Organize + Energize: 8 Ways To Keep Clutter Out Of Your Kitchen

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Kristin MacRae, GoLocalWorcester Organizing Expert

Want a kitchen that looks this serene and organized? Follow these 8 steps.

How do you keep clutter out of the kitchen and maintain organization? Do you find that you are clearing spaces in the kitchen once a month? Clear the clutter once and for all and develop working organized systems. Take a look around your kitchen and inside your cabinets. What do you see that may not belong? Is it your children’s paperwork from school, tools, sports equipment, mail, or clothes? My advice: If it is not related to appliances, cooking or food and you don't use it every day, get it out of the kitchen!

I find that people who have larger kitchens find ways to clutter them because they have the space to fill so the kitchen acts as a drop spot for everything. The smaller the kitchen, the more creative you have to be with finding ways to condense and organize and make the most of your space.

Here are 8 tips to keep clutter out of the kitchen:

1. Take my advice above: If it is not related to appliances, cooking or food and you don’t use it every day, get it out of the kitchen.

2. Why are you storing random tools in the kitchen?

Keep tools in the garage, closet, or basement where you house all the rest of your tools. You’ll know where they are and you can grab them at a moment’s notice.

3. If there are paper related items like mail, circulars, and magazines find an area in your home where you can contain this information.

Your home office is an ideal spot. If you don't have a home office, try to set up an area where you can pay your bills, file circulars, coupons, receipts etc. Keep these items confined to one area. Create a working system going forward so the piles won’t form again.

4. Try not to drop everything in the kitchen when you walk in the door.

It will accumulate and it will never leave.

5. Give keys, jackets, dog leashes, shoes, hats, etc. a home by the entry way.

Do not let them take over the kitchen.

6. Refrigerator clutter.

What do you have hanging on the outside of your fridge? How long have the items been attached to the fridge? Are the sides and front full of so much information that you can’t even see the color of your fridge? Think about what you really need hanging there and get rid of any unnecessary papers.

7. If you happen to have a desk in your kitchen, be sure to keep paperwork and items contained to the desk area.

Create organized working systems that work for you and your family.

8. If you have the space and need a drawer in the kitchen for odds and ends, be sure that you have a drawer divider in that drawer and keep it organized.

If it is not organized, items will get lost and that is how we waste money. We spend money on things we don't realize we already may have.

Take a full inventory of the clutter in your kitchen. You may be surprised at what you may find!

{image_2}Kristin Carcieri-MacRae, the founder and owner of Organizing in RI, has always enjoyed finding creative ways to streamline the environment around her. Kristin has appeared on air on www.talkstreamradio.com and Patricia Raskin's Positive Business Radio. Her articles have been published in the Rhode Island Small Business Journal and New England Home Life. Her CD, Organizing Basics, is a 1-hour guide for the person who wants to get organized but doesn't know where to start and is available at the following locations listed here. She is also available for organizing workshops.