Declutter Your Life with Tips: How to Organize Kitchen Drawers

A kitchen is usually the busiest room in the house. It is often one of the most used rooms where family members meet on a daily basis. The wife is often cooking while the husband is watching sports. Did you know that today many women typically spend over 1,000 hours a year in their kitchens? Since it is such an important room, it is crucial for the ambience of the kitchen to be one of peace and tranquility.

Since the kitchen has so much traffic, it should stay organized and uncluttered. That means everything in the kitchen has a "home" - a place of belonging. Having items properly placed in the kitchen drawers helps ensure they will be used for their intended purpose. It may take time, but it is worth it. De-cluttering is essential for harmony.

This article will cover the reason it is crucial to have a decluttered home, how to make a difference in your kitchen drawers using baby steps, the best methods for spring cleaning your kitchen drawers, three ways to purge your unused kitchen items, a cleaning list for your kitchen drawers, and killer de-cluttering tips that will blow your mind!

• Reduces ALLERGY problems
• Improves concentration

Having a clean and de-cluttered home keeps you healthy and provides you with a beautiful kitchen for your family, friends, babysitters, house guests, or anyone else who may enter your home. Here are just a few interesting ways that a decluttered kitchen can provide you with benefits:

• Reduces mold and pests
• Burns calories as you clean
• Reduces stress
• Provides you with an anger outlet
• Improves your mental state

So, does cleaning REALLY help with health benefits? Neurology journal states that doing housework can improve your health, reduce anxiety, and alleviate stress. Did you know that cleaning can also help reduce personal conflicts with the people in your life? In fact, the health benefits of marriage are so high that the United States Department of Health and Human Services has a national media campaign to promote good relationships.

When your relationships are strained because of arguments over things like lost items and cluttered spaces, disorganization is affecting your life more than you realize. These conflicts may even affect your sex life! Who would have thought?

Good Housekeeping magazine also states that a clean and organized home equals a healthier home. How is this possible? Well, you can easily collect a lot of dust when you don't keep to a cleaning schedule. A study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found that ordinary dust may contain arsenic, decomposing insects, pollen, human skin, and dust mites. Clutter poses a challenge to keeping a house clean. According to the National Soap and Detergent Association, removing excess clutter eliminates 40% of the average housework in the home.

Based on this evidence, it seems that cleaning and de-cluttering your home has more advantages than disadvantages. There is no reason not to whip out your vacuum or bleach to get your kitchen into shape with all of these health benefits.

Attempting to make your kitchen spotless and completely organized in one setting is too overwhelming. Therefore, you must plan your cleaning time wisely and only tackle drawers in the kitchen one at a time or in one section at a time. Just don't burn yourself out.

Purchase items that will help you when organizing your kitchen drawers. Find ones that will be most useful to you. If you can find your own homemade solutions, save money and try those ideas. Often, Pinterest has ideas, so check out the pictures there.

To make an efficient kitchen that works best for you, store items in kitchen drawers in areas where they will be used the most. Think about what makes the most sense for you. Imagine harmony in the kitchen and a pleasant cooking and cleaning experience. This will motivate you to organize your items in kitchen drawers in the most useful way.

If you wish to make updates to your drawers after you have organized them to perfection, consider some of the following stylish home decorating ideas:

• Paint the inside of kitchen drawers a bright color to make the colors pop out when you open drawers.
• Change the handles or knobs on your kitchen drawers to something unique and stylish. Aim to match the style your kitchen is attempting to achieve.
• Line the drawers of your kitchen drawers with a unique shelving paper. There are many that stick, meaning they should be cut just right to avoid bubbles. There are also some stylish ones that you can just cut and place down in the drawer. The items placed in the drawers will hold the paper down. Consider looking at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a huge variety of contact paper.

Method One: Remove Your Belongings from the Area

The first step of spring cleaning is to take all items out of your kitchen drawers. If your drawers are out of control, consider only doing one drawer at a time. The last thing you want to do is to burn yourself out before you have finished the entire kitchen.

Method Two: Organize the Items from the Kitchen Drawers

Now that the items in the kitchen drawers are cleaned out, organize the contents that were in the kitchen drawers. It is essential to have kitchen drawers organized, because it makes them more efficient. Keep flatware drawers free of the large utensils that belong in a dedicated drawer or should be hung up. Organize in a way so that every item will be put back where it belongs after use.

Method Three: Clean the Kitchen Drawers

Wipe out the kitchen drawers. If there are many crumbs that are difficult to pull out of a drawer, consider using a dust buster or a wet washcloth or paper towel in order to remove tiny debris. Use a kitchen specialized kitchen to sanitize the drawers well.

Method Four: Return the Contents to the Kitchen Drawers

Once you have completely organized the things that were in the kitchen drawers, return your belongings to the drawers that you have decided they belong in. Make sure you organize them in a way that is logical and useful. In other words, put your belongings where they will be most useful. You may wish to, for example, put silverware close to the dishwasher or the dinner table where they will be used.

When going through your belongings, there are many ways to become more of a minimalist than a pack rat. Being a minimalist is less stressful on you than being a pack rat. Think about it. If you cannot find items when you are in a hurry, you will become frustrated and stressed out, bringing negativity to your life.

