Do Yourself a Favor — Clear Your Kitchen Clutter!

Every area of your life is massively and directly affected by your organization or disorganization.  While getting organized and staying organized is a challenge, the stress and hardships of disorganization are even more of a challenge to a body, mind, and spirit.  I have invited Bev Hitchins of Align with her “Unique and Integrative Approach to Clutter and Balance,” to share some ideas for an area that gets a lot of daily use.

Do Yourself a Favor–Clear Your Kitchen Clutter!

The kitchen is a complex space. You store food in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry.  You keep pots and pans in one place, storage containers in another, and plates and glasses in still another. Cleaning supplies might go under the sink and cleaning tools like mops and brooms might have their own cupboard.  Each area takes time to assess and address.

Recently I started working on my own kitchen clutter.  Here are a few tips I picked up to get you started:

• Parcel your approach. Give yourself small projects like cleaning the refrigerator or just going through your can goods.  Let go of the notion that you can do your entire kitchen in one day. This can be exhausting work.
• Toss anything that has expired. This includes all can goods as well as pasta and other dry goods like cereal, rice and flour.  I shocked myself when I saw an expiration date of 2006 on at least one can.
• Review your pots and pans. Get rid of worn-out, especially aluminum, cookware. It has been documented that victims of Alzheimer’s disease have four times the normal amount of aluminum in their brain nerve cells.  Replace them with glass, iron or stainless steel cookware.
• Assess your cleaning supplies. Perhaps it’s time to go green. Throw out your chemical-laden cleaning products. Start investigating natural antiseptic ones, perhaps containing pure essential oils.  Take a look at your rags, mops and brooms.  Are they in good shape?  If not, treat yourself to new ones.
• Check out your dishes and flatware. You might have just the right amount of both, but take a look anyway.  Are you using those odd plates and bowls?  Is your flatware clean and organized?  How many serving utensils do you have?  Not enough or too many?
• Empty out your junk drawer. This task may take all afternoon, but it’s well worth it.  Ask yourself the tough question, “Why am I holding onto this?” and then promptly kiss it goodbye.

I am still working my way through my kitchen, but now when I open my refrigerator or cabinets, I feel relief instead of frustration.  I can see easily what I have and what I need.  Having a friend come for dinner is fun and not so labor-intensive.

Bev Hitchins © 2010