Are you nodding your head as you read this? You walk into your kitchen and everything is everwhere. In fact the only time it looks vaguely neat and tidy is just after you’ve had the cleaners round! 😆
Ok well don’t panic. I know how you feel. Our kitchen is a dumping ground for pretty much everything. On my most recent walk through this morning, I found kids books, post, parcels, dog treats, all dog paraphenalia, newspapers, magazines, x-box consoles, sweet wrappers….sound familiar? And that’s just the stuff that can be easily dealt with – by chucking most of it in the bin!
But what about the other stuff that is adding to your anxiety – let’s see the bottles of condiments, the nutri bullet, the air fryer, coffee machine, stick blender, toaster, slow cooker, bread maker, chopping boards, cookbooks, piles of dirty dishes (on top of the dishwasher)….need I go on? Help, I’m feeling claustrophobic just reading it
Don’t worry, help is on the way!! Well maybe not directly, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve which you can use to get your kitchen looking more minimal and restore your zen-ness once more this Spring!
A Short History of Spring Decluttering
If you live in a tropical climate, then Spring is not even a thing! You’d be right in thinking that it the whole Spring Cleaning phenomenon came about from countries that have four seasons.
Spring follows winter – it’s when the temperature warms up and you no longer need the heating on full whack. Now in the old days, the winter meant log fires, kerosene lamps and the like. Using these meant that people’s houses got covered in soot and so once Spring arrived, it was a chance to open the windows and get scrubbing to remove all that grime.
Clearly today, there’s no soot to speak of but well it’s kind of nice to open the windows and clean away winter, isn’t it? More sunlight equals more energy and so we’re more likely to want to get things done.
How to Start Decluttering Your Kitchen
It might seem overwhelming at first, but I think there is a tendency for us to want to get it all done at once. DON’T do this! You will no doubt, start tearing apart your kitchen only to find an hour later, that it looks 100 times worse than it did at the start.
The best way to approach it is to do it in stages – maybe 30/45 minute chunks. If you think you might get lost in time, set a timer and stick to it!
Ok so before you start, get yourself a couple of boxes and a bin liner or two. Then…go go go! Just focus on one area of the kitchen – open the drawers and cupboards and get rid of anything you see that you immediately know is too old, broken or you simply haven’t used because you bought it on a whim one day at a car boot sale 5 years ago.
Questions to ask yourself:
Do I really need this?
Do I use it? Well either you do or you don’t!
Is this item an extra? – do you really need 3 can openers?
Would I buy this today? Does it actually make my life easier? Do you use that bread maker? Really?!
So once that buzzer goes, stop – just stop! Look at what you’ve put in your boxes – if it can be donated to charity, great. If not, bin it. Don’t put it in the garage thinking it might come in handy one day. Listen up, if you haven’t used it, then you don’t need it!!
That was hard right? Don’t worry it will get easier as you’ll become more efficient with your time the more you do it.
So here’s a short checklist of what to do once you’ve removed the bits you don’t need , courtesy of wholefully.com:
- Empty out utensil jar, sort, clean, replace utensils
- Wipe down any countertop small appliances
- Store any appliances that are use infrequently
- Clean out toaster crumb tray
- Descale coffee maker or kettle
- Clean microwave inside and out
- Wipe down knife block, sharpen knives
- Wipe down paper towel holder
- Clean fruit bowl/basket
- Wipe down counters and backsplash
In fact their page is brilliant and tells you exactly how to go about a full declutter of your kitchen – do check it out as it goes into way more detail than my little round up.
So did you see how I just fast forwarded that bit? Yes, like some of you, I too find it super hard to declutter my kitchen. I think I need everything. I have far too many extra items and don’t get me started on my cookbooks 🤦🏽♀️
It really is too hard to do everything at once – and besides, I really do need that ice cream maker that I last used 5 Christmasses ago. You know what, maybe I’ll just press pause, and make some delicious cupcakes to go with a nice cup of tea!
See you same time next year then? 😉
