"How Often Do You Use...?"

Jim wants his house to look minimalist. As part of the project, we started work on his kitchen cupboards. We began to the right of the stove. As I would repeatedly ask, how often did he use various food products? Coffee? Every day. Tea? Also often.

A cupboard before we cleared its clutter — Before

A cleared cupboard with a free shelf! — De-cluttered

We organized it, so that coffee was on the bottom shelf, tea and honey on the second shelf. On the top – nothing, after we pulled down a kitchen towel. No doubt, the shelf will be used but, for the meantime, it was empty.

Next, we focused on the cupboard above the stove. It might store things not used a lot, since reaching over a hot stove could pose a potential safety concern. We tossed spices past their “sell by” dates, and also removed a couple of cookbooks that had migrated there.

I pointed out the wasted space above the spices. We’d discussed this before so, almost magically, Jim pulled from another cupboard a shelf extender I’d recommended, then he recently bought. We put soups and spices together. There was room for more of the same.

Before a cupboard's clutter was cleared — Before

A cleared cupboard with room for more soups, spices, etc.! — De-cluttered

We moved left, where the cupboard held several boxes of pasta, sauce, and popcorn. It all came out, and we organized it.

Another cupboard before we cleared its clutter — Before

Yet another organized cupboard, with more room to spare! — De-cluttered

Now, on the bottom shelf, we put the pastas and sauce together, with some canned goods on the second shelf, and popcorn on top. As with the other cupboards, there was room to spare.

What might be next? There was another cupboard to organize, and some drawers, too. Onward!

About De-clutter Me!
De-clutter Me! offers non-judgmental, competitively-priced and confidential assistance to help clear clutter in your home and/or business. We’ve been changing chaos to calm since 2013.

“How Often Do You Use…?”