16 Common Kitchen Eyesores And How To Hide Them

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You may have steered clear of these outdated kitchen design trends and managed to sidestep the most common kitchen design mistakes — all hail the glory of the working triangle. But despite designing the kitchen of your dreams, you may find that certain unsightly eyesores are stealthily dampening the impact you are aiming for. In modern households, the kitchen has emerged as the entertainment hub, and it needs to be ready for guests with little notice. Hiding away kitchen eyesores isn't just a matter of aesthetics, either. Stepping into a kitchen where needless clutter is discreetly hidden away can feel like the mental equivalent of closing too many tabs from a browser window. With your kitchen feeling like a ready, mess-free canvas for culinary creativity, you'll find yourself ready to put together memorable meals for the ones you cherish the most.

Instead of constantly stashing away errant grocery bags and struggling to find a home for jumbled appliances, it helps to work smarter. From wall-mounted organizers to paint touch-up pens, you'll find everything you need here to keep your kitchen looking and functioning like a well-oiled machine.

You may be able to get away with an odd cable streaking across your countertop. But a chaotic pit of cluttered cords won't just take its toll on your kitchen's aesthetic. After all, there are few things that can ring the death knell on a zen morning as mercilessly as having to untangle your way through an apocalyptic jumble of cords just to get your coffee maker up and running.

The good news, however, is that there is help at hand. A new generation of cord organizers are rising to the challenge, like Lancord's upgraded cord organizer, an adhesive option that can be glued to the back of everyday kitchen appliances, such as blenders, air fryers, and coffee makers. Once attached, the butterfly-style design allows you to coil the cord securely for hassle-free winding and unwinding. If you are looking to reduce visible clutter, TidyHelper offers stick-on cable clips, which can also be used for running longer cords discreetly along the back of the counter. 

Or perhaps you'd like to tie in your power outlets with your kitchen decor? NICKSUN has a vintage floral outlet cover that will cover up unsightly power outlets while scoring a major win for your kitchen aesthetic.

You may have planned your kitchen cabinets meticulously down to the last detail on the handle-free design — and you won't want a large, clunky trashcan to cover up your handiwork. Figuring out smarter storage solutions for your kitchen trashcan extends beyond aesthetics to ensuring that the associated smells of kitchen waste aren't competing for attention with the delicious meals you are lovingly putting together on the stovetop.

The easiest way to hide a trashcan is to make note of any empty, ignored spaces within your current kitchen design, such as using that unused space under the sink to install Nisorpa's slide-out trashcan. Fitted with convenient lids to keep unsavory smells contained, the sliding design offers up optimal use of space.

If you are looking for a more comprehensive solution, it also helps to consider whether you have been ignoring some key signs that it's time to remodel your kitchen. If a larger renovation is on the cards, you can easily choose to design a pull-out drawer within your kitchen island with multiple bins dedicated to recyclables and compostable trash. Feeling creative? Trash chutes are also gaining popularity in modern countertop designs. A handy hole made in the kitchen counter with a garbage bin placed underneath will allow you to dispose of scraps easily while cooking, making post-meal clean-up a breeze.

Grocery bags are that one essential that are always littered around the kitchen but somehow never at hand when you actually need one. If you are done chasing errant grocery bags across your countertops, it helps to plan for a more permanent and well-organized home for them.

The easiest solution comes in the form of YMHB's wall-mounted grocery bag wranglers. The easy-to-hang design can be slung around any unused hook in the kitchen, on the back of doors, or even a doorknob. A handy hole at the bottom allows you to pull out precisely as many bags as needed, so you don't have a swat team of empty bags descending into your lap just to pick up some ice from the convenience store. The principle of pull-and-go grocery bag organizers also lends itself to DIY projects if you are feeling creative and have some time to spare over the weekend. Simply cut out a hole in an old shoe box use some double-sided tape to attach it on the inside of your kitchen cabinets. Empty tissue boxes can also be used for dispensing grocery bags from the slip at the top.

No matter how many microfiber drying mats are invented, a bulky dish-drying set-up is not the first thing that you want your eyes to gravitate towards when entering the kitchen. The latter especially holds true if you are looking to crack down on visible clutter to create the minimalist kitchen of your dreams.

This is where you'll want to allow space-saving, dish-drying options to ride to your rescue. In its simplest iteration, collapsible designs like IKEA's KVOT steel drying rack allow you to fold up the drainer when not in use. If you are looking for less conspicuous options, Surpahs offers an over-the-sink drying mat that lays down flat on the kitchen sink. Once any remnants of water have dripped into the sink below and washed dishes have been returned to their original homes, the mat can be niftily rolled up and stashed away until next use. Maybe you are looking for something more long-term? Whenever you are planning your next kitchen makeover, you'll want to allocate some space on your kitchen counter for an integrated drying rack with multiple ridges for plates, mugs, and spoons.

