 June 4th 2007
 Clutter 101
 4 comments
Welcome to the third part of my series of posts taking the Clutter 101 principles of organizing and de-cluttering your home and applying them to individual rooms in your home. In this post I will cover the kitchen. As there is typically so much activity here, as well as the fact it needs to be regularly cleaned, it is important that we don’t get distracted by all the clutter lying around and can cook our food without spending ages trying to find the right utensils and pans.
Drawers & cupboards
Look at all those drawers and cupboards. Are you making the most of that space? Just because it’s in the kitchen it doesn’t mean it has to be reserved for plates and pans and food. In fact, given the amount of drawer space the average kitchen has nowdays, if they are all taken up with those sorts of things, you may need to seriously de-clutter the kitchen.
Cutlery and utensils
Get what you need and no more. If you live on your own and you have twelve wooden spoons, it’s safe to assume you have too many. Unless you have exceptional circumstances, cutlery should typically fit in one drawer, with an optional utensil jar (or similar) for storing larger items, like those wooden spoons, spatulas etc. Buy a cutlery tray for putting in the drawer to keep everything organized, you don’t want to waste time digging around for a knife and fork.
Fridge/freezer
Defrost your fridge/freezer regularly otherwise the ice builds up inside which takes up a lot of space that could otherwise be used for food, and means when you finally do defrost it, it will take twice as long. As much as possible group food products together and use the specialist storage areas that usually come with fridges, such as fruit/veg trays and cheese boxes.
Kitchen counter
Be sure to keep the counter as clear as possible. It is an area that needs regular cleaning and is your primary work/cooking space. The more clutter you have on the counter the more awkward you will make things for yourself. If you are lacking in space on the counter consider getting wall attached storage like spice racks and pan hooks to help clear it. It may not be attractive but it is more efficient than on the kitchen counter.
Under the sink
Home of the cleaning products. Cleaning products are one of the things that are regularly on special offer at supermarkets so it can be tempting to stock up. But do you have the space? Do you really need 3 spare boxes of detergent on hand taking up all that room? Don’t worry about turning your back on a good deal, there’s bound to be others when you actually need them.
Get a small basket and put all your scrubbing brushes and washing gloves in there. If you havn’t organized your your cleaning chemicals before, take them all out and group them together. You might find you will have used two or more bottles of the same brand. Pour them into the one bottle to save more room. Then return the products to the cupboard. Group the ones you are currently using together, or bring them to the front so they are easily accessible.
Create Activity Areas
Try and organize/store tools, cutlery and utensils near to the areas you are most likely to be working. For instance I keep pans and tinned food in cupboards next to the oven and cutlery near to the counter space where I serve up food.
Like having cleaning tools under the sink, you could also try and bring together utensils you use for specific tasks. If you bake a lot for example, you might want to keep flour, baking powder, mixing bowl, etc in one place.
Get a bin
It’s probably obvious but most of the waste in your home will come from the kitchen so get as big a bin as you feel comfortable with that doesn’t mess up the aesthetics of the room. You don’t want to have to be taking out rubbish all the time because your small bin can’t hold all your waste.
Reader discussion
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How in heaven’s name do I convince, persuade, bully, bribe or cajole my husband to take an active interest in de-cluttering our home? It’s a total mess and it’s not a good example to set for our children. No sooner have I tidied up/bagged items for the charity shop and rubbish tip, other items appear in the house and used items are again left where last used instead of putting them in their own place. Any request for a united front is met with ‘I am OK, stop nagging.’
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Maggie, I don’t know. I’ve had similar problems with my partner. However, your comment has got me thinking about this topic. For what it’s worth, I’m going to look into this issue and write a post on it in the near future.
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Welcome to the third part of my series of posts taking the 
