Last week, I revealed that I have 6 weeks to conquer clutter in our home! Throughout the 6 weeks, I’ll be selling our more expensive items online, and finish up with the rest of the items by having a garage sale on April 1st. Anything left over after our garage sale is getting donated.
If you are just joining us for this challenge take a look at the following post!
Week 5: Bathrooms and Utility Room
I know for many of us, we spend the majority of the time in our kitchen, and because of this, it’s the catch-all for most of our stuff.
I used Allie Cazazza’s 3 questions to ask myself while going through everything:
1. When was the last time I used this?
2. Is this item adding to my life in a positive way?
3. Could I live without this?
This helped me out tremendously. By the end, I had 2 trash bags of things to throw away and 2 trash bags of items to sell. Now, we are fortunate to have a lot of cabinet space in our kitchen, but I don’t want them full of stuff we don’t use just because we have the room.
So let’s get started!
Problem Area #1: The Medicine Cabinet
Because the bathrooms in our home are smaller and a little outdated, we keep all the medicine in the kitchen. Also, this works best for us because it keeps them from getting their little hands on any of the meds. Not to mention, but they all receive allergy medicine every morning and at night! So having the medicine in the kitchen is convenient for us.
The other day Dustin was looking for a band-aid and couldn’t even find one! Stuff kept falling out and after a couple of minutes he gave up and honestly I don’t blame him! I purchased 3 different size storage baskets spending a total of $9.84. I pulled everything out and began checking expiration dates. A lot of items were expired a year or two! YIKES! I also found that because everything was so disorganized I had several things that I had multiples of. For example, first aid ointments and sunscreen. This was because I thought we were out, and I went to the store and bought more.
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After
Problem Area #2: The “Junk” Drawer
Dustin always makes fun of me because if I pick up the counters, I am notorious for just shoving stuff in drawers. Out of site out of mind right?! WRONG! I bought a large drawer tray for $4.97. I took everything out of the drawer and separated items into categories. We had several small tools and fan chains in this drawer as well as 2 sewing kits. Many of these items were just in the wrong place. After throwing several items away the drawer looks completely different now!
Before
After
Problem Area #3: Pantry
We are so lucky to have such a large and roomy pantry. But you know what? It has been a hot mess and I feel like we aren’t using it to its full potential. So, after pulling most items out and checking for expiration dates I organized each level. The top level is any type of bread products, buns, tortillas, etc. The 2nd level is all can goods. The 3rd level I did starches, beans, peanut butter, and drink powders. The 4th level I did plastic utensils and all baked goods. Lastly, the last level is a box of chips of Elise’s lunch and any extra or unopened items we had on hand like ketchup, BBQ sauce, rice, and sugar.
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After
Problem Area #4: Misc Drawers
On one drawer, I pulled to see what was in there and I still had 20 bibs(!) from the twins. I can’t tell you the last time I used these, so I cleaned out the drawer and put all our Scentsy items that I separated by season in 3 zip lock bags, some boxes of recipes cards I have, and the kids place mats!
The 3 drawers next to fridge had a lot of random stuff. One drawer I put items that I use frequently like the can opener, measuring cups etc. The other two had candy and other items. I threw a lot away and all the random candy we had in the kitchen I found an old gallon size ice cream container. I put all candy and loose items in here and in our pantry. I bought 6 containers for a total of $3.91 and I still have an extra to use in another part of the house!
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After
Before
After
Overall, I’m so happy with the way things turned out. I spent a total $18.72 on organizational items and it was worth it! I would say I spent a total of 3-3.5 hrs cleaning out the kitchen throughout the week.
Next week is the living room!
What about you? What is the biggest problem area in your kitchen?
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