When I decided to declutter and simplify room by room, I knew almost immediately that I’d start with the kitchen. My biggest issue with simplification and letting go of things would be the sentimental attachment I often feel to certain items. I knew that I had little to no attachments to anything in my kitchen so I figured it’d be the best — and easiest — place for me to start.
I decided to make May the month of the kitchen declutter, and I’d say it was very successful! I’m off to a great start, and am feeling so much better about the state of my kitchen cabinets and drawers these days.
So picture this — before the declutter took place, you could open any number of cabinets and have a variety of items fall out onto you. Tupperware, glass bowls, strainers… you name it and we had it in abundance and “organized” and stored improperly.
Our kitchen is the WORST part of our house and I’ve hated it since day one. Not only is it hideous and outdated, it is tiny (around 10×10) and does not feel functional to us at all. We have only one bank of cupboards and drawers against one wall and that’s it. That’s it for counter space, too. Storage is in very limited supply and we’ve had to get creative by adding additional cabinets too.
Even though the kitchen is small, I knew we still had too much stuff – much more than we needed. We received a lot of appliances and kitchen gadgets at our bridal shower in 2013 and much of it has gone unused or used only very sparingly because when you’re a young about-to-be newlywed who is just getting ready to move into your own house… you have no idea what the hell you’re doing and what the hell you’ll need. You’ll also have no idea that your dreams of becoming an amazing home baker are NEVER going to happen! You register for all kinds of crap that is completely unnecessary and VOILA, too much stuff!
I tackled this project on Memorial Day weekend and spent a good couple of hours on Saturday morning getting it done. I got the bulk of this done in the first hour or two, then did some little “touch ups” like finishing up some drawers in the following days.
I’ll let the photos do (most of) the talking for now, and show you some befores and afters.
CABINET ONE
This cabinet houses a lot of our cooking / baking supplies like pans and bowls. It’s a large cabinet and we had it filled to capacity… and this was AFTER I did a clean out last year. Clearly, I didn’t clean out enough. Stuff was always falling out and stacked precariously. The cabinets sometimes wouldn’t even close all the way because things were sticking out. Here is a before, during, and after series of photos. I’m willing to bet that I got rid of anywhere between 35-50% of what was in there. I basically emptied it all out, sifted through it and made piles (toss, donate, keep), then put back what we were keeping in an organized matter; it was kind of like playing Tetris. Ultimately, I got rid of a lot of duplicate things (frying pans of the same sizes), mismatched things (bowls without lids or lids without bowls), and things we just don’t plain use!
Before
During
The beautiful after!
CABINET TWO
This is our under the microwave cabinet. Ummm. It was a mess — clearly — as you will see below. I used it to store a lot of our small appliances, but it also housed a lot of random junk. The cabinet made no sense and was a cluttered mess. Quite a bit of this got thrown out. Some of the appliances got replaced (hand mixer and food processor, which will stay in their boxes from now on), and a few things got donated. And bonus, I also sold a brand new cookie maker for $5.00 on Facebook! An ex bought it for me years ago. Bye, Felicia.
Once it was cleared out, I moved my Crockpots over, and am now keeping it as a cabinet just for small appliances.
Before
After!
CABINET THREE
Remember how I mentioned we had to add our own cabinets / storage? This unit is one of those things. It’s an old primitive cabinet that we bought and it helps us to store a few more things since we have no room. As you can see, it was another mess that was filled to the brim. It held our Crockpots (yes, I have two because I sometimes used to like to be proactive and cook two meals over the weekend for weekday meals), our fryer, and some other randoms like paper towel, Swiffer supplies, and some small appliances.
I wound up relocating the Crockpots and fryer (see above), because they were too large for this particular cabinet. While this cabinet now houses several small appliances (on the right), I primarily made it into a cleaning cabinet… specifically for my floors. It has our paper towels, Swiffer pads (I mostly use re-usable ones now), Swiffer liquid, and our Method Almond wood floor cleaner that we use on our wood floors throughout the house. Much better… don’t you think?