Open shelving can be a double-edged sword. When curated well, it can serve as a seamless extension of your kitchen decor, offering up interesting tidbits of your personality when entertaining guests. But the convenient real estate offered by open shelves means that they can also serve as a landfill of forgotten objects and clutter.

Decorative dishware serves as an apt choice for open shelves, but there are certain items that are less welcome — think snacks, grains, and other perishable pantry staples. Food packaging can create a visually overwhelming mishmash of bold fonts and colors, which is why it helps to transfer individual items into neatly labelled glass jars to create a more cohesive picture. When styling your open shelves in the kitchen, you will also want to opt for a balance of large and small items. The former can come in through vases, wicker baskets, and decorative glassware against which you can rest smaller decorative accents. As a rule of thumb, it helps to arrange items in groups of three to make your open shelves look more visually appealing.

When you are tending to a million cooking chores at the same time, the last thing you'll have on your mind is the placement of dish towels. While this essential cooking staple makes for a handy way to dry dishes and handle hot dishes, you'll want to be careful with how your dish towels are presented in the kitchen.

Instead of just slinging them on the nearest hook you can find, it helps to invest more thought in how your dish towels are stored. IKEA's TISKEN white towel rack can be attached with suction cups and makes for a drill-free option to attach on the inner side of cabinet doors to keep stain-addled towels hidden. Whenever you are redesigning the kitchen, you can opt for thoughtful measures, such as pull-out bars to air-dry your towels after every use.

If you are expecting guests, you can give your dish towels their time in the spotlight by rolling them up neatly in a rattan basket on the counter. Looking to go the extra mile? Create a flower pocket by folding the bottom third of the dish towel and then folding it in thirds along the length. Once done, hang the towel on a cabinet handle and accessorize your newly created pocket with a sprig of flowers or herbs.

Newer kitchen appliances aren't just making life easier — they are also unfortunately giving us all newer ways to hoard clutter. While you may not be able to imagine life with your coffee maker, there are several appliances that are less deserving of countertop space. Take a moment and ask yourself: Do you truly need an ice cream maker, waffle maker, and citrus squeezer out on your counter all the time?

Once you have opted for some unvarnished introspection on which appliances you truly need, it's time to develop a more effective system for storing the rest. Not quite sure where to begin? Start by sorting out appliances by task, such as the toaster, coffee maker, and kettle that are needed for breakfast. Install pull-out shelves so you can easily stash these appliances away once done as they won't be needed for the rest of the day. Unused space in corner cabinets can serve as a handy home for bulky, occasion-specific appliances, such as slow cookers. Smaller appliances, meanwhile, can be removed from the kitchen counter and condensed within existing cabinets by adding N'ice Packaging's acrylic shelf riser.

The kitchen is your culinary sanctuary for lovingly crafting meals for your loved ones. But there's something about the sight of messy, cluttered countertops that can stymie your creative juices. If you are tired of not finding an empty spot to rest a ladle in between cooking, it's time to opt for a larger overhaul of your kitchen counters.

When looking for solutions, you'll find a slew of organizational hacks for creating more countertop space. Start freeing up space by hanging pots and pans on a rack on your backsplash. Next, use baskets and canvas bins to group together smaller items needed for everyday use. If your spice jar has devolved into a mess of spills and splatters, move it indoors by outfitting a drawer with a spice rack. Attaching magnetic tape to the back of spice jars to hang them up on the refrigerator is another DIY Pinterest-approved kitchen hack worth trying. For finishing touches, tuck away your paper towel on a bar inside the cabinet door.

A visually appealing kitchen isn't just about opting for a more efficient organization system. You may also find that there are a host of repairs that need to be addressed, such as an unsightly streak of stained grout running across your backsplash or kitchen floor. If you don't have the time and the budget for a larger remodel, don't lose heart. There are a host of DIY fixes that can help.

On paper, grout has a noble mission: As the filler material between tiles, it keeps them from shifting with time. However, it can also serve as a magnet for attracting dirt, debris, and mildew in the kitchen. There are a host of grout cleaners available for tackling this problem, but if you are looking to go down the chemical-free route, an easy mixture of two-parts baking soda and one-part hydrogen peroxide will help brighten up stained grout. Looking to skip the elbow grease? YaoQiYou serves up grout pens that can recolor the filler space between tiles with all the ease of using a marker on a board.

Given the heavy use that kitchen cabinets are subjected to, it comes as little surprise that they are quick to display signs of wear and tear. Apart from being frequently opened and slammed shut, there's also a high probability of moisture and humidity seeping into the doors. So, how do you fix chipped cabinets without prying apart the structure for a complete overhaul?