The three best methods to de-clutter are to sell, trash, or donate. Think about doing a garage sale in order to sell items you do not use. You can often make $500.00 in a weekend garage sale. Trash anything that is no value to anyone. Finally, donate any belongings that you cannot sell, but may be worth something to someone. Donations can also be used as tax deductions.

Cleaning the inside of your kitchen drawers is a spring cleaning duty that is usually only done once a year. The following cleaning and decluttering checklist should help you when you do your annual spring cleaning.

If this is overwhelming to do all at once, consider baby steps or a cleaning game so that you can do it in a fun and easy way. One of these methods will get you motivated and help you declutter your kitchen in a timely and organized fashion.

Try these James Bond organizing tips for your kitchen. Find the ones that work the best for you or adapt one of these in order make it help you more.

• Use a ceramic crock or vase to store your utensils, giving yourself additional drawer space by moving these gadgets and utensils out of drawers. Examples of these utensils include: wooden spoons, ladles, long handled spoons or forks, and potato mashers. Find a decorative container that matches the style of your kitchen. Place it on the stovetop for quick retrieval. This is a space saver that can take the place of a drawer.
• Use a stylish plastic, wood, or wire silverware divider for items in your junk drawer: thumb tacks, tiny nails, glue, pens and pencils, and batteries.
• Cut the top off of an egg carton, and use the cups in a kitchen drawer to organize hooks, small nails, paper clips, tacks, or other small items.
• Collect loose change in small film canisters or empty pill bottles (remove the labels first). They are perfect for holding coins. Organize your loose change by denomination instead of mixing your nickels, pennies, dimes, and quarters. You will then be able to quickly grab a container to use at the laundry mat, for parking meters, or when you go through turnpike tolls.
• If you get a new set of flatware, store your old set so that you can loan it out to a friend or so you may use it at church or neighborhood social events.
• Try to keep the number of knives you use to a minimum. Either sharpen dull ones or throw them out. Invest in a nice set of knives and a steel knife sharpener.
• If drawer space is limited, consider rolling fabric place mats and napkins. Then, store them in an accordion style wine rack. This way they will stay nice and neat in a convenient space leaving drawers free for other items.
• Keep a small selection of tools (screwdriver, pliers, a hammer, and scissors) in a kitchen drawer. When tools are close at hand, you are more likely to take care of repairs promptly.
• Organize odds and ends in soap dishes. Small items such as bread twist ties will stay organized if you corral them in plastic soap dishes. These dishes will keep odds and ends from sliding around kitchen drawers.
• As mentioned, you are allowed to have a "junk drawer." Don't beat yourself up. All it means is that you are keeping all of your little useful things in one place, and you now know exactly where they are, which shows how efficient you are. Regardless of what ends up in your junk drawer, you can stay organized by ensuring all items have a "home." Usually junk drawers are the ones closest to the front door. You may want to enter borrowed items in this drawer and get in the habit of checking it before you leave each day in order to return items to their owners or mail out due bills.

• The best drawers are wide and shallow. Using a shallow drawer avoids creating horizontal layers of junk.
• Takeout menus can be stored at the bottom of a junk drawer in a plastic envelope or Ziplock or in a plastic display folder with sleeves. Also, consider using a chip clip for putting together all take out menus.
• Mugs and cups can be stored easily in drawers. Placing them upside down will prevent dirt and insects from getting into them and save you time cleaning dishes.
• Keep tableware within arms' reach of the dishwasher and if possible, the kitchen table.
• Set aside a lower drawer for children to reach items. This allows them to put some dishes away or retrieve some dishes they may need.
• Store everyday items in drawers that are located between your knees and neck.
• Have at least one deep drawer for pots and pans. It is hard to lose a pot and its cover in a deep drawer. A deep drawer can also help you avoid a plastic ware mess. Deep drawers allow you to see what kind of containers you have and to keep the lids with the containers. Similarly, conceal large slide-out trays behind a simple cabinet front in order to organize pots and lids and use them as they have plenty of space for bulky items, like appliances.
• Load forks, spoons, and knives in their own slots in the dishwasher basket so that you can quickly grab them and put away a handful in the correct slot in the silverware drawer.

Did you know most Americans spend about 80% of their working hours in the kitchen? So, have it decluttered! This article has given you the facts on the importance of having a decluttered home. This article has also given you the following tools to use in de-cluttering: four methods for spring cleaning, three methods for de-cluttering your kitchen, a spring cleaning list for your kitchen drawers, and top notch cleaning and organizing tips and suggestions.

You may not know where to start if you are in the process of spring cleaning your kitchen. Well, consider starting here - in your kitchen drawers! It's a small area and a baby step to having your entire kitchen well organized in a way that you find useful. Once you have your kitchen drawers in tip top shape, try to keep it that way! Maintain a sense of calm in the room that you spend so much time in.

Pictures: The pictures used in this article were original pictures from Michele Kelsey.

Videos: The videos used in this article were found on YouTube.com.

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Thank you for stopping by and reading my article,

Michele Kelsey