Crabtown Cleaning

Wouldn't it be great to have a perfectly organized kitchen? One where you can find every spatula, measuring cup, and kitchen gizmo without having to search for 20 minutes. Our summer project this year was to purge our kitchen to try to achieve this goal. Here's what we learned in the process.

1.       Take a minimalist approach.

We all love our kitchen gadgets, but do we really need 3 different types of blenders and 2 coffee machines? Pick your favorites and eliminate the rest.

2.       Adopt a one in and one out rule.

When you decide to buy new drinking glasses or dishes, get rid of the old ones. ALL of them, right away! Even if they aren’t broken and even if it seems wasteful. Donate them. Someone will find a use for them, but if you’ve already purchased new ones you are just creating new clutter by hanging on to them.

3.       Apply the one in and one out rule to the "artwork" on your refrigerator.

Don’t get me wrong – I encourage you to celebrate your budding artists. Friends and family will love looking at your kiddo's latest artwork, but if you really want to de-clutter, you have to take down last weeks drawings before you add new ones. If you are like me and just find it too difficult to part with the artwork, find a storage solution. Maybe a plastic box in the garage labeled "Artwork" or maybe even just snap a photo and let it go. ALEX Toys makes a great product called Little Hands My Art that is perfect for storing artwork you really want to keep. You can click here to grab one for each of your children and store those extra special items forever.

4.       Keep the counter top free and clear.

Find a home for everything that is currently living on your counter top and purge anything you cannot make a home to store. Keeping clear counter tops will help tremendously by giving you a visual baseline for what your kitchen SHOULD look like. Then when clutter starts to accumulate, you will feel motivated to get back to the beautiful clean counter top you have grown accustom to seeing.

5.       Consider usage when choosing a home for what you keep.

When clearing those countertops, give some thought to where you choose to store the items you remove. For example, your toaster that you probably use weekly should stay as close to the front of the storage area as possible. The mixer you use a few times a year, on the other hand, can be pushed a little further toward the back of the cabinet.

6.       Allow yourself one messy drawer.

Let’s be real, everyone needs a place to dump a few items now and then. Allow yourself this space, just commit to cleaning it out a few times a year so it doesn’t get out of hand.

7.       Make a plan for the paper.

Nothing makes more mess in a kitchen than paper. This area seems to be the central location for all mail, correspondence from school, take out menus, bills, and any other paper that makes it's way into your home. In our home we have one inbox that houses all incoming paper. Once the paper is addressed, the documents we need to keep are filed electronically. Neat Receipts is a great solution for setting up an electronic filing system for your personal records. If you prefer paper files, just come up with a system that moves the paper to it's permanent location or gets it into the recycle bin as quickly as possible.

By implementing these strategies we were able to purge five large boxes of useless items that were cluttering our kitchen. Since then meal prep, daily routines, and even putting away our clean dishes has become a breeze. We hope you find some of these tips helpful. Please let us know if you choose to implement any of these strategies to organize your kitchen.