Mini Declutter Week Day 1: Ten minute kitchen sort-out

Hello, and welcome to Day One of our mini Declutter Week challenge (full schedule here if you need a reminder. Every day we’ll be doing a quick, effective 10-minute declutter in a different part of your home – let’s get organised with a mini kitchen declutter!

Today we’ll be spending just ten minutes in the kitchen, so all you need to do is pick a small part of this space to sort out. Don’t expect to do the whole room in just a few minutes, let’s keep it do-able so you can actually finish what you’ve started.

Everyone’s cooking area is different, but you might have a particular small part of your kitchen that would make your life more pleasant or convenient if it was sorted out.

Which kitchen area to choose

Have a think. Which little improvement would help you? Here are a few examples:

• Cutlery drawer
• Pan shelf or cupboard
• Kitchen windowsill
• General ‘junk drawer’
• Utensils holder on a worktop
• Laundry detergent area
• Condiments shelf in the fridge
• A drawer in the freezer
• Spice and herb rack
• A crockery shelf

That’s just to get you started, and I’m sure you can come up with many more of these for yourself.

Once you’ve chosen the spot, the most important thing do do next is this: think about exactly how you want this area to work. Only keep things here that work for you, whether that’s an attractive display shelf or a prep space that makes breakfasts or evening meals simpler and easier.

Items in your chosen decluttering area need to be useful and functional, and maybe also beautiful or look good to you. Nothing else needs to be there – it’s a perfect opportunity to move out things that aren’t needed there, or are getting in the way.

How to do your mini kitchen declutter

Here’s the order to carry out your tidying and organising in:

• Clear up the space (remove things from a shelf or drawer, or take things out of a specific area in the fridge or freezer)
• Clean the area (dust, wipe with anti-bac, etc) and dry well
• Sort through the clutter (keep item here, keep item but move to a new spot, add to a mending pile, recycle or compost, donate to nearby foodbank/Olio/local pantry, sell)
• Add structure if needed (boxes, jars – improvise with something temporary if you need to)
• Add other items if you like (windowsill herbs, put a teapot on display, or add one or two ornaments)
• Put the ‘keep here’ things back
• Tackle the other immediate jobs (put still-useful things away elsewere, get things out into bins, do the recycling or composting into a home bin)
• Choose a timeframe for other tasks (go to charity shop to donate unwanted kitchen items, list things on eBay to sell, take food to the food bank) – I usually try to do this within a week, otherwise the mess never goes away and keeps moving around
• Make a shopping list (what do you still need for this space, if anything?)

Food hygeine is an important issue to keep in mind here. Check use-by dates and if it’s gone off then get it straight into a food recycling bin or composting box.

Kitchen areas often benefit from adding a small amount of structure, whether it’s food storage canisters or boxes like all these at Dunelm, some handy kitchen baskets and laundry organisers at Matalan, an extra shelf or rack, knife holders or drawer dividers.

What’s happening here?

I’ve done a few 10-minute mini kitchen declutters in the last couple of weeks, and am finding it very helpful to sort through this busy room in a bite-sized fashion (no pun intended). For ease, I’ve started on the left side of the room nearest the door, and am working my way around it clockwise, bit by bit.

The fridge and freezer were cleaned and tidied before Christmas, to make way for festive foods. I did the fridge door on one occasion, then the shelves another time, and finally the ‘salad drawer’ bit. These are all quick jobs you can do while the kettle’s boiling, and you can follow on with a tea break afterwards.

So far in January I’ve decluttered the skinny cupboard next to the cooker, repurposing it to have cooking ingredients on one shelf and breakfast things on the other shelf. The teapot and coffee pot both have a permanent home now.

I’ve also cleaned out the cutlery drawer, expecting it to be full of all kinds of weird stuff, but it just needed a dust and a wipe. Well, somehow a miniature spork had got into one of the sections of the drawer divider, so that’s been put in the charity shop box. No idea where sporky came from, but that’s how kitchen clutter sneaks up on you, isn’t it?

That’s the basics for doing a ten minute mini kitchen declutter that really works.

Which small part of your kitchen are you going to sort out as a priority?