The Kitchen

While cooking in the kitchen frying or baking after you have cleaned up of course and you have some extra time; clean out the utensil draw. Are you still holding onto the baby spoons waiting for someone to visit with a small child? If you haven't had an infant child in your home in the past 3 months it's time to get rid of the cute baby spoons.

Check out your Tupperware plastic container cabinet do you have all of your tops and bottoms together? If the lid isn't in the dishwasher or underneath a plant and you have no idea where it is you might consider tossing it...

Clean out your spices check expiration dates... (Or got to my home page for more information on expiration dates)

How's that pantry looking, utilize the time time while you are in that room. Give yourself a bonus 10 minutes... organize while you are cooking. If you can cook and talk on the phone at the same time you can cook and organize at the same time, I don't know if I would combine the three at once, but woman are known to be very exceptional multi-task individuals...

For me the most challenging room is my kitchen. I call it the catch all room. This room can drive me crazy, the holy terror the most frustrating room for me. I grew up in the kitchen everyone socialized in the kitchen, coffee brewed, sauces cooked dishes washed, I think I spent more time in the kitchen then any other room in my house, luckily for me my washer and dryer are 6 feet from my kitchen so I fold my laundry in the kitchen ? Sometimes I have this love hate relationship with my kitchen. My partner is constantly buying stuff on line, he works from home, he gets a lot of mail, he eats lunch at home, he is always home, so his stuff is my frustration. I had to come up with a system. I have several baskets in my laundry room on shelves, one is for me, I keep my digital camera there and my video camera as I am always taking pictures. There is a bin for things that need to be returned. A basket is on the shelf for stuff that needs to be put away upstairs. My son has a basket, for his Nintendo games and for stuff that he needs to get put away. The mail is opened in the kitchen, and then it's just left here. I created an in bin if my partner opens the mail and leaves it lying around I pick it up if I don't have time to deal with it I place it everything in the in bin, until I can deal with it. Then I deal with it, bills that need to get paid go in a folder Payables, things that need to be filed go in the to file folder, and then I have a bag I carry with me whenever I leave my house for coupons, stuff I can do if I have time in between clients, or doctor's appointments I keep my payables folder in my bag and a notebook, my calendar and my palm pilot and a bottle of water, that I never seem to drink....

The Plastic Grocery Bags

It seems as though everyone holds on to those grocery bags as if it were a hot commodity. Trust me I have my share of bags but at a limit. It drives my partner crazy when I recycle them. After I put the groceries away (NEATLY) I throw away the bags in my recycling bin he sometimes takes them out of the bin and saves them, I laugh and say how many bags you think we really need. My limit is 20 and that is way over the top for me, I say 20 to make him happy. I have used several different storage units for these grocery bags, my favorite storing device is a crunchable bag from the container store you can make the bag as tall or short as you want. I keep it my pantry on a shelf which enables me to see the bags, my current stock and makes less of a mess when I need one.

The Shopping Bag

I have a limit on these bags too, five at the most. I use to save a lot of these because you never knew when you were going to need a durable bag. You know the durability of a bag. If you think it's not going to be useful-toss it I store my 5 bags underneath or behind my crunchable bag. I do keep 3 shopping bags upstairs, for weeding out my clothes for donations. Each season my son outgrows clothes, and I'm usually making donations, I keep one donation bag going until it is filled and then I drop it off.

Most of the times people want to start with their kitchens. Everything gets emptied, the cabinets, the draws, and the pantry. We then start to group all like things together. Cereals and oatmeal breakfast category. Coffee and teas placed together. Cake mixes, flour, sugar etc would be grouped with Baking. I also go through can items and check expiration dates you will be surprised on how much has to be thrown and how much wasted space has been taken up. Yes soda expires... I keep all canned vegetables together; soups with soups, condiments, ketchup, mustard, mayo, salad dressings grouped together, and packages of mixes together, if you label the shelves your family will know where everything is and you will never hear those famous words as they are standing there not moving anything just looking "I can't find it" ?

I had a client who had so many baking supplies, I thought to myself before I asked her, she must've went to school to be a pastry chef. I said wow, you must be quite the baker, I always wanted to bake but I never get around to it. She said me neither. I probably used this stuff once if that; they were wedding gifts I'm married 10 years, I don't want to throw it away. I immediately smiled and thought to myself, I just hit the jackpot more space for the client. We put all of her baking items in a clear plastic container marked each side and placed it in her basement on a shelf. (warning do not make the bins too heavy you will eventually lift them) she did not want to part with her baking items, she said that if she did not use them within 2 years she would consider giving some away to family members. She couldn't part with any of it and I respected that.

The coffee cups

It's time to think of the last time you used those oh so cute coffee mugs, the souvenirs. If you haven't used them donate them. If you have sentimental reasons for holding onto them drill a hole in the bottom and use a saucer, plant a miniature plant display it in your kitchen window. Or use that sentimental cup as a pen/pencil holder on your desk at your office space.

I will admit what I hold onto Coffee pots, I'm a big coffee drinker and I've probably have tried every coffee pot on the market from peculated to drip and pressed. I just can let them go for some reason I share this with you because its ok to hold on to some stuff, and I assure you I'm not going to command anyone to get rid of something they can't let go of.

Ok so you have everything out of your cabinets, wipe them down and start putting your group items together.