Decluttering For Cluttered Moms

Social media is full of articles on organizing your home.
The headlines read like this:

“How I Decluttered My Home in 30 Days!”

“My 4 Month Plan to Organize Your Whole House!”

Lady, I don’t have the time, energy, or the focus to spend even one day purging my stuff, much less 4 months.

Have you ever started to declutter, and then ended up with a bigger mess than before you began? Because I have, time and time again. I take everything out, half-heartedly begin sorting, and then get overwhelmed and give up. I look around at the piles I made and feel depressed because I have to put them all back again.

It feels like a lost cause.

So, I was thrilled to find some easy tips on decluttering your kitchen (perhaps the most used room in the home). The tips were quick and broken down into bite-sized chunks. Perfect for people like me!

If it still feels like too much, don’t try and do them all in a day. Instead, just tackle one area at a time.

Kitchen Items to Get Rid of:

Gadgets that only have one use. This one really hit home with me. For example, I can never find my melon baller and have found that a teaspoon works just as well (besides, how often does life require me to make balls of melon anyway?). Likewise: egg separators, nutcrackers, corn holders, etc.
Extra Mugs. Yikes! I have, not only a whole shelf of mugs, but also a wall cubby unit full of them. Do I need that many? No, I do not.
Kitchen towels with holes in them. I am lucky that my husband will take any and all worn towels for the garage. I know, they’ve only moved locations, but at least they become his problem!
Unused appliances and pans. My family prefers pancakes to waffles, so why am I holding on to my dusty waffle maker? I also have a scone pan, a madeleine pan I’ve never used, and a set of alphabet cookie stamps. Don’t need any of them.
Disliked and expired spices. Why do we feel the need to keep every spice we own? Some of mine have been expired for ages. There are also jars of spices I used only once for a recipe and never used again. It’s time for me to toss them!
Tupperware containers without a lid. This one needs no explanation.
Lids without a Tupperware container. Neither does this one.
Take out menus and expired coupons. It’s time to enter the 21^st Menus and coupons are easily found online. You can even order online and have food delivered if you so desire. Toss all that paper!
Fancy dishes and silver. If you don’t use it, sell it. If you can’t bear to get rid of it, at least get it out of your kitchen. I had an entire shelf of my mom’s collection of cups and saucers. I packed them up carefully for my daughters and granddaughters to “shop” later.
Random restaurant sauces and packets. My guys are notorious for bringing home little packs of sauces that sit in my fridge for months. I wait until they’re not looking and then toss them. They never notice.
Everything expired in the fridge and pantry. My friend did this at her mom’s house and was horrified to find things that had been expired for years. She hauled it all away so her mom couldn’t return it all to the pantry.

If you still feel a bit overwhelmed, invite a friend over to help. My daughter is an organizing queen, and she loves doing it. Having her help me not only motivates me, but she is great at saying, “You don’t need that!” I get way more done when she is around. If you have a friend or family member who likes to organize, ask them for help. Buy them lunch and a coffee when you’re done, or trade babysitting.

I personally am starting with my kitchen junk drawer.

PC: Ann Kirsten

I was surprised at what I found. Do I really need this many sets of measuring cups?

PC: Ann Kirsten

Next, I sorted through countless spatulas, spoons, ladles, etc. Most of them hadn’t seen the light of day in years.

PC: Ann Kirsten

I put the “keep” items back in the drawer and felt very accomplished.

PC: Ann Kirsten

Total time spent? Fifteen minutes! And that included vacuuming, washing, and drying the drawer.

I now have a box of things to donate to the thrift store and a drawer that will bring me joy whenever I open it.

Next up will be my pan cupboard, but that will be a job for “future Ann”. I’ll post pictures when I do it. Please post your before and after pictures too. We’d love to see them!