Today I’m sharing a tour of a hard-working, well-used space in our home – the kitchen! In this tour of our minimalist kitchen, I’ll share what simplifying, decluttering and minimalism looks like in real life for our family.
I always love getting a peek into other people’s homes. And I especially love getting to see what minimalism and simplifying looks like in real life for other people. Not only do I get to snoop ? but I also find it so encouraging, interesting and inspiring to see how other people simplify and embrace minimalism.
I’ve linked to some specific products we use and love in our kitchen if you’re looking for similar items. These links are affiliate links and you can read the full disclosure policy here.
Minimalism can look different for all of us
As you tour through our minimalist kitchen, you may think we have too much of some things and not enough of others. You may love that we keep our countertops cleared off, or think it looks too bare.
But remember, minimalism will look different for each of us based on our lifestyle, preferences and needs. For example, if you love to bake and decorate cakes, what you have in your kitchen will likely be different from someone who rarely bakes.
Knowing this, creating a minimalist kitchen will look different for each of us. This is my version of a minimalist kitchen. And it likely will look different from another minimalist kitchen. Which is totally fine!
What is enough for you may be different from what is enough for someone else. A minimalist kitchen should still reflect your needs, preferences and lifestyle, just in a simplified way.

Photo by Naomi Hébert on Unsplash
Minimalism is about simplifying to make your life easier
Simplifying and decluttering your kitchen doesn’t mean getting rid of everything. And it certainly doesn’t mean getting rid of things that make life more convenient for you. Instead, it means intentionally assessing what you have in your kitchen and deciding if you need, use or love it. Then getting rid of anything you don’t use, need or love.
The purpose of sharing a tour of our minimalist kitchen is not to show what minimalism “should” look like. Instead, I’m sharing what minimalism looks like in our kitchen. We are a typical family of 4 who cooks and eats the majority of our meals at home. Our kitchen is well-equipped without being overly full. It’s organized, simplified and easy to keep that way – simply because we only keep what we use, need and love.
Minimalism is not something reserved for single, young professionals living in urban loft apartments. Minimalism can be embraced by anyone who wants to simplify, declutter and spend less time managing the “stuff” in their home, and more time living their life!
See more of our minimalist home
Be sure to check out the other areas of our home I’ve shared to see more of our minimalist home:
Minimalist Playroom Tour: Creating a Simple, Playful Space
Minimalist Bathroom Tour: Simplifying to Make Life Easier
Tour our Simple and Functional Command Center
Find more encouragement to simplify your kitchen
And for more encouragement, inspiration and guidance to simplify your kitchen and find your version of a minimalist kitchen, check out the other posts in my “simplify your kitchen” blog post series:
6 High-Impact Ways to Start Simplifying your Kitchen
How to Declutter your Kitchen + 20 things to declutter right now!
13 Habits to Keep your Kitchen Organized and Clutter-Free
Creating space for connection
The kitchen tends to be the heart of the home – it’s where we cook, eat, gather, etc. The fewer distractions and the less clutter in the kitchen, the more space we create for connection, mindful cooking and eating, and allowing the kitchen to really be the hard-working, heart of our home.
Our kitchen isn’t perfect. There’s plenty of things I would change about it if we had unlimited time and money. But I love our kitchen. And most of the reasons why I love our kitchen have very little to do with what’s in our kitchen, and a whole lot to do with the people and moments that fill it.
Why a minimalist kitchen is important for me
I don’t particularly love cooking or baking. But eating (mostly) healthy and balanced meals as a family is important to me. Simplifying the kitchen means the task of cooking isn’t more complicated than it needs to be.
Because I don’t love cooking, I don’t want to make it more difficult by having overflowing cupboards and a cluttered countertop with no space to work. Instead, by only keeping what I use and love, I can easily access what I need and have space to work.
For me, less stuff in the kitchen makes cooking and cleaning up significantly easier and more enjoyable because I’m not surrounded by clutter and mess.
One of my favourite parts of having a simplified, minimalist kitchen is that having less stuff makes maintaining an organized kitchen so much easier!
