Tag: home

organization

10 Things You Can Declutter in Your Kitchen Today

mindbeautysimplicity

In this next detox series post, I wanted to take our decluttering session to the kitchen. This kitchen is an area of the home that obtains a lot of foot traffic. With eating multiple times a day & some of us working from home indefinitely now – it’s a place that gets dirty & unorganized pretty easily. Since that’s the case, it’s important to keep this area clutter free & downsized as much as possible. Here are 10 Things You Can Declutter in Your Kitchen Today:

Excess Gadgets & Appliances

The easiest way to have a simple & easy to clean kitchen space is to have clear or semi-cleared countertops. The biggest culprit to clutter is huge appliances taking up precious food prep space. Minimize this issue by only keeping out the appliances you use regularly & store the rest.

Worn Out Dish Towels

We keep a few dish towels in a drawer & one over the stove for decor purposes. Be sure that any towels, especially ones on display aren’t damaged, worn out or stained. You can purchase a pack of these from Target for only $3, so they are relatively easy to replace when necessary. Another tip is to purchase dish towels or rags of darker shades so stains aren’t as easy to see.

Expired Foods

This might seem like an obvious one but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked in the back of the fridge or pantry & found some very questionable items. So, make sure you are cleaning through these areas regularly. This is another reason why I don’t like to over purchase or purchase items in bulk. Chances are they will sit in the pantry collecting dust.

Take Out Menus You Never Use

Now a days, you can find everything online, but I still like keeping around a few take out menus like our favorite local Chinese place. If there are any menus you never reach for, take this time to recycle those.

Cook Books

For some reason I love the ideas of cookbooks but realistically never really use since most things can be found online. Plus, they are rather bulky items. If you have no way to decoratively display them or never look through, maybe it’s time to finally donate them to someone else.

Mugs

For not being a coffee person, I sure do own quite a few mugs. I managed to let go of a few that had cheesy inspirational quotes on them or sayings. I’m leaning towards more solid colored mugs because I’m such a plain Jane now & I’m less likely to get sick of those styles.

Take Out Sauces Packets

In some ways, I can see how someone would find hoarding these packets useful [ especially Chick fil A sauce] but honestly – I’ve found they mostly just sit untouched & we eventually accumulate even more. Use them up or throw them away.

Coasters

We own 20 coasters. How this happened, I have no idea. I guess they are the quintessential house warming gift or something. But I managed to choose a small set that were are favorites & let go of the rest.

Excess Pots & Pans & Other Cooking Essentials

In general, you want to look through your collection of cooking tools & choose the favorites out of the bunch. You don’t need 10 different pots & skillets. We actually only own a full set – 5 items & it works for us. Granted it’s only a house hold of two at the moment, but still. Cutting back on these items will surely diminish excess clutter.

Manuals

All those wonderful gadgets you purchase all come with their own instructional manual. News flash, you actually don’t need to own these at all. Most manuals are found online anyway. So save some space by letting go of this paper clutter.

I hope this list gives you some inspiration when decluttering your own kitchens. What are some other things we all could declutter from our kitchens. Leave your suggestions in the comments.

-B

organization

Overcoming “What If I Need This One Day” Type of Clutter

mindbeautysimplicity

One of the biggest questions that runs through a lot of people’s minds during decluttering is, “what if I need this one day?” Even I’ve battled with such obstacles from time to time. Those “just in case items” seem necessary to hold onto because you think you are saving money. “What if I need this quesadilla maker on the off chance I want to make a quesadilla?” “What if we go to Paris in the near future – this beret [ i’ve never worn before] may come in handy at that moment!” “What if the person who gifted me that item [ I never use] questions where it is when they visit?” The scenarios could go on & on. And if you let this category of item get to you, you’ll find yourself in the midst of becoming hoarders.

The Scarcity Mindset

Sometimes the reason we develop clutter is through fear. We are afraid we won’t be able to attain said item again in the future. Many times this correlates with socioeconomic status & the growth from lower to higher income. It’s a subconscious fear you won’t be this well off forever. So, you decide to hold onto things with the notion you won’t be able to attain it later. But regardless of your socioeconomic status, everyone should follow the 20×20 rule instead.

What is the 20×20 Rule?

