Every January, I look over at my kitchen from my couch and want to declutter the shit out of it. So much crap has accumulated over the last few months – mail, junk mail, new Christmas gift mugs and snack bowls, kitchen gadgets still in their packaging, 5 bottles of olive oil. Some things we still need to find a home for. And some things are out because they are easier to access. The kitchen is clean, but there is just a bunch of stuff out on the counters.
It takes a few weeks for the motivation to finally kick in; and by February, there is finally some improvement. This year I threw out some glasses that were saved from tiramisu desserts a few years ago and only reused for desserts once. They were taking up prime cabinet real estate while I had to stretch to reach things that I use all the time. Removing them made space for some new snack bowls and rice rinsing bowls that I use regularly. This was such an improvement!
The best organizing advice I have ever read was to have a "home" where each item belongs and to put the item away in its "home" immediately after using it. The key to keeping this up over the long-term is to make sure that the item's "home" is easily accessible, so you have no issue putting it away.
In her first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, Marie Kondo talks about getting rid of items that don't bring you joy and keeping those that do. Back in 2017, I started decluttering in the order she recommends (with my clothes), but I couldn’t wait to get to the kitchen. While the "joy" concept helped me immensely in getting through my clothes, the concept of putting things away easily helped me more in the kitchen. I went through a whole process to organize my kitchen which combined what I've learned from this book and all the other resources I have read. This process consisted of Decluttering, Organizing and Staying Organized.
Since it's a New Year, I thought I would share with you what worked for me in a Kitchen Organization Series. Let me know the most helpful tip you've come across to organize your kitchen.
