Posts in the Declutter Series: How To Declutter Your Home Series: Before You Begin, How to Declutter the Kitchen, How to Declutter the Bedroom, How to Declutter the Bathroom and How to Declutter Toys.
The kitchen is a place where we spend a lot of time and extra stuff loves to accumulate.
There’s always a cool new kitchen gadget to make life easier and those counters are oh-so inviting for appliances of every kind. It’s impossible to declutter, right?
No! It is possible to have clear counter tops and cabinets and drawers that aren’t stuffed to the brim. You just have to put in a little work.
Before you get started, take a few minutes to plan a little (and read this post).
Think about your cooking habits: Do you bake a lot? If so, are you frequently using several mixing bowls at a time? Are you a one-pot meal kind of person or do you typically use a few pans when you make dinner?
How about entertaining? Do guests frequent your house, or is it more of a special occasion kind of thing?
When you think about those things, you can decide how many mixing bowls, pans and dishes you need.
We kept 6 extra plates and bowls and a few extra mugs for guests. We really didn’t need much more than that.
If my entire family comes over to eat, I might ask my mom to bring some extra plates. Because, well, it’s my family and they already know how weird I am.
So, now that you’ve thought that out, you have an idea for what extras you can get rid of. Grab everything you need to get started, put on some good music and get to work.
Check your drawers
Put your boxes on the counter and start sorting. Have your garbage and recycling right next to you, too, so you can toss broken stuff and old papers that you don’t need anymore.
As you’re going through, try not to spend too much time thinking about the stuff you find. I found that the more I thought about a certain item, the more convinced I rationalized the need to keep it. And when that happens, you end up with a drawer full of junk.
Instead, work quickly. Do you need three sets of silverware? Probably not. How about four wine corkscrews? Doubtful. Every one of those cookbooks? Um, no.
Again, if there’s something that you’re just not sure of, stick it in the maybe box to decide on later.
Chances are, after you’ve been at it for a while, you’ll look at it and decide that it doesn’t need to stay in your kitchen.
Same goes for cabinets.
Focus on multi-purpose items
On my first decluttering binge, I got rid of so many one-purpose items. Like the electric citrus juicer my father-in-law gave us.
Instead, focus on keeping appliances/items that you use every day and/or for lots of different purposes. If an item is single use and you use it often, keep it.
Here’s what’s in my kitchen:
- Blendtec: The blender of awesomeness. Used for smoothies, sauces, juices, making rice flour and almond milk and a ton of other things.
- Instant Pot: Used for cooking meals super fast or with the slow cook option and making stock. I LOVE this thing.
- Waffle iron/griddle: We got rid of our two waffle irons and the griddle and opted for one that has two different sides.
- Immersion blender: Used for blending soups and beans and making soap.
- Canning jars: We use smaller ones for drinking glasses, all sizes for food storage, both in the pantry and leftovers, making sun tea and kombucha, and this year, they’ll actually be used for canning.
- Coffee grinder
- Ice cream maker: Coconut milk ice cream. Enough said.
- Toaster oven: Used for making toast, heating leftovers and baking when it’s too hot to turn on the oven.
- French press: Because coffee.
- Nespresso: My guilty pleasure.Because espresso. Seriously, this is the reason I leave my super cozy bed in the morning. The espresso is always perfect and I’ve never made a better latte. I also love that I can send the used pods to Nespresso for composting and recycling.
Don’t stress about getting rid of every single thing. I still declutter on a regular basis. Only now, it’s not a huge ordeal. I just realize that I don’t need a certain pan or plates anymore and take them out. It’s an ongoing process.
Ready to get started? Go get it.
Thanks for the tips, I don’t think I can start with the kitchen though, You know how important my kitchen is to me. It would be too hard to start. I would complain about the better part of 200 canning jars in the kitchen, but they are oh so full of yummy stuff.
I will gladly take some of the yummy stuff off your hands. 🙂 I count my canning jars as one item. I know some people do that with their books or journals or undergarments. Start with your bathroom? I know there’s not much in there.
Can you please post your coconut milk ice cream recipe??? It never occurred to me that I could make my own!
I personally have found that the problem with my kitchen is that I have too many places with solid doors that hide all sorts of unused items. I did an experiment and left items on the counter that I use most (dishes, blendtec, etc, etc) found that after a few months many of my cupboards were never opened-these items are wasting space and that behind solid doors-rather than glass doors-I forgot what was lurking and never being used. My goal now is to eliminate or at least reduce items that are never used and store seldom used more efficiently. Kitchens are designed for the masses and are not designed personally to suit the individual using it. We can actually do better-and that is my current goal.