to attract spills like a
magnet, and then you have to deal with the additional headache of drying
them and hoping that the bills and letters are still legible and don’t
look too terrible.
Instead, we recommend reserving a drawer for papers only if you must
keep them in the kitchen. Or even better - move the papers to a
spill-free zone like the desk.
5. Knives
No one argues that keeping knives on the
counter saves a lot of time and a knife block looks quite prominent and
fancy. However, there are several issues with it, too. First and
foremost, it’s a safety hazard for the little ones, as keeping knives on
the counter also means that they’re within the reach of kids.
In a home with kids, it’s best to keep knives in a drawer with a lock.
In addition, a large block can look bulky, take up a lot of space, and
it’s also quite difficult to clean, so it might not be the best choice
in homes without kids as well.
6. Coffee and tea jars
It’s fashionable to buy decorative matching
canisters for coffee, tea, and sugar these days and display them on the
kitchen counter. And while it can look quite pretty, they also get
dirty very quickly when you’re storing them in the same place you’re
preparing food, so keeping them on the counter isn’t such a great idea.
In addition, they can take up a great deal of room, so it’s a much
better solution to display them on a kitchen shelf. This way, they will
still be accessible and make a beautiful display piece but they won’t be
such a mess to maintain.
7. Snacks and sweets
Sometimes, easy access isn’t a very good
thing. When it comes to snacks and sweet treats, the more visible they
are, the more likely you are to notice and eat them. So it only makes
sense that it’s in our best interest to keep junk food as far away from
the counter as possible. In fact, keeping all the foods you’d like to
limit in less accessible places like a high shelf in the panty is a
great way to keep cravings and temptations at bay.
8. Electronic devices
Electronic devices are so convenient that
you might be tempted to bring them into the kitchen to follow a recipe,
listen to some music, or even watch the news while cooking or cleaning.
Alas, very few of them are truly waterproof and all of them are pretty
tough to clean, and all this obviously clashes with the damp and steamy
kitchen environment.
Look, we’re not saying that bringing your devices into the kitchen is
completely off-limits, but we’d still like to point out that keeping
them on the same counter you cook is not the best idea. Instead, place
the laptop, smartphone, or smart speaker in a place where water and
spills never occur.
9. Kitchen appliances you don’t use daily
Kitchen appliances are a tricky subject,
and choosing the ones you should keep on the counter will really depend
on your personal habits. Most people prefer to store the coffee maker
and an electronic kettle on the counter because they use them every day,
and that’s a good general rule of thumb. But if you’re not a huge
coffee drinker, you may actually prefer to put the coffee machine away.
Likewise, if you cook and bake practically every day, you may want to
keep the stand mixer on the counter, which wouldn’t be such a good idea
for those who only bake occasionally. You get the picture - put all the
appliances you use regularly front and center and move the ones you
don’t use that often in the cabinets or pantry. This is guaranteed to
save you a lot of precious counter space and will make your kitchen look
neater, too.