When you have less stuff you don’t need elaborate organizational systems to fit everything in. Instead, you have breathing room in your cupboards and drawers which makes getting and staying organized easy!
See inside our minimalist kitchen!
Without further ado, here is a tour of our minimalist kitchen! You can see the general layout of our kitchen in the picture above. I’ll get into the details of each area in our minimalist kitchen below!
Sink side of our minimalist kitchen
Starting with the sink side of the kitchen, I’ll show you the upper cabinets first, from left to right. Then the lower cabinets and drawers, also from left to right.
Upper cabinets
On the left are our everyday dishes. We have a set of 8 dishes for our family of 4. Along with 3 serving plates I used frequently for everyday meals and six pasta bowls. I also keep my liquid measuring cups in this cupboard.
Above the sink, I keep my frequently used kitchen cleaning products and dishwasher detergent. We’ve kept our cleaning products up high for safety reasons since our kids were born.
In this cupboard, I also keep my glass baking dishes. Along with casserole dishes and a few small glass food storage containers. I often use the casserole dishes as serving dishes as well.
The cupboard to the right of the sink holds our drinking glasses. The top shelf holds my cheese grater (the plastic container it attaches to is holding cheese in the fridge), apple slicer and citrus juicer.
Small drawers on the left
Moving on to the drawers on the left. The top drawer holds our silverware in a wooden organizer. Along with a vegetable peeler, vegetable brush and bottle opener in the back. My serving utensils are kept in the front.
The next drawer holds our knives using a wooden in-drawer knife block and a smaller plastic knife holder. I only use a very small selection of these knives, but my husband uses a wide variety of them.
The third drawer holds the plastic utensils my kids love. Along with a selection of reusable plastic and metal straws.
The bottom drawer holds our plastic food storage containers. I keep them organized in stacks by size with the lids grouped by size as well.
Under the sink
The drawer on the left holds our garbage bags. The larger drawer under it is our pull-out garbage can.
Under the sink, we keep a variety of items. There are dish soap, paper towels, a few plastic shopping bags, extra sponges, gloves, a drying mat, fire extinguisher and basket for recycling items. I use an over the cabinet rack to hold a tea towel on the front of the cupboard and a dishcloth and face cloth for the kids on the inside.
Fridge and freezer area
To the left of the sink area, we have a fridge and a separate freezer. The previous owners renovated and designed the kitchen, and having a full-size, upright freezer right in the kitchen is one of my favourite parts of this kitchen. It’s so convenient to have the freezer right in the kitchen!
The cupboards above the fridge and freezer hold some less frequently used items. On the left is serving platters and bowls.
On the right, I keep a few extra canisters that I’m not currently using. As I mentioned here, I like to decant many of our pantry items into smaller, airtight containers.
I also keep our french press, two salad dressing containers, our blender and food processor in this cupboard. After a scary incident where the blender blade fell out of the blender onto my son, I keep these appliances up high and out of reach of little hands!
The kitchen island
The kitchen island has 2 large cupboards and 2 drawers.
The left drawer holds tea towels, dishcloths and cloths to wipe my kids’ hands and faces after eating. I keep them separated by color: green for dishes and all the other colors for hands and faces! I use one dishcloth and one face cloth each day, then add them to the laundry.
The drawer on the right holds all my cooking and baking utensils. I have pared down our collection of cooking utensils, only keeping what we use on a regular basis. Each of these items is used often in our kitchen.
The island cupboards hold large plastic containers I primarily use to freeze baking in on the left. Below that are a few juice jugs and a water jug. Along with a serving tray.
The cupboard on the right holds my remaining small appliances. These include a stand mixer, slow cooker, toaster (on a wonderful crumb tray built by my grandpa) and a hand mixer.
My husband enjoys baking occasionally and prefers a hand mixer over the stand mixer. I’m happy to compromise and keep an extra small appliance if it means I get to eat the tasty treats he bakes!
Stove side of our minimalist kitchen
Again, I’ll show you the cupboards and drawers going left to right, starting with the top cupboards. The pantry is on the right, and we’ll get to that next!
