I took five whole minutes to practice what I preach. This very spot is the example I use when explaining the Visibility Rule as I speak to groups of women.
And part of explaining the Visibility Rule is explaining that visible spaces get re-cluttered more frequently than non-visible spaces, so that’s an extra frustration that comes with tackling them.
Technically, I could have straightened this space in way less than five minutes, but giving myself the five minutes of focus let me get all the way to the bottom of the issues of this space.
Initially, I was only planning to show you the closer up pic:
But then, I decided to be honest and show the dirty cookie sheet and spoon that were also cluttering the space. Technically, those were procrasticlutter.
In five minutes, I replaced the super-boring-normal stopper on the fancy olive oil with the super-fancy-mechanically-amazing stopper that was probably a few days away from being completely forgotten and lost forever.
I also took the random snacks in the basket to the other basket on the other side of the kitchen where the kids actually look for snacks.
The cookies everyone liked that got lost and forgotten among the snacks that were lost and forgotten? I threw them away.
I was very pleased with the progress after five minutes:
Notes: The blue bag held a bottle of wine someone gave us. We don’t drink, and so it sat there. Cluttering my counter. I took it out of the blue bag and put the bottle in my spice cabinet, hoping I’ll think to cook with it at some point. I stuck the bag with my other reusable bags.
I am aware there are four cutting boards in the photo, and to be honest, there’s one more tiny one that was likely in the dishwasher at the time I took the photo. They all seem necessary, but I should probably evaluate that thought at some point. I have legitimate reason to fear turning into a Crazy Cutting Board Lady as I age.
--Nony
I have one of those spots for snacks and fruit. It gets out of control at least once a week, but I also tackle it every time we buy more fruit. It used to drive me crazy that it wouldn’t magically stay organised but now I straighten it up after every shop it’s much easier. Now I just expect that it will get all messed up with empty packets and stuff throughout the week as we use that area so much.
What Stella?? You mean as many times as Dana has told us we have to re-de-clutter, we really REALLY must do it?? Drats.
😉
I too have a bunch of cutting boards. I already donated some. I don’t know why I need so many.
I have 2 of the EXACT same! And 2 more. All purple, of course.
I am encouraged that I am not the only person who has spots that repeatedly need re-decluttering! Also, every time I read procrasticlutter it makes me giggle, because this is my world and you are my people!
You have 3 kids? You need 4 chopping boards. You never know when all 3 kids might want to help with veggie-prep at the same time. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Queen of Good Excuses.
It never occurred to me until this point to count how many chopping boards we have, but I just did, and… we also have nine. I had no idea that we had this many.
It’s actually not a problem. We have a chopping board drawer, it easily contains that many chopping boards, I’m not trying to fit more stuff in there, so I didn’t even notice we were excessively chopping-boarded until you wrote this. I guess I’ve qualified as a crazy chopping board lady without even knowing I’d done so. Cool, that was a TIL moment. 🙂
Thank you for the reminder….I am going to tackle my OBVIOUS CLUTTER SPOT T-O-D-A-Y and will take the before and after photos too as they are soooo good for the soul….and also my mending pile (which was already on my list). Again.
The cutting board wake-up call! I just counted, and I have six, so I was inspired to throw out the stained plastic one that came free with my knife set, since I still have FIVE nicer ones in the cabinet. Just when I think I’ve finished decluttering the kitchen…
I love cutting boards. We probably have four. But we have a big family and several members can help prepare food when we have multiple cutting boards. I refuse to feel guilty. lol