Before
After
OTHER CABINETS AND DRAWERS
These cabinets and drawers are smaller and don’t have before pictures, but trust me… they were all cluttered messes too. Here’s how they look after I cleared out a bunch of things and organized them better. This involved a lot of throwing out of junk, as well as some re-locating and re-organization of other things.
Tupperware cabinet with ONLY matching sets. I seriously clean this out at least twice a year, tossing mismatched pieces. How does that always happen?!
In essence, this used to be our junk drawer. I threw out a ton of said junk, and it now houses our towels, scissors, lighters, and some notepads and tape.
This still looks a bit crowded, but it’s much more organized than before. Baggies, wax, and foil. Easy to grab these things now.
Directly below the above drawer. Much more cleared out than before, and houses only our garbage bags and batteries. Don’t you LOVE a drawer or cabinet that isn’t BURSTING at the seams?! I know I do!
WHAT WE DID WITH EVERYTHING
- Sold one appliance (a cookie maker) for $5.00 on Facebook.
- Donated a few things that were still in good enough shape, like an extra pitcher. I also put aside some cooling racks to give to a baking friend since I had five and hardly ever bake. I pared my own collection down to two.
- Tossed MASS amounts of stuff. A huge garbage bag was full of things. These were ratty appliances, pans, mis-matched items, and duplicate things (who needs three of the same size frying pan???).
- Replaced two appliances: our hand mixer (ours only had one beater left) and food processor (ours was broken), since we use these appliances. Several appliances got the boot and will not be replaced simply because we never used them.
THOUGHTS
To say I’m thrilled is an understatement. I’ve long hated my kitchen, not only for its hideous looks and outdated style (still problems), but also for its small space and lack of storage. Now, our storage issue feels like a non-issue. I’d LOVE more storage eventually in our next home, but for now, it’s clear we simply had too much stuff. Now, when I unload the dishwasher, everything has a place and a home. I can open cabinets without stuff falling out, and cabinets close without objects blocking the way. It may take a few extra seconds now to put things away so that I can keep things organized (like stacking the mixing bowls and casserole dishes by size, etc.), but it’s well worth it to keep things streamlined and tidy.
I honestly feel such a huge sense of relief in knowing how much stuff we got rid of. My house in general still looks like a cluttered mess, but I know that we’ve made huge progress in the kitchen, which is a nice big dent in our ultimate goal.
Does anyone else just LOVE getting rid of stuff? It makes me feel all zen-like once I get past the emotional connection I sometimes face with certain things.
I am so, so glad I tackled the kitchen and am loving how much roomier and more organized everything feels in there. It feels like a much more functional space!
WHAT’S NEXT
Next up is the laundry room which is really broken into two parts: half laundry and half storage (and I’ll be working on the storage portion of the room). It’s the only real “basement” / storage area we have since we don’t have an actual basement. Right now, it’s a disaster. You really can’t even walk through it. I’d like to throw out old stuff, and then reorganize the rest in a way so that you can WALK, and so that I know where everything is. In essence, it really needs to be tidier, neater, and organized in a coherent fashion. There is a lot of old stuff in there that was left behind by my grandparents, in addition to a lot of old stuff of MINE that I moved in five years ago and haven’t touched since. I’m seeing a lot of trash bags and donation boxes in my future.
I also have my Halloween village and decor down there. It’s partially organized into cupboards, but then I ran out of room. Once the space is more organized and I have cleared off counter space, these can be stored in a safer and neater fashion.
We also have some tools and some book totes that will likely stay down there, but that need to be better organized.
My goal for June is to get started on this room. I honestly don’t know if I’ll finish it this month because it’s quite a large project, and my pregnancy is starting to slow me down. I won’t set any deadline for this project, but I do plan on at least getting started this month, and then possibly finish it in July. If you don’t see any “clutter” updates from me for the next month or two, just know it’s because I’m at work on this massive project. I will definitely update you as soon as I finish. I think I’m aiming for the end of July with this one! Fingers crossed!
