Thirteen Items To Declutter from Your Kitchen
/If you’re eager to get your kitchen decluttered and ready for the holidays, this is the article for you. The kitchen is the place where magic happens, but it can also be the place where clutter overflows. Read on for 13 items you can declutter from your kitchen today!
1. Expired items. Let’s start off with a no-brainer. Take all of your pantry items, fridge items and other miscellaneous items out and discard anything that is expired. Voila! You’re off to a great start.
2. Broken appliances. This one is easy! If the appliance is broken, missing key parts or cords, it’s time to say goodbye.
3. Things you could borrow or buy disposables of. Do you really need a Fondue set? Or maybe, if you decide to use one, you could borrow it? How many big roasting pans do you need? Maybe you could choose to buy disposable pans on holidays to reduce clean up and double as transport for leftovers? You might be hanging on to more than one crockpot because of a party you host once a year. Consider borrowing a crockpot just that one time and saving the space in your own kitchen. Take a hard second look at anything you’re keeping that you don’t need because it would be just as easy or functional to borrow or buy disposable.
4. Duplicates. There are very few things you need more than one of in the kitchen. How many cans are you going to open at once? Likewise, how many frying pans do you actually need? DO you find yourself using the same spatula everytime? Then why do you keep so many other, non-awesome spatulas? Things you have duplicates of are an easy target for decluttering if you’re honest with yourself and the way you function in the kitchen.
5. Junk drawer items. A junk drawer is a receptacle for items in your home that don’t have a home. That is, everything in that drawer is homeless! Instead of having a junk drawer, assign the items in the drawer homes. Office supplies should go in the office or near the desk. Batteries should all be kept together, neatly sorted. Electronic cords, chargers and other items should also be stored and maintained somewhere where they are useful for their purpose. What else is in your junk drawer? Is there a better way?
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6. Cookbooks. Think about the last three recipes you made. Did you use a cookbook? Or, like most people, did you look it up on your phone or make the recipe from memory? These days, we’ve shifted from family recipes, newspapers and cookbooks to apps, social media and food blogs to learn about food. Cookbooks are a nice idea, but if you don’t actually use them consider trading them for space and lack of clutter in your kitchen!
7. Unmatched sets. If you have full sets of anything whether it’s dishes, measuring cups, potholders or wine glasses, consider discarding other random items of the same category that don’t belong in the set. Keep the matching set, discard the random, in matching items.
Related: How to organize your kitchen step by step
8. Food storage containers without lids. You know there are food storage items without lids lurking in your cabinets. You know there are food storage lids without containers lurking there as well. It’s time to drag it all out, match it up and discard the rest.
9. Bakeware. If you’re not baking for the pure joy of it, you’re probably the kind of person who lets other people bake for you. That’s wonderful, but it also means you can probably say goodbye to some of that bakeware.
10. Gadgets. There is a gadget for every imaginable kitchen function. Sometimes the gadget is more complicated than the good ol’ fashioned way of doing things. For example, do you need a yolk separator? Or can you simply use the eggshell like Grandma used to? (Here’s a video if you never learned how) A large percentage of kitchen gadgets could be replaced by one simple tool: a knife. Consider whether you use the gadgets and, if you don’t, say goodbye.
11. Free novelty items. Yes, the cups, magnets, mugs, towels and whatever other free promotional items you have laying around can probably go. Why? Because the cups, mugs, magnets and other items that you picked out are likely the ones that spark joy. Those are the ones you should keep. Free promotional items are probably just taking up space and not bringing you joy.
12. Gifts. If you’ve got things in your kitchen that were gifts but are never used, it’s likely time to discard them. Yes, the tiny glass bowl from your wedding that you never figured out how to use can probably move on. The gadget you got one year for Christmas and have yet to use, yes, that can go as well. The potholders that don’t match your kitchen colors or design that you received at an office party? Well, you get the idea. Remember that the act of giving and receiving the gift is when the warm, fuzzy feelings were expressed. Keeping the items in a cluttered kitchen does not make that moment in time more or less special. So, be okay with saying goodbye.
Related: The Biggest Misconceptions regarding the Konmari Method™
13. Written Noise. In the KonMari world, clutter can come from written labels too. Visual clutter competes with your ability to focus, which is why it has to go. Imagine when you open your pantry or cabinet doors and you see all the labels describing tastes and ingredients and functions. According to Kondo, it’s almost like someone is muttering every single label you see to you at once. We don’t think about it much, but our brains must process and sort all of the written information, even if it does it “behind the scenes.” If, instead, you can remove labels and allow the beauty of containers, food and liquids to be all you see you will notice a difference in your kitchen.
There you have it: 13 items you can quickly declutter from your kitchen today so that you can start sparking joy this holiday season!