Organize.

Reorganize.

Clean out.

Purge.

De-clutter.

Simplify.

Let’s look at these action words and apply them to our kitchens, shall we?

Organizing, reorganizing, and cleaning out our kitchen cabinets sounds like a valiant activity to put on your to-do list, but is it ultimately as beneficial as you might think? Without purging unused items or truly de-cluttering, all we may be doing is shuffling stuff around.  In time, that stuff creeps back on our to-do list and the routine starts all over again.

I believe to truly simplify our kitchens and improve efficiencies is to de-clutter.

Be ruthless.

 

Dennis and I started on the ruthless de-cluttering path several years ago by following the advice of Elaine St. James and her Simplify your Life series of books.  Many of her tips resonated with us over the years.  I say “over the years” because we have found that de-cluttering takes time to figure out what you really need to make youhappy efficient.

Here are several tips we learned to get you started on your kitchen cabinet de-cluttering journey.

1.

Start with coffee mugs.  Scratch that, start with insulated coffee mugs that you take on the road.  Do you have a lot of these?  How often did you use them last year?  How many did you use at one time?  Okay, now be ruthless and put the extras you no longer need in the give-away box.  I started with keeping two and now we have none.

2.

Let’s go back to the coffee mugs.  Mugs can be tricky due to their sentimentality.  I get it.  Now, get over it.  That being said, I still have a couple in the cupboards that are ridiculous but I cannot bear to part with them.

3.

Mismatched glasses are next.  How many do you have?  Have many should you have?  Think through it.  If it is time for you to purchase a matching set and donate your old ones, do it.  There is something awesome about opening a clean, uncluttered, edited, and matching cabinet.

4.

Plates and bowls.  No, we don’t have to be all boring-like and have matchy matchy.  Try this.  Take everything out of your plates and bowl cupboard but your absolutely essentials.  Set the others aside in the garage or closet.  Try living with just the minimal set for a week.  Now, for two weeks. A month.  See what happens and you may determine for yourself that less is truly more.

5.

Reassess.  How are you feeling about de-cluttering your mug, glasses, bowls, and plates?  Open those newly de-cluttered cabinets and admire what you see.  Open another cabinet that is flowing to the gills.  How does that cabinet make you feel?  Compare the two.  Which one inspires you to use what you have?

Being ruthless is gutsy.

Be gutsy, my friends.

You can do it!

Eat well, my friends. Eat well.

Lyndi