It's "Kitchens" week in the Net Zero Clutter challenge! Ready to tackle your kitchen this week so you aren't as overwhelmed when you're doing your holiday baking or entertaining? Or just so you can prepare meals easily during a busy month?
December can feel so overwhelming... there are so many extra tasks to do, places to go, and people to see. But more than demands on our time, are the demands on our space. If we're entertaining during the holidays, we suddenly become much more aware of the clutter in our homes. And just the thought of how many new items will be entering our homes this month is overwhelming! All of these factors make it hard to enjoy this otherwise wonderful time of year.
There are lots of tips out there for managing your time better during the holidays, but I've found that the single most important thing I can do to help me feel less overwhelmed in December is to declutter throughout the month. And reducing that overwhelm means I can enjoy Christmas much more.
This week I'm sharing tips to help you declutter your kitchens. Feel free to declutter anything you want though! Whatever will help you achieve your goal :)
By the way, you can check out the previous #NetZeroClutter series here for more tips. The first year it was a daily series, so if you think that would help you more than a weekly post, feel free to follow along with that series instead!
This Week's Decluttering Focus - Your Kitchen
Isn't it frustrating when you're doing your Christmas baking to have to deal with all the rest of the clutter in your kitchen?
- Cookie sheets and baking pans that are a hot mess in your cabinet
- Expired ingredients in your pantry
- So much stuff in your pantry that you can't find what you need
- Or you buy ingredients because you think you're out of them only to end up finding more in the back of your cabinet?
- Or you think you have something in your fridge and then realize you have to run out to buy more because you are actually out?
Holiday baking should be fun, but if you're overwhelmed with all the clutter in your kitchen, it just becomes another chore on the list of things to do.
What about entertaining during the holidays? Or cooking holiday meals?
- Ever have people offer to help you in your kitchen but you can't tell them where to find something they need?
- Or they offer to help you clean up afterwards and you can't tell them where to put things back because there's just no space in your fridge or cabinets or the items don't really have homes?
- Maybe you don't even entertain because you're embarrassed to have them see all the clutter?
If any of this sounds familiar, there's still time to change things! Spend a bit of time decluttering in your kitchen this week and you'll find it so much easier to do your holiday baking and entertaining!
Tips for Decluttering Your Kitchen
Here are a few tips to help you declutter this week:
- Declutter your pantry by tossing any expired items, grouping like items together, and making note of what you still need
- Do the same with your fridge and freezer to make space
- Donate any pots and pans, baking pans, or other cookware / bakeware that you haven't used in the past year (except those you only use for holiday cooking like your turkey roasting pan)
- Go through your Tupperware / food storage containers cabinet and let go of anything stained, worn, unmatched, or that you haven't used in the last 6 months.
- Give away any small appliances you no longer use. This will create space in your cabinets so you can perhaps get some things off your counters so your kitchen feels less cluttered.
These 5 areas will give you your biggest bang for your buck if you need to do some quick decluttering. If you have time, don't forget your cooking utensil drawers, gadget drawers, and junk drawers.
I've written lots of posts about decluttering your kitchen... here are a few that you can check out for more tips:
My Progress in the #NetZeroClutter challenge
Here's what I've decluttered this week:
- 2 pairs of shoes
- 1 Christmas sweatshirt
- 6 pairs of Christmas socks
I also decluttered the following:
- 2 tablet covers (returns at Staples that had been sitting around for a few weeks)
- 1 boot tray (bought a new larger one)
- 1 pair of snow pants
- 2 pairs of shoes
- 1 bathing suit
It was a fairly busy week so I didn't get to declutter as many of my kids' items as I'd planned. I will work with them this week. I'm not sure if I have much to declutter in my kitchen since we decluttered a lot before and after we moved this summer. But I will look through my kitchen again and see what we really don't need or have space for.
We had 11 items enter our home this week and 16 items leave. So as of now I have a total of 13 items in and 39 items out, making my net total -28. My goal is to declutter 175 items in December to reach net zero for the month.
What's Next For You?
Take some time this week to declutter your kitchen items. Or anything you'd like to declutter! Take some pictures and share your progress on social media using the hashtag #NetZeroClutter. Let me know how you're doing in the challenge so I can cheer you on!
Sign up to receive my blog posts by email so you get each week's post in your email inbox. You can unsubscribe after the challenge is over if you don't want to continue receiving my blog posts by email.
I'm excited to have you join me! I look forward to hearing all the stories of how much more you're enjoying your holidays because you're not overwhelmed by all the stuff in your home!
How many items did you declutter this week? How many items entered your home? Are you on your way to net zero by the end of the month?
Happy
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