Minimalist Monday Mission: Declutter 365 – The Kitchen – Part 2

By simplify, on January 23rd, 2011

Minimalist Monday Mission

This week for Minimalist Monday Mission: Declutter 365 I was working on the kitchen…again.

After last week’s kitchen decluttering part 1, this week I had two areas left to tackle: 1) the counter top next to the fridge (remember, this is the “junk drawer on steroids” area), and 2) the built in cabinet.

As with every area so far, I have started by taking everything out and then putting back only those items that I use and love. The rest get put up for sale, donated, or trashed.

I started with the counter top area first, because it was definitely the harder of the two. Plus, according to my original list, I did allocate one week for the counters and one week for the built in cabinet. But, I was so close to the end of the kitchen (minus the pantry and fridge/freezer…more to come below…) that I could taste victory, so I pushed through.

Here’s the counter top area before:

And after:

It wasn’t so bad, however, I ended up with a basket full of stuff that belonged somewhere else. So for now, I just stuck everything that belonged elsewhere in my home in a giant basket, to be dealt with later.

Then, I moved on to the built in cabinet. This was already looking semi okay, because I had sold many of the items inside already. So, here is the before picture for the built in cabinet:

And the after:

You smart people will probably notice that there is still a gigantic full set of china on the top left. That’s because it was given to us by my mother-in-law, and so when I asked my husband if he wanted it or if I could sell it, he wanted to keep it.

As I mentioned before, I am focused on what I can change. I don’t dwell on those things that I cannot change. In this case, as with all things that are jointly owned, I asked first. Had it been my choice alone to make, the china would have left, but for now, it’s staying. And that’s okay.

So, I now have completely decluttered my kitchen space. The only two things left in the area are the pantry and the fridge/freezer. I had intended to do those next, but I broke down and went grocery shopping this week (after about 6 weeks of not shopping and just eating what we had in the pantry). Despite the fact that I got less groceries than a normal month, the pantry and fridge are once again not bare. Since it’s much easier to clean those out when they are bare, I’m skipping them for now, and will declutter when we have once again eaten down our grocery stock.

This is really a good thing, however, because I am moving on to my office. My office is a total wreck at this point, having been neglected for weeks, and in our home, there are two areas where things accumulate – the kitchen island, and my office desk.

So, I am so excited to be working on clearing off my desk this week. It’s been driving me insane for several weeks now, and you will just have to tune in next week for the before and after pictures (although I really can’t believe that I’m going to publish the before picture on the web…I am, after all, an organization coach…but I am also human, and when an area is neglected and not maintained, it starts to grow piles of its own! Yikes!).

By the way, my friend Alex at A Moderate Life was inspired by my decluttering madness, and decided to also declutter and reorganize her kitchen. She had a great time, and was able to transform her kitchen into an amazing spot (which for her is a necessity, since she loves to cook and is in the kitchen often). You can read about her kitchen transformation success story and be inspired here.

Total of items eliminated this week?

Threw out/Recycled: 38 items
Donated/Given: 40 items (including several copies of my latest book Time Management for Home-Based Business Professionals)
Sold: 52 items from my Becoming Minimalist Sale and sales from my time management book

Overall Totals:

Threw out 125 items
Donated 109 items
Sold 116 items from my Becoming Minimalist Sale (P.S. Did you see, I am having a 50% off sale through Monday at midnight!)

TOTAL ITEMS: 350 items

Here’s where we are headed for the Minimalist Monday Mission: Declutter 365 in the next few weeks: