Now that Halloween has come and gone, you’ve probably caught yourself idly clicking through Pinterest looking for Thanksgiving recipes and ideas. And once you inevitably find your perfect unique spin on a Thanksgiving favorite (brussel sprouts casserole? Apple pie salsa? Cranberry ice cream?), talked to your vegetarian nephew about what he can eat that year, and made your sister and mom agree to bring appetizers, you’ve got your menu all ready to go! That’s when it hits you: where am I going to prepare all this stuff? Countertops are kind of like your office desk in that you never notice how messy it is until you suddenly need a lot more room to cook everything. But all is not lost! Now is the perfect time for you to organize those counters and free up all the space you’ll need for Grandma’s old favorite stuffing recipe! Let’s get started: Hang cooking utensils right where you need them One of the most common sources of counter clutter are cooking utensils just strewn about. Sure, this is right where you’ll need them, but they’re not going to do anyone any good if they’re just sitting around getting in the way. Set up some wall shelves over the oven and sink to give you an extra place to keep your most-used utensils, or if you don’t have many of those to hang up go ahead and add some small hooks to hang your favorite spoon and spatula on. You’ll be glad to have them so close, and the increase in elbow room will come in handy. Get rid of that junk mail We’ve seen plenty of kitchen layouts where the countertop also wound up being the place that junk mail goes to die. Even if you do a purge of it every so often, preventing junk mail build-up in the first place is a good way to avoid this problem altogether. Get some mail organizers for the entryway (or in an out-of-the-way place on the counter if you can’t avoid using the countertop) and stop the bills from getting in the way of your cooking. Do those spices really need to be right on the counter? Everyone has spices they need for their favorite recipe, or even just to spice up dinner every now and again, but they tend to be a really common source of countertop clutter. No matter how fun your Lazy Susan is, there may be a better place for your spice collection. Do you have a cabinet over the oven you can use, or space in the pantry? Every little inch of worksurface is going to help when it comes time to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. What about those plates? Same thing with the dishes - you’re probably going to need them for actual food serving, but in the meantime they can get moved aside to make your countertop more usable. Get some dish organizers to keep your dishes together, out of the way, and ideally off the counter - but if they need to stay there, just find a nice corner. Make room in the pantry for everything else Counter tops tend to fall victim to excess canned goods and ingredients that don’t have a home anywhere else, usually due to cluttered pantries. Set up some pantry organizers to help stash away all your canned ingredients, beverages, sauces, and anything else that could be put away a little more neatly than it is now to help free up work space. When all else fails - expand We don’t mean completely renovating your kitchen (a project that would be a nightmare by any standard this close to Thanksgiving), but in a pinch, you can get baker’s racks and kitchen islands to help expand your work area and make serving a little more convenient. Wheel one of these in near your current counter and use it to help hang onto extra dishes and supplies, and even make serving a little easier when you start wheeling out the appetizers. We’ll be back with more Thanksgiving tips soon, but in the meantime - don’t panic!