Good
Morning,
So glad you have decided to come back for Day 2 In the 30 Days to an Organised Kitchen Challenge
What
did it feel like this morning coming into the kitchen with a beautifully
organised sink unit? I find it sets you up for having a great day, no
need to juggle the dishes in the sink when you try to fill the kettle with
water. It just makes life easier and we all need an easier life.
It’s an easy task today – Decluttering and Organising your kitchen worktops.
If you've got a lot
of clutter on your worktops then this task will probably not take you 15
minutes, however, you have two options;
· Do your 15 minutes and see how much you can get done (You will surprise yourself) and call it a day for your daily mission, safe in the knowledge that you have made progress
or,
· Continue past your 15 minutes and work until you get your worktops clear
Whichever you
choose, is fine, as you are in charge of your decluttering journey. If I ever find myself in this predicament, I
use Gemma Bray’s “Future Friend” method, in which I think – will it help me in the
future – if the answer is yes, then I tend to do it.
I do need to point
out that it’s highly unlikely that you will be able to get/keep your worktop
uncluttered with just a one-off 15-minute declutter.
Have you heard of Flat
Surface Syndrome (FSS)? In short, people tend to see an open surface as
an invitation to put something on it. Once something is put down – it’s amazing
how fast it can become overrun with clutter, as the saying goes
“Clutter attracts clutter”
Just picture your kitchen, free from clutter, your worktops a beautiful space that you can prepare and cook food on, no more stuff shuffling for you. I will challenge you not to enjoy having clear worktops.
The kitchen tends to accumulate Three Types of Clutter
Items that don’t belong in the kitchen
This type
of clutter is the stuff that clearly doesn't belong there – The paint tin from
the decorating that you’ve just done, the magazine that was being read when you
were waiting for the pasta to boil – the list is endless.
These items are fairly easy to deal with, especially in a fifteen-minute
decluttering task. It’s easy to tell
that they don’t belong on your worktop, but they were left there – so use this
time to move them back to their proper home.
Paper Clutter
Why does
paper clutter accumulate on the worktops?
Is it because they are waiting to be actioned? Is it because it doesn’t
have a proper home? These are the sort
of questions that you need to ask yourself as you complete these tasks. Once you understand why something seems to
gravitate to a certain spot, then you can think about organising a permanent
home for them.
Items that do belong in the kitchen, but don’t need to take up space on your worktop.
I’m not
going to sugarcoat it. This type of
clutter is a royal pain in the behind to get rid of. Even though it does belong in the kitchen,
you need to ask yourself does it need to be on the worktop, or if would it be
better stored away in a kitchen cabinet or draw. You could go one step further and ask – Do
you even need it?
When you are faced with this type of clutter ask yourself:
· How often do I use it?
· Could it be stored somewhere else?
· Would it be easy to get it out if it was put away?
I will use my milk frother as an example. So, using the above criteria my answers would be.
· I don’t use it that often, only when I am making hot chocolate
· Yes, it could be stored in the drawer
· Yes, it would be easy to get out if it was put away
I think it all depends on your clutter tolerance. Everybody has a different amount of clutter
they can tolerate. For myself – I have a
middle-of-the-road tolerance, I can leave the milk frother out on the worktop,
as it’s only a small item and doesn’t get in the way of my day-to-day
activity. My sister on the other hand
has a very low tolerance for clutter, and it would drive her crazy seeing it
out on the worktop.
Now that your worktops are decluttered to how you want them – the trick is keeping them that way.
Habit Builder
Declutter your Kitchen Worktop daily as part of your Cleaning Routine.
Once you have managed to declutter your worktop, you will find it much easier to keep on top of the clutter. It’s much easier to deal with one or two pieces of clutter as they occur than waiting until it piles up again.
What I like to do is do a “reset” each evening before I settle down to watch television – the whole routine takes me 15 minutes from start to finish, and then I can sit down and relax knowing that when I wake up in the morning I will not be going downstairs to a messy kitchen.