For starters, you'll want to consider the issues you are working with. If you are dealing with minor chipping and imperfections in the surface, it's possible to salvage the situation with a Slobproof refillable paint touch-up pen. True to its name, this pen can be loaded with a color matching your cabinetry to offer a quick touch-up without any messy drips. Larger cracks, meanwhile, can be tended to with a crayon-style putty stick by Mohawk Finishing Products that can be used for filling in cracks, nail holes, and abrasions on the surface of the cabinet doors.

As useful as brooms and mops might be for keeping your cooking area clean, they are hardly the first thing you'll want guests to see when they step into the kitchen to steal seconds of your apple pie. It doesn't help matters that most brooms and mops come in an awkward array of shapes and sizes that can never be relegated inconspicuously to a corner.

If you are hoping to introduce some semblance of peace to the chaos, you'll want to tie a zip tie around the handle of your broom to be able to store it on any spare hooks or the handle of your door. If you are looking to keep your cleaning equipment hush-hush, it also helps to invest in a wall-mounted mop and broom holder — bonus points for opting for PrimZooty's sliding hook option to tuck away your cleaning supplies discreetly when not in use.

As you organize your mops and brooms in an orderly manner, you might notice that your cleaning supplies could use some love, as well. Instead of stashing them in a messy jumble under the sink, the right tools can ensure that you have all of your go-to cleaners at hand when needed without cringing in embarrassment if someone catches sight of 'em.

In the era of wall-mounted everything, it shouldn't come as a surprise that there's an adhesive stand that can get the job done. Command has an adhesive spray bottle hanger that can be attached in an unobtrusive corner to keep your go-to cleaning agents at hand. Beyond hanging curtains, you can use removable tension rods from Amazon Basics in the area under the sink to hang your most-used cleaning sprays close by without creating visual clutter.

If there's one thing that tea lovers know to be true, it's that more is indeed merrier. With tempting flavors from around the world to choose from, you'll find yourself spoiled for choice when strolling through the tea aisle. But storing your newfound favorites can require more effort than simply emptying the entire box into a metal canister.

Bulky tea boxes can hog precious countertop space, while relegating tea bags to inaccessible shelves in the pantry is the key to ensuring that you won't be having tea more than twice a year. If you are looking to inject some fun into your choice of tea, you can choose to spin the wheel with VOGWOLTH's lazy Susan-style tea bag organizer. Multiple display caddies ensure that your tea bags are organized, while the spinning design will ensure that you can reach the options at the back with ease. If you'd like to take the mess up, up, and away from your countertop, this wall-mounted tea bag holder from SolidSwissSolutions makes for an easy way to sort through and dispense multiple flavors in your tea bag collection.

Making that weekly grocery run to stock up on essentials is just half the battle won — putting away all the fresh produce is another task altogether. If you're tired of chancing upon forgotten fruits at the back of the refrigerator, there are some nifty display ideas to be considered.

If your kitchen leans into the rustic theme, fruit hammocks will make for an easy way to display the season's finest produce — Prodyne has an open-weave hammock that comes with a hardwood rod that can be mounted underneath cabinets. LIBKEN's mesh bowls with lids, meanwhile, will allow you to display fruits without allowing entry to pesky kitchen pests.

When used wisely, the backsplash can make for a valuable addition to your kitchen decor — pity that it also serves as ground zero for a wide array of food splatters and residual grease. If your elbows can't scrub away stains anymore, you'll want to opt for LONGKING's peel-and-stick backsplash paper. Designed with heat- and moisture-resistant material, stains and splatters can be easily wiped away. And if it ever starts looking worse for wear, it can be readily peeled off and replaced with a new option. 

To keep your backsplash looking cleaner for longer, you can also opt for this splatter guard from U.S. Kitchen Supply. It comes with a wire mesh screen that will protect you — and your backsplash — from coming in the line of fire of hot oil and grease.

No matter how vigilant you are with your cleaning routine, there's no avoiding forgotten spills, old build-up, and boil-overs on the stovetop. The right detergents and sprays can go a long way towards cleaning up the mess, but a more convenient solution comes in the form of MSDADA'S detachable silicone stove covers. While not entirely flame-resistant, the gas hob protectors can withstand heat up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and make for an excellent way to keep spills from ruining your gas range.

Electric stoves can also benefit from YUHFERA's silicone stove mats to keep stains and spills at bay. If you are looking to prevent smaller pots and saucepans from tipping over and emptying their contents on the stovetop, LIFENERGRIC has a cast-iron trivet, which can reduce the size of the gas hob. When not in use on the stove, it can also be called upon as a decorative trivet for protecting your dining table from scalding hot vessels.