Welcome! We’re having a Decluttering Party! Go here to read about how you can join!
Phew. After Friday’s post about decluttering a child’s room, it feels great to talk about an area in my home where I feel I’ve been successful.
You can close a bedroom’s door and pretend that it doesn’t exist, but it isn’t possible to stay out of the kitchen.
A kitchen is where you work. It needs to be as streamlined as possible to help prevent all those lovely excuses for eating out!
(See my Decluttering Page here for basic strategies to declutter any area of the home.)
Things I’ve learned from decluttering my kitchen:
Start By Washing the Dishes.
I didn’t truly understand how many dishes I needed until I developed a routine for washing my dishes.
It’s true, and I’m sorry.
If I don’t wash dishes consistently, I’m always running out of clean dishes. When I’m always running out of clean dishes, I think I must need more dishes. If I get more dishes, I can go even longer without washing them, which means the task is ten times more overwhelming, so I put it off longer.
And I think I need more dishes.
It’s a vicious cycle.
Ugh.
Once I had my dishwashing routine down, I realized I didn’t need anywhere near as many plates or cups or coffee mugs or skillets as I had. I saw which ones I always chose to use first (because they were clean!!) and it was easier to get rid of the others.
I know you can’t get a dishwashing routine going today, and you want to declutter your kitchen today. Start by doing the dishes and putting them away. If you don’t have enough cabinet space to fit all your dishes when they’re all clean, put away your favorites first and get rid of what doesn’t fit.
Which leads to the next point . . .
Use the Containers Your Kitchen Already Has
When you feel the urge to get organized, it’s natural to run out and buy new containers. But a kitchen comes with its own built-in-containers.
They’re called cabinets.
Once I grasped the concept of containers, my world was rocked.
The size of my coffee-cup shelf determines how many coffee cups I get to keep. If I have more coffee cups than will fit on that shelf . . . then I have too many coffee cups.
I don’t need to build a new shelf, I need to get rid of coffee cups.
The same goes for plates, glasses, pots and pans.
Related post: Establishing Boundaries, Confining the Clutter . . . Whatever You Want to Call It
Follow the One for One rule.
Kitchen items get used.
A lot.
If you received a pretty new skillet for Christmas, get rid of the ickiest old one. I know the temptation to keep the old one just in case. But don’t.
You’re here reading about decluttering.
That means you probably don’t have oodles of extra space you’re wishing you could fill up.
If the One for One concept boggles your mind, don’t worry. It used to boggle my Slob Brain too. You can read more about it here.
My Experiences Upon Which All This Advice Is Based
(I’ve learned the hard way, people.)
Painful Drawer Clean-Out – Kitchen Drawers
Bringing Beauty Out of Hiding – Kitchen Cabinets
So, Does This Mean I’m a Grown-Up Now? – More Kitchen Cabinets
Removing a Kitchen Cabinet to Make Room for a New Stove
Oops! I Think I Just Decluttered Something.
How to Store Plastic Containers <– I’ve received quite a few emails about how this technique has rocked people’s world like it rocked mine!
Cleaning Out the Pantry (Again)
Cleaning Out the Fridge (another one)
The Big Pantry Clean-Out (another one)
Kitchen Decluttering Projects with Videos
Nony Starts Using Grown-Up Glasses (And Declutters Her Kitchen Cabinet)
Decluttering the Lunch-Making Spot or How to Prioritize Decluttering Projects
Decluttering the Kitchen Drawer
New here? Well Howdy-doo?! (That’s Texan for “How do you do?”) Be sure to check out my decluttering page, my free printable checklists, my new book, my podcasts my explanation of why I don’t worry about being normal, and more about what you’ll find here at A Slob Comes Clean!
Does even the thought of decluttering overwhelm you? Sign up for my newsletter and get my reality-tested decluttering solutions delivered to your inbox for free.
--Nony
I will be working on my kitchen this week. Fortunately too many plastic containers isn’t a problem for me anymore. Glasses and cups, on the other hand, are. Big mugs, small mugs, Coke glasses, coffee cups, you name it, I could supply three or four families with more glasses, cups, and mugs than any of us would need.
You are forcing me to think. I was already trying to come up with excuses to keep a couple of small cabinets I put together from kits (most of the glasses and cups are in one of those). But then I realized I would like my kitchen better without them, so I’m going to try to figure out a way to declutter enough that I don’t need them. Or at least so I can get rid of one. I still don’t really have a place for small appliances, and thanks to my gluten issues, having to have things like two toasters and two waffle irons makes too little cupboard space a pain in the neck.
Dana, your comment about dishes (the vicious cycle of “needing” more) is EXACTLY what I do with clothes. I’m trying to get in a good rhythm of doing laundry regularly (and frequently) so I can ALWAYS wear my favorite things instead of waiting until I get frustrated with my wardrobe and doing the laundry so that the “good stuff” is clean again.
Thanks for all you do, and happy (early) New Year!
I also do this with clothes. I have a RIDICULOUS amount of socks and underwear because of this. I have an old house with a tiny closet, so I rationalize that the reason I can’t get everything put away is the closet’s fault, not my own. Really need to follow the one in, one out rule here.
