Helpful organizing tips to master kitchen clutter

If the kitchen is the heart of the home, kitchen clutter may be the considered the blockage that leads to heart disease. Taking the analogy further, sometimes the cure is all about exercise and good habits.

Alberta’s leading home organizing guru, Megan Golightly, has long advocated for clutter-less living to achieve a healthy lifestyle. She preaches the gospel of an organized lifestyle at home trade shows across Canada and her GoSimplified business has clients all through North America.

Megan chats about The Cost of Clutter and why people have a hard time letting go at this year’s Edmonton Home+ Garden Show. She’ll get into the psychology behind letting go of things and tools, awareness and new questions to ask to change the way you deal with clutter in your daily life.

She spoke with Edmonton New Home + Condo Guide specifically about the kitchen and how letting go is the key to getting along in this essential part of the home and home life.

The cost of clutter

What is important is to recognize that clutter does have a cost – and not just financially, but in the way we live. “Clutter takes a toll in our time and energy. You lose money when you buy things that you end up not needing. Clutter adds stress so it negatively affects our physical health. And when it gets out of hand it can also put pressure on relationships,” she says.

The kitchen is a likely ground-zero for clutter, especially for busy families with young children. That’s why Megan thinks it’s absolutely essential to get a handle on the matter before it becomes a problem.

Sentimentality may be the biggest obstacle in getting rid of clutter or keeping things long after they have outlived their usefulness. “You have to get rid of things to stay organized. Duplicate items, old appliances, things that you haven’t used in the last year,” she says those are all good candidates for the donation bin.

She picks for example coffee mugs, which can overrun a kitchen cabinet in no time. Most are kept for sentimental reasons or for nostalgia’s sake, even when they are hardly used. Megan’s rule of thumb for coffee mugs is for each family member to have three, so a family of five will have just 15 cups at the most.

“Take a picture of the mugs that mean something to you, then put those extra mugs in a box for donation.”

Organized life

Another key organization hack is to keep similar things together. Keep utensils together, knives should be arranged neatly together in a knife block, food containers in one spot. The old adage

“have a place for everything, and everything needs to be in its place”” works best in the kitchen.

Getting started can seem like the biggest hurdle, but don’t think it is insurmountable. “Don’t be overwhelmed by the mess, just get started. Get a garbage bag and go through the kitchen – the pantry, the drawers and cabinets – and pick out stuff that are no longer useful or are just taking up space.”

Keep small appliances that are used every day on the kitchen counter for ease of use, but other ones that are only occasionally used out of sight. Coffee makers are a good example of small appliances that need to be on the counter especially if the household drinks a lot of coffee. But clunky appliances like toaster ovens and food processors are best put away until needed.

For families with young children, she says to designate a kitchen drawer for lunch boxes. Keep the similar items (i.e., utensils, knives) in one place, she says. Group them together, arrange similar food containers in the pantry for a pleasing, aesthetic look, and to know where to find items when you need them.

“In my experience, most people are not disorganized, just overwhelmed by having too much stuff.”

Kitchen organization tips

The following is an excerpt from Megan Golightly’s blog on kitchen organization in her gosimplified.com website.

Pots and pans

These can add up and multiply over the years. These quick steps can help you go through and declutter what you’re not using:

• Pull out all your pots and pans
• Match lids with pots
• Place a pot or pan on each burner. Notice how many extra you have.
• Ask yourself the three questions (Do I like it? Do I use it? Would I buy it again if it broke?)
• Donate the remaining pots and pans that don’t have a matching lid or are rarely used

Meg’s tip: If you really want to live with less but just cannot let go, put a few of the “rarely used” pots and pans in a box in the basement and mark the date on the top.If you don’t need to retrieve them from the box in 6 months, take the box to a donation center and don’t look back!Don’t get in your own way; there is freedom in less clutter.

Utensils

Do you have a jar on your counter overflowing with utensils or a drawer that is bursting full of unused items? Let’s tackle it!

• Take it all out and place similar items together; I call this process putting things into ‘towns’
• Toss out broken tools
• Take a look at what you have vs what you use
• If you have any gadgets that are rarely used and only do one specific job,it’s usually a good indicator that you don’t need them.Kitchen space is prime real estate.
• Put back only what you USE

And just like that, you have a box full of items to donate, don’t let it sit around. Take it to the donation center today!

Megan will be delving into the topic of clutter when she appears at the Sleep Country Home + Garden Stage at the Edmonton Home + Garden Show Thursday March 23 at 6pm; Fri. March 24 at 3pm and Sat. March 25 at Noon. Check out her life hacks in decluttering at go-simplified.com.