Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it's more important to make yourself feel good.
Ina Garten
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Before you get busy with spring activities, take time now to simplify and declutter your kitchen. Get yourself ready for the warm weather and upcoming grilling season. The goal is to make room in your kitchen for what is truly useful and beautiful.
Seasonal Items
Put away any Christmas items still lingering on your counters or in your cabinets. If you have fall items still out, get those put away, too. Throw away broken items and put ones you don’t love or use anymore in your donation pile.
Put away the Valentine’s items, too. The sooner they’re gone, the sooner you can decorate for St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. Ditto tossing the broken items and donating the unloved ones.
Go through your linens, too, and put away anything that isn’t the current season. I keep a few tablecloths – bright yellow, pink, medium green, and a fall one. I’d like to add a gray one to my collection for company. I only use white napkins since they go with everything.
Kitchenware
Store only daily and weekly use items in your kitchen cabinets. How many mixing bowls do you really need? And yes, I’m preaching to the chore here. Use mini wire shelves to maximize the space.
Saving plastic serving platters for parties? Store them outside the kitchen. Maybe you have a spot under the bed in your bedroom, as long as everything is clean.
Review your kitchen tools – serving spoons, etc. to make sure you’re using everything in the drawers.If not, see if a friend needs the tool, or maybe a young adult starting out with their first apartment. No takers? Put it in your donation pile. You only need a few basic tools; the rest of the tools need to earn their place in your kitchen.
Appliances
Do all your appliances have an assigned spot in a kitchen cabinet or do they take up counter space?In my kitchen, I keep the microwave/convection oven, Kitchen Aid mixer, coffee maker, and toaster oven on my counters. My immersion blender is stored in a basket with its accessories on top of a set of shelves for easy access.
In my cabinets, I store the food processor, crockpot for making yogurt, yogurt maker and popcorn maker. The popcorn maker needs to be moved downstairs for storage since we only use it a few times a year. My new Blendtec Blender is sitting on the counter until I decide where to store it.
I keep my bread machine in the basement even though I have used it several times a week. It takes up a lot of space. Since I set it up to run for several hours by itself like my dehydrator, I don’t need to keep the bread machine in the kitchen. It sits on my dryer in the laundry room area, a room I visit several times a day.
Other Items
If you make fermented foods and beverages or grow your own herbs, you may have other items on your counters. Usually, these items can be moved to harder to reach spots in the kitchen keeping the counters clear for every day food preparation.
Since I make kombucha, I have a shelf dedicated to storing the kombucha while it ferments. I keep the big fermenting bottles on top of my fridge. Unfortunately, the bottled kombucha and empty bottles are taking up space on the counter. I may move them to the top of the fridge.
How often do you declutter your kitchen?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
You have excellent advice here! I really need to de-clutter the counter tops and the cupboards below – one thing I definitely need to do is extend the top shelf in the cupboards below because they’re only half shelves which makes storing stuff under there a tricky prospect…or sets up a booby trap.
Stacy Uncorked recently posted..Celebrating Valentine’s Day
My husband is a counter-snob. He constantly “hides” things I need in drawers and cupboards, but I am thankful one of us has that gift! I would love to keep my kitchenaid mixer out always but I lost that battle. It’s easily accessible – he even adjusted the shelves in my pantry to make it fit – so I can’t complain too much! We love our counterspace too – especially since we both love to cook and it’s a great bonding activity for us and for the family!
Carrie @chockababy recently posted..Allergy Friendly Friday: Nacho Bar!
We just cleaned through our utensils and figured out what we use and what we don’t. It already feels better in there!
Becky recently posted..TV Free Friday: Great Backyard Bird Count
Such a great reminder list… I have been trying to figure out what to keep in my basement storage verses in the actual kitchen. You do need to rotate things seasonally… thanks for sharing such a helpful post with us on foodie friday.
I move every few years, so that serves as a kitchen “decluttering” for me!
My Kitchen Aid mixer lives on top of the refrigerator. I figure I use it more often than I need to get into the cabinets it blocks.
Great idea to *use* the bread machine in the basement. I store mine down there, but it never occurred to me not to haul it up each time I use it.
Thanks!
kirsten@FarmFreshFeasts recently posted..Five Cheese Pizza with Indigo Rose Tomato and Almond Pesto on a Butternut Squash Crust (Pizza Night!)
I found with the bread machine that it just took up so much space even though I use it several times a week. The mixer seems more practical sitting on my counter even though I use it less. It’s also VERY HEAVY compared to the bread machine.
I think I’m going to get a new bread machine. The seal died on the pan for mine which is probably 10+ years old. Would you recommend the one you have?
Consider the size and utility of the kitchen ware before purchasing. If you are a small family, medium sized cooking utensils will be adequate. If you host dinner parties and get together functions it will be a good idea to pick up a few bigger cooking and serving kitchen ware as well.
Kitchen ware
Good points!