Thanks for sharing your kitchen projects again. I have read them all before, but I think the timing this time was spot on. I tackled my first decluttering project this past weekend and the results are being posted on my blog tomorrow. After I completed that project, I was feeling so empowered I decided to continue on as I had more time left over than I expected. I tackled my kitchen and I used several of the techniques you’ve shared. I am so excited by the results and I can’t wait to share them on my blog in the next few days! Keep up the decluttering because you are my favorite blog to read! Thanks 🙂
The concept that the size of the shelf or cabinet dictates how many of a certain item I can have was brought home to me some years ago when I was trying to work out how I could fit yet another bookcase into my living room. It was some time before the penny dropped… that if I got rid of those books which were no longer of interest to me, I could find space for those books which reflected my new interests.
Getting rid of books?! Not done. Not possible. Sacrilege!
But, providing I found them a good home, what’s the difference between books and any other item surplus to requirements?
It took a while, because discarding some of those books (to the charity shop) was like discarding elements of me. But we change. Our interests change. Now I operate a policy of new book in, old book out. And I have books which are not only contained but which reflect my current interests, not those of twenty years ago.
Beautifully said, Susan!
Susan,
You should check out http://www.bookcrossing.com. This is how I “get rid of” my books 🙂
Love the part about containers…It seems like whenever I start an organizing project I think “Oooh, I need to go buy some containers (or something)!” And of course I don’t get to the store, or I don’t find exactly what I “needed”, and it all falls apart.
I love the way you write! So personal, like you are right here talking to me!
I will keep following your blog, because I’m new to this de-cluttering/ minimalist thing.
Thanks for the tips!
I’m heading home to tackle the kitchen!
I just finished reading Drowning in Clutter, and I have to share with you…I really benefitted from this e-book!! I am also on a deslobifcation journey…yet pretty far along, my house looks good and I work at it ( its definately not natural for me) . I have loosely followed Flylady for years, and I have read alot of organization books to try to educate myself on how to manage my home ( I also have three kids, now teens and work fulltime).
Dana, I really loved your idea of the visual spaces first! And that our limits…are well, OUR limits. Your e-book was a fun easy read, and it really did help me. THANK YOU!
So glad to hear!!
I always end up keeping things “just in case.” Thanks for this great post… I am going to do my best to follow the one-for-one rule… this will really help me declutter my kitchen in the process!
This is great! Love your tips about getting rid of your excess plates and mugs…buying more just creates more chaos!!
I’ve cleaned out my kitchen cabinet with my coffee stuff in it. Ughh, I found solidified honey. Anyway, it’s all sorted in groups.
I’ve also cleaned off another counter! I’ve had the dog’s medicine and pill pockets next to the microwave forever, taking up kitchen counter space, while their dog food is in the laundry room. So I have to move from one station to another. Not anymore! I’ve finally moved the medicine next to the dog food, eliminating a step and emptying off another kitchen counter.
Thanks, Nony, I never would have thought about this without your help!
I’m on a roll today. I cleaned out a very narrow cabinet next to the fridge. I cringed when I pulled out roasting pans, and things that I didn’t even know what they were! The only thing in there I’ve used in the last five years was my pizza stone. All but the pizza stone (which has been moved to another cabinet) is gone and now I have room to store the toaster in the cabinet and off my counter!
Go you!!
Funny, we always need more socks. I buy more and we need more. Why is there a giant basket of unmatched socks under my bed?
Just a thought….I’m a housekeeper, and I also help my clients declutter and organize. I’ve found that with most people, when you start to declutter, you should start with what is in the cabinet(drawer, closet,bookcase,whatever), where it belongs, first. If something is sitting out in the home of a clutterer/ disorganized person, then it was probably used more recently than the stuff that is put away. For example, in a family of four, if the dishwasher is loaded, leave it loaded while you declutter. Obviously, all that stuff in the dishwasher is used regularly. What is still in the cabinet is probably superfluous. When decluttering books, don’t start with your nightstand…you’ve read those recently-er than the books on the shelf behind the pile of cleanish laundry. The only place this doesn’t work all the time is the laundry room floor… Often, if it’s on the floor in there it’s because it doesn’t fit anyone but hasn’t been thrown away.:(
Hope this helps someone!
Doug, this is excellent advice!!!
I am so happy to be starting the new year with dishes and laundry under control (thank you so much)! I’ve decluttered plates, glasses and coffee mugs! Where I can’t seem to get a handle is food. If we put bread in a cabinet, for instance, I forget it’s there. If the crackers are in the pantry I forget we have any. It’s ridiculous. So I end up finding the wheat thins just after they expire. Instead I just leave snacks and bread on ththe counter – cluttering the kitchen. There has to be a solution. Any advice?
I did it! I used the one in, one out rule. I am addicted to the clearance area of The Container Store. They had some collapsible collanders in there this week. I bought one, because I have a super old, super ugly plastic collander that I just don’t even like to use anymore. So, I went home, took the tags off the new collander and put it in the dishwasher. After I did that, I took the old collander out of the cupboard and walked it over to my donate bag (a large handled bag from the Container Store that I keep in the front hall) and put it in the bag.