The kitchen is the heart of the home. The old saying is certainly true for most Australians and New Zealanders, who spend a lot of time in their kitchens – whether they’re dining together at the breakfast bar, or preparing dinner as a family.
We know how important the kitchen is to your home, but we also know how easy it is for it to become a cluttered mess. Many of us have appliances we don’t need, a few sets of cutlery and a range of other knick knacks that add to the mess in this all-important room.
MoneySmart data certainly suggests this is the case, revealing that we spend just under $700 on new appliances alone every year.
With the purpose of helping Australians and New Zealanders declutter their kitchens, we’ve cooked up a quick guide to the basics of kitchen organising. Let’s get started!
When you’re decluttering , it’s essential that you be absolutely ruthless. If you don’t use an appliance, a cutlery set, or any other item in your kitchen, it’s time to either sell or dispose of it. It’s understandable that you’re a little attached to your kitchen gadgets. Perhaps an old blender you’ve had since you bought your first home, or the old cutlery set that you got for Christmas a few years back.
Obviously, the less you have the less cluttered your kitchen it will be.
Move the Low-Use Appliances
Waffles may be the most delicious breakfast food ever invented. Topped with maple syrup, and crispy bacon they’re perhaps the best way to start any day. Realistically though, how often do you use your old waffle maker?
These are the hard questions you need to ask yourself, reorganising your items according to frequency of use.
Move the old waffle maker, and any other items that get used once in a blue moon, to higher cupboards or into storage so that they don’t clutter your kitchen cupboards where your daily-use items are kept.
If you’re ruthless and you do this right, you’ll find that you instantly free up a large amount of space in your kitchen cupboards.
Re-Organise and Re-Order
Firstly, try to minimise the items that you store on the counter top – perhaps restricting yourself to those you use daily without fail, such as your toaster or coffee machine. Next consider your open shelves – if there’s anything small stored in them, move those things to closed storage and try to only include large items.
Since these shelves are openly displayed, keeping smaller items on them will only add to clutter. Next look at the food you keep – abouthome recommends asking yourself these questions when doing so:
Getting rid of as much food as possible, then organising the rest in terms of frequency of use will instantly clear up a lot of your clutter.
Lastly, if you’re really serious about decluttering there’s a number of renovations that could help. A butler’s pantry or scullery will give you double the space for storage as well as adding value to your home, while draw-shelves will offer a convenient way to store herbs, spices and sauces for quick access when cooking.
Keep It Up
Decluttering will make your kitchen a better, more relaxing place to be, but if you let it go to the dogs a week later all the effort will hardly be worth it.
Spend five minutes a day, or 20 minutes a week decluttering and your kitchen will remain in the same organised and tidy state for good!
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