Showing posts with label organize the kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organize the kitchen. Show all posts

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Organizing and Decluttering the Kitchen

Are you ready to read about some helpful ideas on the subject of organizing and decluttering the kitchen, beginning with the kitchen cabinets? Most people have a very busy everyday schedule and it is so easy for our kitchen cabinets to become somewhat disorganized at times. 

I find that it saves me a great deal of time and effort when my kitchen cabinets are neat and organized. I can prepare my family meals more efficiently and I happen to enjoy cooking a little more when my kitchen is decluttered. So, if your kitchen needs a bit more organization for you to function well on an everyday basis, you may truly enjoy the following information. Let's declutter and organize some kitchen cabinets.

Hard to reach / Poor access

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

It may be a good possibility that you recently found my organizing blog while searching online for home organizing ideas in general or looking for great methods to declutter a home. A common theme to discuss today would include several ideas about organizing and decluttering the kitchen cabinets. I will try to easily explain some helpful steps that I practice when I am cleaning out kitchen cupboards.
 

However, before I start describing my method of decluttering kitchen cabinets, I will tell you about my sincere interest in home organization and that is the main reason that I began my blog, which I truly enjoy very much.
 
I have a great passion for organizing and decluttering. I have been reading a variety of informative books on the subject and I also have been viewing many helpful videos about organizing the house. You may find it fun and very interesting to check out my
organizing/declutter book selection on my blog.  

After reading and researching lots of great ideas and techniques for organizing a house, I came to my own conclusion that I don't actually think there is just one perfect way to organize a house. There are many steps and methods that everyone can choose according to what they feel comfortable with for their personal lifestyle. 

When I was researching everything that I could find about organization, I came across some useful items that could very well come in handy when decluttering and organizing the house. 

You may wish to check out a nice variety of
organization and storage products, along with the following organizing items for the home. Now, let's get back to talking about cleaning out some kitchen cabinets to make life a little easier while working in your kitchen everyday. It is one place in particular that many moms need to spend a lot of time on a routine basis, so you might as well make that time less stressful and more enjoyable.

I try to begin by doing one kitchen cabinet shelf at a time and just focus and concentrate on that one specific task. Personally, I begin by making a clean area on my kitchen countertop or a nearby kitchen table to place all the items from the shelf as I remove them, so I can easily sort through everything from that one shelf. For example, as you are sorting through the items, you may find that you have way too many items in one specific category.

In the photo below you will notice there are many bottles. If you happen to find out that you have too many items for one category, such as bottles or cups and saucers, you may decide to donate some items to your favorite local charity. The items for donation can be placed in a separate cardboard box and labeled for donation. I usually try to take my donation boxes to the charity or make arrangements for them to pick up the items within a short time period after I am done with my organizing project, so the boxes for donation don't sit around my house very long and make even more clutter. 

 Lots of bottles:

Way too many bottles

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

Now, some people may even choose to clear out a larger area for sorting. I always like to make sure my sorting area is a very clean, flat surface. Below is just a photo of sorting kitchen clutter.  

During the sorting process, you may also want to check for any items that you feel you no longer want or need anymore, in addition to any items that are broken or don't work anymore. I sort through everything and neatly place "like" items into categories before thinking about putting things back onto the shelf again.

Larger sorting area:

Sorting the clutter

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

Next, after I sort through my items, I clean the shelf before I neatly place the items where I want them to be in the cabinet. I place all the "like" items that I decided to keep together onto the shelf.

I make a habit of keeping bigger, heavier objects on my bottom shelves. I also keep items that I don't use on a regular basis on a bottom shelf. I place most of the kitchen items that I frequently use in an appropriate, safe area where I have easy access to them.

For example, I keep my dinner plates and bowls on a shelf that is very easy to access in my kitchen. I keep my water glasses on a separate shelf, and also my small collection of coffee mugs are located on a separate shelf in my kitchen. I have my large, heavy mixer machine on my bottom shelf. I also have my heavy cast irons pots and pans on a lower shelf too. 

I happen to keep some of my vitamin supplements inside my kitchen cabinets. I use a clear plastic bin without the lid to hold similar vitamin categories together and then I neatly label the plastic bins, so I can easily read what the contents are inside each bin. There are many useful bins and containers for storage and organinzing the kitchen. Below are just a few examples.

 Lea-guest-post-kitchen-1

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products
 
Another example of organizational containers for the kitchen:

 lea-guest-post-kitchen-2

Photo Credits By:Rubbermaid Products

You probably noticed that each of the containers are nicely labeled. There are many helpful organizational products for the pantry, as you can see below.

 Rubbermaid Pantry & Cabinet Organization

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

Organized canisters below:

Organized canisters

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

Lazy susans for cans:

Lazy susans for cans

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products
 
A nice corner shelf:

 Rubbermaid Corner Shelf

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

Great cabinet storage and organization for pans and more:

 Rubbermaid Cabinet Organization

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products
 
And lots of modular containers that can be easily labeled:

 Rubbermaid Modular Canisters

 Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

So, maybe if you remember the kitchen cabinet photo at the very beginning of this post, you can check out the organized view of the kitchen cabinets now.

 Neatly Organized Beverage Bottles

 Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

Additional view:

 Food Storage Organization

 Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

You can see how kitchen organization with easy access can help a kitchen become very functional for the busy homemaker. I have even started to use clear containers for a lot of my food in the refrigerator and I label each container with the name of the contents and the proper date.

 Rubbermaid Food Storage Containers

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

I am even using lunch containers.

 Rubbermaid LunchBlox - Lunch Containers

Photo Credits By: Rubbermaid Products

I hope you enjoyed our discussion about organizing and decluttering the kitchen cabinets. Now, you may want to check out some wonderful books about the topic of planning and preparing meals.