If you can replace the item in 20 minutes with $20 or less, you should probably donate or sell said item. From my experience, anytime I finally get rid of something, I rarely regret or need a replacement in the future. For instance, over last summer we hosted an engagement party at our home. We purchased a bunch of paper plates, foil pans to hold the food selection & plastic cups & utensils. We ended up only using not even half of the supplies, so I stored it in a cabinet for a while. This May will be a year since we hosted said party & we haven’t used the items since. The paper plates have begun to yellow & quite honestly in our town home, we don’t have the best storage space. So, although I thought, “we could use this for our next get together or party.” I ended up donating what was still useable to a local donation centers. I’d much rather let those items go now & repurchase supplies when we do decide to host another party. Now, we have plenty of space for other necessities in this cabinet.

Doesn’t That Waste Money?

A lot of the reason for hoarding is due to the thought of “saving money.” If you hold on to xyz now, you don’t have to spend money later. But what I found with the kept party supplies was, they became unusable over time. Nobody wants to use paper plates that are discolored or broken plastic utensils. Who’s to say, when a get together did arise, I wouldn’t have purchased new supplies anyway? I find, when we fill our home with clutter – we aren’t truly saving money. We are losing time & energy, we are purchasing storage bins to keep the clutter contained. We are purchasing more cleaning supplies to keep the chaos of our homes at bay. I’d much rather let go of the unused items & spend a little cash in the future than fill my home with unnecessary things.

Conclusion

Even though you may think you need to hold onto every little thing you decide to purchase. In reality – there is a slim chance you’ll ever use that just in case item anyway. Save your home from the clutter & finally let those items go. Do you still own any items that make you say, “will I need this one day?”

-B

organization

5 Ways to Combat Paper Clutter

mindbeautysimplicity

One of the most frequent types of clutter that is a constant cycle would have to be paper clutter. Although I am trying to become more digital, paper clutter always seems to find its ways into our home. Whether it’s daily snail mail deliveries, shopping recipes hoarding inside my purse or documents that may or may not need to be kept & stored – this form of clutter can get out of hand rather quickly. In today’s blog post, I will be sharing with you 5 ways to combat paper clutter & help you minimize this form of baggage from our lives.

The Shredder Is Your Best Friend

I strongly recommend everyone invest in a high quality shredder at some point. This device is a god send when it comes to junk mail & paper documents with private information. You don’t just want to be discarding these papers all willy nilly. Identity theft is a real thing & you want to be smart when decluttering such paperwork. I usually keep a shred bin in my office & once that’s filled to the brim, I’ll spend a few minutes shredding those items. Some examples include junk mail with our address on it, old bank statements that are already recorded, any paperwork that is years old & is no longer needed.

Digitize What You Can

If anything seems important, you can always digitize it on a hard drive or computer. Just be sure you keep your digital footprint organized as well. Although digital clutter is more masked than physical clutter, it can still use up space & memory on your devices. If you want to learn more about digital decluttering, click this post or this post as a reference. A few things I keep digitized are photos, old college papers I use as reference for my resume, to-do lists & bank statements.

Store Paperwork in File Folders

I’m still a bit old school when it comes to paperwork too. So, I actually keep hardcopies of a lot of important documents as well. I have the mindset of having both digital & hardcopy is good because you just never know. To keep things in one place & organized, I store these items in zip up file folders. I tend to label each section accordingly & write the year on the front with sharpie. I tend to go through these folders regularly & if I come across something outdated or unneeded, I just shred it.

Stay On Top of It

What I mean by this is, go through & organize your paperwork & paper clutter on a regular basis. Set aside time to go through that junk mail & coupons & determine what’s important or what’s not. I think paper clutter can become overwhelming when you haven’t gone through it in a while. I just picture a desk with piles & piles of papers & believe me, I know that overwhelming feeling that sight can bring. So, stay on top of everything & go through a little at a time routinely.

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I can’t tell you how much junk mail both digitally & snail mail I receive. Not only is it a waste of paper but it makes getting the mail seem far more daunting than it needs to be. Place all your bills on autopay & unsubscribe from unwanted emails & catalogs. We’ve even had times where we get mail from the previous owners of our house. It’s a bit out of the way, but all you have to do is go to your local post office & inform them the person is no longer at said address.

Hopefully these tips & reminders help you keep your paper clutter downsized & tidy. Let me know in the comments ways you reduce paper clutter in your homes.

-B