10 hacks to keep your kitchen spotless

I bet when you're done cooking there's egg shells, vegetable peel and bits of trash in the sink and all over the counters. Next time you cook, line a large bowl with plastic wrap or a plastic shopping bag. Throw all the trash or items you want to compost in the bowl. When you're done, just lift out the plastic liner full of gunk and toss it, or add the contents to your compost. The bowl will still be clean and you won't need to dejunk your counters.

Cleaning a blender is always a pain. To prevent it from being a big chore, Taylor Martin has a great tip for cleaning your blender without even touching it with a sponge.

How many times have you opened a cabinet to have a cascade of plastic storage container lids pop out at you? Or you searched through a sea of lids to find the one that fits your special soup pot? To wrangle them once and for all, purchase a dish drain rack like this chrome plated one or this antimicrobial rack. Place it in a cabinet or your pantry and stick those wily lids in the dividers of the rack.

Bonus tip: I use the silverware cup on my rack to hold the lids to my water bottles and my shaker bottle whisks.

If there's a place for everything, it's easier to keep everything in its place. To keep drawers organized, buy small plastic baskets -- or repurpose plastic storage containers that have lost their lids -- and use them as dividers in your kitchen drawers.

You can also make more room in your drawers by removing your measuring cups. Make use of the space behind a cabinet door with this organizer. If your measuring cups aren't metal, use cup hooks instead of magnets to hang your measuring cups.

Cookie cutters can take up a lot of drawer space that's better designated for more frequently used items. Bin your cookie cutters in plastic food storage containers and stash them in your pantry or on a high cabinet shelf. If collecting cookie cutters is one of your guilty pleasures -- and really, why wouldn't it be? -- organize them by type. I have my mountainous supply separated into winter, spring, summer and fall containers.

One of the best ways to keep your kitchen spotless is by clearing out clutter. This includes getting rid of food that may be past its prime. Here are lists of foods you should probably toss and foods that stay good indefinitely.

It's kind of hard to keep your kitchen clean when hungry kids are constantly groping through the cabinets looking for a snack, tossing boxes and bags one way or another. From now on, throw all your kids' snacks into a basket so they have a one-stop shop and won't need to go all "Sharknado" through the pantry.

Here's another tip to save counter cleanup. Buy a large glass cutting board and every time you bake, put it under your bowls. The board will catch spilled sugar, poorly aimed egg yolks and any other oopsies you make. When you're done, just put it in the dishwasher with everything else. A large cutting board is also a great place to knead bread, for the same reason.

If you hate looking under your sink because it's a scary mess, try this idea. Hang a tension rod inside of the cabinet. This will give you a place to hang your spray bottles, drape cleaning rags and more. Here's how to increase storage space under your sink.