It’s likely that you have more things in your kitchen than anywhere else in your home. Food, dishes, small appliances—it all adds up fast. It’s also likely that you have more dedicated storage in your kitchen than anywhere else in your home, so it can be tricky to tell when you simply own too much. There’s no magical threshold. In general, professional organizers say that you know when your belongings don’t fit neatly in your home, but there are other giveaways, too.

Your countertops are cluttered.

We usually keep things on the countertops for one of two reasons: a) we’re specifically choosing not to put something away, or b) we don’t know where else to put it. Becky Marple, owner and professional organizer at BeeNeat in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, sees a lot of the latter. “If you’re running out of space on your countertops because there are too many gadgets and small appliances, you probably have too much stuff,” she advises.

You own multiples of everything.

Marple’s team typically begins an organizing session by pulling every single belonging out and categorizing it all. “This is when most clients will realize that they have seven spatulas, nine whisks, and four can openers,” she says. While there are certainly use cases for owning multiples of some things (like if you’re a chef!), typically, you only need two of anything, max.

You don’t even know what you have.

Do you often purchase yet another jar of peanut butter or box of granola bars at the grocery store because you think you’re out, only to discover that you just couldn’t find them in the pantry? Marple says this is a good clue that you don’t know what you have because there’s too much stuff to tell. Beyond just being frustrating and inconvenient, chances are you’re dedicating a lot of money to unnecessary replacements—and a lot of time to cleaning out expired food.

You’re in a new stage of life.

As you and the people in your household grow older, so do your needs. For example, if your children have graduated from high school, chances are their plastic dishes and cutlery aren’t getting much use. “If you find that you have things that haven’t been used in three or four years, they’ve likely become clutter,” Marple says. “At that point, they’re more valuable to someone else, so you should sell, donate, or gift them.”

You’re combining homes or inheriting hand-me-downs.

“Most kitchens are designed and built for the basics—a couple of different mixing bowls, some small appliances, a set of dishes—but that’s about it,” explains Marple. “More and more these days, we’re being given Grandma’s stuff or getting married, and things aren’t being edited out.” If you’ve experienced a similar life event recently, decluttering sooner rather than later is going to save a lot of time in the future.

Items aren’t being used.

It’s a simple point, but it’s true. Whether we’re talking about the kitchen or a bathroom, anything that isn’t being utilized counts as “too much stuff.” To be clear, Marple isn’t talking about specialty items like cloth napkins that are being used, just not daily—this is about the air fryer you keep swearing you’re going to start cooking with but just don’t.