If you’ve had your kitchen for a while and still have trouble finding things, you’re in the right spot. Organizing your kitchen takes a lot of time and effort to pull off right. And even after you set up things as perfectly and aesthetically pleasing as possible, your system could still fall apart eventually.

Here are a few signs to look for to figure out if your kitchen is as dysfunctional as you think:

Cleaning Up After Cooking Is A Hassle

If you enjoy cooking for your family and friends, you should already know all about the subsequent cleaning sesh. But if you cook frequently and still have a lot of trouble with cleanup, then you have a problem. It always starts as a simple inconvenience—from difficult to return items to unappealing item arrangements.

It takes a lot of thinking to re-place everything how you want to. Especially if you want to arrange items in an aesthetically pleasing manner. No system is truly impossibly bad, but it’s going to wear you down over time if you don’t fix it.

What you need is to place items in places that are easier to access, especially for things that use often. Store your rarely used kitchen appliances and ingredients in cupboards. And vice versa—keep your frequently used ingredients on shelves or the kitchen counter.

What matters is that you place the important items beautifully and systematically in their proper arrangements.

Kitchen Clutter Is Almost Impossible To Avoid

Another issue that you might run into is overly crowded and cluttered countertops. Adding items to your counter can be so easy without thinking about it. What makes this dangerous is that you can just continue to do so without regard for future inconveniences.

Not that you’re doing it intentionally, but people always traverse themselves in this cycle of adding and forgetting. You need to remember that a kitchen countertop is mainly for food prep as well as keeping your kitchen essentials.

You can start by only keeping items, such as your salt & pepper shakers, kitchen shears, and even water jugs. But mostly, keep your countertop free of clutter to make your food prep much easier.

Losing Your Things Where You Thought You Left Them

If you keep losing your items, then that’s a surefire way to find out if you need better organizing. Running around your house looking for lost items isn’t going to be fun if you’re in a hurry. You need to alleviate this problem fast. Otherwise, it would only eat you up.

It’s common for people to leave their keys and wallets in the kitchen. You can start helping yourself by designating specific areas in the kitchen area to store your valuables. Whether it be on the dining table or the countertop, you’re going to want to put a sign there.

You can place a bowl on your countertop to store your wallet and keys. Or you can even get a set of hooks installed for hanging all the different sets of keys you have.

Your Fridge Is Impossibly Messy

And not messy in the dirty, moldy kind. If you can’t sort things out in your fridge, you need to figure it out quickly. Because if you don’t, then you just might have to deal with moldy and expired food sometime in the future.

Hoarding too much food can prove to be a huge problem and waste money. Labeling your food containers can be an easy way to get yourself ahead. But another way to ease your fridge endeavors is by getting just enough food to last you.

So, did any of these catch your attention? Some of these can be fairly difficult to rectify, but doing so will make things much easier. What’s stopping you? Fix up your kitchen now and save yourself the hassle!