This Simple Fridge Decluttering Hack For Your Kitchen Requires Barely Any Effort

Few of us would argue that decluttering is a bad idea, but when it's time to get busy cleaning, organizing, and purging excess possessions, it can be hard to get started because the tasks can feel so overwhelming. Most decluttering experts agree that starting with easy wins can help create momentum, and the 'naked fridge' challenge is one of the easiest wins out there since it takes only five minutes of active work. This hack consists of removing the items that typically decorate the outside of the fridge to create a clean slate. Diana Rene, the home management expert behind The Decluttered Mom, who popularized the naked fridge challenge in her podcast, explained that once she cleared off the outside of her refrigerator, she felt calmer in her kitchen.

As the heart and soul of most homes, the kitchen easily becomes one of the messiest areas in a house, so it can be one of the hardest rooms to declutter, while remaining the space most in need of attention. The outside of the fridge may be one of the best places to start decluttering in the kitchen when you're stuck. Typically covered with postcards, to-do lists, magnets, and kids' artwork, the outside of a refrigerator can quickly turn into one of the most visually chaotic spaces in the home. Items on the fridge tend to be visually distracting, adding to a feeling of chaos. Making it a rule to keep the fridge clear is an effective hack for dramatically reducing the sense of clutter in the kitchen.

Inspired by a study conducted by UCLA on the clutter of 32 middle-class families, the hack emerged as one of those simple hacks you can use to declutter your kitchen without going overboard. The naked fridge challenge includes removing all items from the outside of your refrigerator and placing them out of sight for seven days. Once that week is up, Rene recommends looking at the items removed from your refrigerator and deciding if they really need to be returned to their previous spots or if there is a better location to house them. If you do return items to your fridge, the one-in, one-out rule is a good method for managing the clutter. 

Seeing the refrigerator looking as pristine as the day you moved into your home can start the decluttering ball rolling. Once you have lived with the blank slate of an unadorned refrigerator for a week, you may be inspired to keep it bare, and what started as a challenge may turn into a habit — the naked fridge rule. This hack may even motivate you to continue decluttering your kitchen. And if you're feeling so inclined, a great next step to take is tackling the chaos that, for many of us, exists inside the fridge.