Upper cabinets
Starting on the left in the upper cupboards we keep our mugs. Pretty mugs make me happy, so this is one area in our kitchen I am not particularly minimal. I love using and offering guests a pretty mug, so I keep the ones I love. Remember, keep what you use regularly and/or love, however that looks for you!
Above the microwave, I have 4 travel mugs and 4 water bottles.
Next to the microwave is our spice cupboard. The top shelf holds overflow spices on the left that don’t fit in my spice containers. On the right, I have cake decorating supplies. Sprinkles, food colouring…basically anything I don’t want my kids to get their hands on!
The bottom 2 shelves hold my spices and a few cooking supplies. Because we have a minimalist kitchen, I was able to devote a large cupboard to spices. This allows me to easily access the items without having to do much to keep them organized. Less stuff means you have more space for what you choose to keep!
The cupboards on the far left of this side of the kitchen are at an angle. We keep our family’s vitamins in the top cupboard. And we use the bottom angled cupboard for our tea collection, kettle and extra coffee pods. Have I mentioned that we love tea at our house? ?
Lower cabinets and drawers
In the drawer next to the stove we keep our oven mitts and aprons (one for me, and one for each kid). The drawer under the stove holds our 3 frying pans, along with a broiler pan.
Beside the stove, our baking pans and cutting boards are stored vertically with dividers attached to the bottom of the cupboard.
To the right of the stove, we keep placemats in one drawer. And plastic baggies, tin foil, wax paper and plastic wrap in the other drawer.
Below that we have 2 large, deep drawers. The top one holds our mixing bowls – one metal set, one glass set and one plastic set. As well as our colanders. The large metal one fits into the middle section of the sink and will stay with the house if we ever move.
The bottom drawer holds our pots. We’ve found these 5 pots are the perfect number and sizes for our family.
The pantry
Our kitchen has a wall pantry. It’s not overly large, but it has pull-out drawers that make efficient use of the space.
Top pantry cupboard
The top of the pantry holds crackers and cereal on the top shelf. And the bottom shelf holds the kids’ treat basket on the left. And our selection of oils, vinegar, syrup and honey on the right.
Pull out pantry drawers
The bottom section of the pantry has deep pullout drawers. The drawers make it easy to access everything in the pantry and keep it organized.
The top pull-out drawer holds canned goods on a riser to make it easy to see what we have. We also keep iced tea mix, lemonade mix, hot chocolate mix and coffee syrup here.
The next drawer holds our dry goods like pasta and rice. I like decanting most items to get rid of the bulky packaging and help keep the food stay fresher. Baskets also help me keep food items organized in the pantry.
The third drawer holds all of the snack items for the kids. We use these when packing school lunches, and for snacking. I keep a selection of items that the kids are free to choose from when it’s snack time.
The bottom pantry drawer holds all our baking supplies. Again, I use canisters and baskets to keep things fresh and organized.
Built in wall unit in the dining area
The previous owners installed a built-in wall unit of sorts in the dining area of the kitchen. The cupboards and drawers are all only 12″ deep. The cupboards are functional at that depth, but the drawers are awkward and hard to use because they only pull out about 6″.
While this wall unit isn’t my favourite part of the kitchen, we aren’t wanting to do any renovations at this time, so we’re working with it!
Here’s another shot of the wall until to show you the configuration better.
Wall unit cupboards
In the upper, glass front cabinets, we store a few decorative items we love and hold special meaning to us. Many of these items are also things we use regularly, like my grandma’s teapot and a couple of serving dishes. We also keep our china dishes and wine glasses in this cabinet that we love to use when entertaining.
The basket in the middle holds the kids’ headphones and a few random things I like to keep out of their reach, like super glue!
The cabinet on the left is what I call my “office”. You can read more about that cupboard and how I use it here.
The middle section holds a basket where we store and charge our phones and iPads. This is also where we keep our house phone. We’re old school and still like having a landline at home!
On the left, we have our favourite cookbooks, my recipe box and my camera in a camera bag.
