8 Steps to An Organized Kitchen {February HOD}

Get your kitchen decluttered and organized once and for all with these 8 simple steps to an organized kitchen. 

How to Clean and Organize the Kitchen

February is here and it’s time to move on to our first full room space for this year’s Household Organization Diet!  I hope you all had some success with the 31 Day Decluttering Challenge last month.  Remember that it’s not about perfection – just progress – so even if you missed some days {or even a whole week or two!}, don’t use it as an excuse to stop.  Continue to move forwards at whatever speed you can and don’t give up!  Intentionally scheduling in some organization time – and actually sticking to it – can really help you to tackle your goals.  I know you can do it!

This month will be dedicated to cleaning and organizing the kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of the home – the place where friends and family gather and delicious meals are enjoyed together.  Having an organized and decluttered kitchen will make it easier to find what you’re looking for, cut down on your meal prep time, and create a more relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere for your whole family to relax.   Don’t invite clutter to the dinner table! 😉

So… are you ready to get your kitchen cleaned, decluttered, and organized?   Here are the tasks for this month…

February Task List

DOWNLOAD THE KITCHEN TASKS SHEET HERE
DOWNLOAD A BLANK KITCHEN TASKS SHEET HERE

You can find the link for all of my kitchen cleaning tutorials HERE as well as a ton of kitchen organization ideas HERE and HERE.  Be sure to bookmark or save these pages in some way so you can refer back to them throughout the month.

February Calendar

As I mentioned above, the best way to reach your goals is to write down a plan!  Use the calendar below to write in when you’re going to get each of the above tasks done.  I always like to give myself double the time that I think something is going to take, but any time that you can devote is better than nothing!  Think about how you work best and what fits into your schedule. Do you like to do a shorter period of time each day, or would you be better off picking one day per week to do a larger amount of time?  You might need to play around with the schedule a bit, but you’ll find your grove.  Place the calendar somewhere that you will see it regularly and stick to it!

DOWNLOAD THE FEBRUARY CALENDAR HERE

February Notes

The other thing that I like to do each month, is write down little project ideas, repairs that may need to get done, and any other thoughts that I have on the room that I’m working on.  I try to stay focused as much as possible on the one room instead of letting my mind wander to other projects or things that I want to change elsewhere in the house.  This helps to keep your time focused on the current tasks and makes things a little less overwhelming.

Now that you’re ready to get going, here’s a step by step plan to decluttering and organizing your kitchen.

8 Steps to An Organized Kitchen

Set a Realistic Time Frame.

The time it will take to organize your kitchen will obviously vary depending on the size of your kitchen and the current clutter-level.  Some of you may be able to tackle it all in a few hours, others may need a whole day, and others may need the whole month. The biggest thing when starting the organization process is to set yourself up for success and set realistic time frames.  If it’s been a while since you’ve organized, start small with a cupboard or two and see how it goes – it may take longer than you think!  Only tackle what you can FINISH in your designated time frame.  You want to see your accomplishment when your time is up – not a bigger mess!  So decide how much time you have, set the timer, and get to work. {You can find my step by step process for how to declutter ANY space HERE.}

Declutter, declutter, declutter.

I find that decluttering the kitchen is often one of the easiest rooms to declutter as we don’t usually have as much emotional attachment to items like we might in other rooms.  For the most part, it’s generally quite obvious whether we really need an item or not.  And, on the off chance that you do give an item away that you need in the future, kitchen items are easy to borrow for the odd dinner party or large family gathering that you may happen to need it.  Be ruthless when it comes to the decluttering process and the rest of the organization {as well as the maintenance!} will be so much simpler.  I am a big fan of completely emptying out each space when you’re decluttering. Start with these 20 items to declutter from your kitchen now.  They may not ALL be applicable to you, but they’ll give you a good place to start.  You’ll find a free decluttering printables and lots of decluttering tips to help you out.

Completely empty out the space that you’re working on.

It may seem like a lot of work, but completely emptying out the spaces that you’re organizing is definitely worth it in the end.  Taking all of your items out of your drawers and cupboards really lets you see HOW MUCH STUFF you have – and what you can really afford to get rid of. