Smart Kitchen Decluttering Tips

Decluttering is all about mindset and taking deliberate action to free yourself from the weight of stuff.

Mindset is how you frame your thinking and how you perceive the world around you. Changing how you look at things determines your options and what is available to you. Change how your frame your thoughts, and your world changes with it.

When you are decluttering your kitchen, you are redefining your world. To do that successfully (and to be able to maintain it), change how you look at your kitchen space, what goes in it, and how it should be used.

Then you must act.

Mindset without action is like driving a car with no fuel. It won’t work.

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” ~ William Morris

Mindset Kitchen Decluttering Tactics

1. 6-Month Rule: If you have not seen it, used it, or needed it in the last six (6) months – donate it.  For example, most people switch out their winter for summer clothes toward the end of spring and visa versa in the Fall – about every 6 months. If you start decluttering in July, you last saw your favorite sweater in April or May when you did the wardrobe swap. So your favorite angora sweater is safe.
2. “Death to Uni-Taskers!” : This sentiment was popularized by chef and food science guy, Alton Brown of Good Eats!, a cooking show on the Food Network. In short, it makes little sense to have a gadget (kitchen or otherwise) that only serves one purpose. Of course, there are exceptions like automotive tools. But for most items, do you really need a tulip vase when any vase will do?
3. “One In, One Out”: When you buy something, get rid of or donate something of the same type.
4. Gifts: Are you keeping something you don’t really like because a loved one gave it to you? Consider that the most important part of a gift is the act of giving and receiving. If you don’t like it, need it, or have duplicates, donate the gift but keep the loving memory.
5. Duplicates: If you are a family of five (5), do you need a table setting, silverware, glasses, and mugs for 15? If you host dinner parties, holiday celebrations, or family events, keep your party settings separate. Go for the good stuff for these occasions. In the meantime, limit your cupboards and drawers to what your immediate family uses daily.

Kitchen Decluttering: Top 3 Clutter Magnets

The top three (3) kitchen clutter magnets include:

1. Counters
2. Pantry
3. Kitchen Cleaners

Kitchen Counters

Your home is not a storage unit, and your kitchen counter is not your workbench. If it is, time to do a thorough kitchen decluttering and re-design.

Your counter space should work for you – make your life more efficient. Setting infrequently used gadgets in the middle of your counters but having to gather coffee supplies from several different cupboards and drawers is not an effective use of space.

Instead, rearrange your kitchen around what you do most. In the process of your kitchen decluttering, consider creating designated stations for specific daily functions like coffee and mail.

Coffee Station

Create a coffee/hot drink station where all of your coffee, mugs, spoons, sugar, and creamer are stored.

Postal/Package Station

Create a postal station by your door to prevent mail and package stuffing from getting to your kitchen.

Put your paper recycling bin next to your postal station and keep it stocked with pens, stamps, box openers, envelopes, paper shredder, and bubble mailers. Immediately shred what you don’t need and put the paper in the recycle bin when full.

Keep a pen handy to sign those important papers and permission slips. Then mail out those signed documents immediately – saving you from carrying paper all over the house, cluttering other areas, or getting lost.

Pantry

Texas has a huge food waste problem that starts in your pantry. There is little more frustrating than cooking a loved one’s favorite dish and not being able to find your ingredients. Or finding out that the ingredients have expired.

Solution:  Create a food rotation habit.

Rotating your food is a safety habit that will save your family time and money. Food rotation also gives peace of mind knowing that the extra you bought just in case will still be good – if or when you need it.

Here’s how:

1. Start with purging all expired food.
2. Remove all good foods and scrub the walls, shelves, and floor with your favorite cleaner. Then replace your ant/pest traps if you need them. (Ant invasions are the worst!)
3. Group your foodstuffs by type.
4. Position food, so you know what you have. Place the oldest in front and the newest in the back to eliminate wasting food because you didn’t see it. Leave room in the back to place new ones as you purchase them.
5. Put like groups together in baskets/acrylic container pull-outs that fit on your shelves. (HINT: This is when you purchase/repurpose acrylic drawers, baskets, and other organizational containers.)
6. Put your commonly used items at the most accessible levels but place your holiday/celebration-only foods out of the way on higher shelves.

Kitchen Cleaners

Do you really need four (4) different multi-purpose cleaners under your sink?

Unless you are loyal to one brand, chances are you have tried multiple cleaning products that may or may not have worked as promised. These unfinished bottles take up room under your sink and are a treasure trove of toxic dangers to small children and pets.

Kitchen Decluttering Tip:  Find what works for you and get rid of the rest. For additional safety, add baby locks to all cabinets storing cleaning chemicals.

Common cleaners found in kitchens:

• Multi-purpose cleaner
• Glass cleaner
• Scouring Powders like Bon Ami, Comet, or Bar Keepers Friend
• Copper/Granite/Stainless Steel specialty cleaners
• Dishwashing liquid
• Sponges & scouring pads like SOS (click here for an eco-friendly option)
• Long latex gloves – We know this is not a cleaner. But if you have sensitive skin or have a hand or arm injury, these are necessary.

Buying in Bulk

We love buying in bulk from our favorite warehouse. It saves time and is flexible enough to keep up as your family’s needs change.

Best Practices Tip:  Have a handheld forever bottle and one larger refill container used to refill it. When you fill out the handheld bottle with the last of from the bulk container, it is time to buy another bulk container.

Green Option to Single-Use Plastics

Instead of buying liquid cleaners, consider these eco-friendly options. These work well, save space and limit the amount of plastic going into our landfills. Easy to store and saves space. (Note:  We don’t make any money from recommending any of the companies listed below. We are simply sharing our experiences.)

Where to Get Eco-Friendly Cleaners

• Blueland – com & Amazon
• JAWS Cleaners – com & Amazon
• Dazz – https://www.dazzcleaner.com/ & Amazon.com

Benefits of Kitchen Decluttering

1. Save money – No need to re-purchase what you already have
2. Save time – Know exactly where everything is; you make the most of your time.
3. Save stress – One of the common triggers for anxiety is clutter. When you know something is messy, it causes stress.

Did Your Kitchen Decluttering Project Take on A Life of Its Own?

We completely understand. Once you get a taste of life without clutter, you don’t stop with just the kitchen.

Call All-In Hauling to help at (936) 445-8159. We will customize a solution that will get you back to doing what you love — not the clean-up!

You can find us hard at work in Conroe, Lake Conroe, The Woodlands, Spring, Magnolia, Coldspring, Cypress, Huntsville, Montgomery, and Willis. Please stop by and say hello. Abraham and the guys would love to see you!