The kitchen inevitably is like "mission control" in the home. People tend to congregate in the kitchen. Guess what else congregates in the kitchen? Clutter! I know in our house, as soon as we walk in the back door, whatever is in our hands lands in the kitchen. Purses, empty cups, papers...you name it! No doubt, the clutter accumulates and gets out of control. It is time to "Purge, Evaluate and Organize."
PURGE First, go through your kitchen cabinet by cabinet, drawer by drawer. Eliminate items that are just taking up valuable storage space. You might want to have a few boxes handy, "goodwill," "toss," and "sell." Items you may want to purge include: lids for containers you no longer have, appliances you rarely use, extra un-needed casserole dishes, plastic cups you rarely use etc. The purging process can take a while so you may want to plan to tackle it one "area" at a time.
EVALUATE Once you have purged, take a moment to look around and evaluate whether your items are being stored in the best place. Think about convenience and make notes. It is helpful to have the glasses and cups near the refrigerator, the pots and pans near the stove and storage bags, foil and plastic wrap in an "easy to reach" area. By taking time to relocate these items, you will make your kitchen more efficient. The more efficient your storage areas are, the more likely you and your family will put items where they belong.
Another idea to make the kitchen more efficient is to store extra paper napkins near your table. How many times do you have to run get extra napkins during a meal? Also, you can create a "notes center" right by where you keep your car keys. Yes, designate a place for those keys!! In our house, we have a decorative metal container to keep our keys in, and if we have anything we need to take with us the next day like a movie to return, or something to mail, we put it in the container with our keys. Having it all in one place helps on those busy mornings! We also have a "notes center" with pens, paper, sticky notes and scissors so we can handle the mail efficiently as soon as we bring it in.
ORGANIZE This is where you implement what you planned when you "evaluated." You eliminated unused items and evaluated your kitchen, now it is time to organize. You may have decided to swap contents of cabinets or drawers. While you are doing that, it is a great time to clean out the drawers and replace the liners if needed. It is helpful to have a large surface such as a kitchen table to use while you are organizing. During this process, you may find additional items you no longer need!
Put items where they "fit." Other tips: put silverware near where the dishes are kept, perhaps in a drawer below the cabinet. Don't let rarely used items take the prime space in your cabinets. Use corners of cabinets or hard to reach areas to store appliances, large serving bowls and other containers.
Clear the counters of any items that do not belong in the kitchen. In addition to that, look around and see if there are appliances or containers that are not used every day. Store rarely used appliances in cabinets and you will have more counter space to work with. One thing I did at our house, I stored an appliance that we rarely use in a corner of a cabinet, and freed up space. I replaced it with a decorative spice rack. This helped me to keep from having to run back and forth from the pantry several times and also helped decorate as well.
Remember, it is better to take a little extra time to get your kitchen organized then to rush through it. You will enjoy your "new" kitchen more if you take the time needed. It is also helpful to get the family involved. They also need to know where everything is now.
For those who have a mail sorting area in or near the kitchen, here are some additional tips:
MAIL SORTING Ok, this is an area that we are working on at our house. We are pretty good about organizing bills, tossing junk mail and filing coupons as soon as we get them, but we are not as quick to get file other papers. Many organizer experts recommend that you only keep kitchen items in the kitchen. I can see the point, but it some houses, it just makes the most sense though. Our "office" is upstairs and I would be running up and down the stairs all the time if I tried to do that. So what we do is use a sorting system underneath the counter in a designated cabinet. The file holder is labeled "statements" and "paid bills." Bills are routed to our desk upstairs. My advice is to come up with a system that works best with the flow of your house.
CALENDAR Since the kitchen is the central point for the house, it is helpful to keep a family calendar in or near the kitchen. This way, you are more likely to record plans immediately and it is in a central location for all to see. We use the "Mom's Family Calendar" by Susan Boynton. There are columns for each person in the household and large spaces for you to record information. It also has a larger storage area at the bottom which is great to keep party invitations, directions, birthday cards to send etc. We also post important school information right on the door to the garage so we are sure not to miss a thing.
If you find that some things just keep finding their way to the kitchen, but they do not belong there, of course you can insist that your family put the items where they should go. But in some cases, you may find that you could save a lot of hastle by creating a place for them in the kitchen. An example: I bought a beautiful scroll-type iron coat hanger tree to put in the sunroom, just off the kitchen. This is a perfect place for the coats, backpacks and purses to go as soon as we walk in the door.
My Mom gave me a tip when the children were very little to help keep them out of the cabinets. We gave them one designated drawer to put toys, especially toy kitchen items. This helped keep them busy and out of our cabinets. I also put "surprises" in there for them to discover. Remember, you should always put child-proof locks on cabinets and drawers containing safety hazards for the children.
Once you have purged, evaluated, and organized, and also tweaked a few other areas, you will be well on your way to an organized kitchen which will help you keep control of the clutter.
JOIN THE MISSION: For those who have joined the mission to be organized and decluttered by Christmas, please post your progress and goals or contact me with questions or suggestions.
Enregistrer un commentaire