The cupboard on the bottom holds all our plastic cups and dishes for the kids. As well as all the lunch packing materials for the kids. They also keep their lunch bags in this cupboard, but both kids were at school when I took these photos.
Wall unit drawers
The drawers on the left are included in my “office”. You can read more details about them here. The bottom drawer holds a tablecloth and set of napkin rings the kids love using for “fancy” dinners.
The drawers on the left hold a random assortment of things. The top drawer holds a selection of tools we use often and like to keep handy. As well as glass cleaning cloths and spray.
The middle drawer holds some of the messier crafts supplies my kids are only allowed to use in the kitchen. Currently, they have paint, glitter glue and slime.
The bottom drawer holds the supplies we use to work on school work with my daughter.
Coffee and tea nook
On the other side of the dining area, we have a coffee and tea nook. The previous owners used this space for a TV, but a TV was the last thing I wanted in our kitchen. We try to prioritize conversation and connection during family meal times, and a TV would be too much of a distraction.
This little nook is one of my favourite features of our minimalist kitchen. I built and customized the whole thing and I love the results. Plus, using power tools is always fun!
I added a wooden countertop and shelf to coordinate with our table and cabinets, hand-painted and built the sign, and installed new light fixtures to suit our style better.
We use this nook to hold our Keurig machine, extra pods in the ceramic canister, sugar and spoons on the top shelf (in my grandma’s cream and sugar dishes). And a few plants as decorative touches.
Basement pantry
In addition to the kitchen cupboards and drawers, we also have a storage closet in the basement that we use for additional kitchen storage.
This is where we keep any extra food items we bought in bulk or larger quantities, as well as bulky snack items like chips. I also keep a few larger items I use less frequently, usually only when we are hosting a large group of people. For example, I have a large slow cooker, large stock pot and a roasting pan.
We also keep our dog food, treats and grooming supplies in this closet.
The plastic bin on the floor holds our bottles and cans for recycling.
And just to clarify that I’m not a minimalist when it comes to all aspects of my life….here is my wall of chai tea concentrate! ?
I love this chai tea and this is one of the few things I treat myself to regularly. I buy it at Costco, and because we don’t live anywhere near a Costco, I stock up 2 or 3 times a year. This picture was taken a week after my latest stock up. Definitely not a minimalist when it comes to my chai!
I think that pretty much covers it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of our minimalist kitchen. If you have any questions about our minimalist kitchen or if I missed anything, leave a comment below and ask away!
Alan kam
Tuesday 18th of April 2023
Beautiful ideas for my projects for my two bedroom condo. Love to review many more especially the kitchen and living room however, ideas for my condo is exciting! Thank you
Simple Lionheart Life
Wednesday 19th of April 2023
I'm so glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks for reading :)
Adam Rich
Wednesday 20th of April 2022
Love the article, please share more stuff.
Simple Lionheart Life
Thursday 21st of April 2022
Thanks for reading!
Hamza Iftikhar
Sunday 12th of September 2021
Beauty with aesthetics! Anyone who doesn't know how to remove decluttering from the kitchen follow this post.
Simple Lionheart Life
Wednesday 15th of September 2021
Thanks and thanks for reading!
Muraba Residences
Saturday 20th of March 2021
These are brilliant ideas! Thanks for sharing
Simple Lionheart Life
Sunday 21st of March 2021
Glad to hear you found it helpful, thanks for reading :)
Christine O.
Tuesday 18th of August 2020
What a lovely comfortable kitchen with dining area! Have you considered adding full extention drawer slides to your wall unit cupboards?
We did this to several dressers with awkward half-opening drawers. The combination of being able to fully open the newly uncluttered, SMOOTH gliding drawers is a much more pleasant experience! We experimented with one drawer. We were so pleased we did this to two dressers. Next up will be a few drawers in our kitchen.
Simple Lionheart Life
Tuesday 18th of August 2020
So interesting! I haven't even heard of that. Thanks for sharing, I'm definitely going to look into trying some in our wall unit. The drawers are not very functional as it is, that might be the perfect solution. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing your tip, I really appreciate it!