Declutter the Kitchen

What's the Homemaking September ShapeUp! all about?



Before we can clean or organize or decorate, we have to declutter! Don't dwell on just 1 item, don't get sidetracked.

First, grab a trash bag and 2 baskets, totes, boxes or large buckets, 1 is for donate/sell and 1 for put away items for other rooms. As you are going through the kitchen and run across items that don't belong in the kitchen, put them in one of the totes. Don't leave the kitchen to put them away yet.

Go through the kitchen quickly and throw all the trash in the trash bag and also everything that is broken or no longer functional. If you run across an item you no longer need/use/want and it's in good working order, put it in the donate/sell bin. Open the drawers and do a quick glance for donate/sell or trash items. Don't get sidetracked and organize yet, we'll do that next week.

Last, open the refrigerator and quickly throw anything that needs to go.

Now, take the bin of items for put away, and put the items in the appropriate rooms.

Now, grab a few grocery bags and a pad of paper and pencil. Tamy is covering Organizing Your Pantry today, so while you are going through her post, keep a few things in mind. We all have items are given or we buy to try and end up not liking or never using.

If it's expired, toss it!
If it's not expired and you are never going to use it and it's unopened, put it in a grocery bag for donate.
If it's not expired and you are never going to use it and it's opened, either see if someone you know wants it or trash it.
If you've had it a while or it's almost expired, and you want to use it, write it down on your pad of paper and try to work it into your menu planning this week with Tamy.

Now that we've done a basic decluttering of the kitchen go on over to Tamy's for Pantry Organization.

View the Guide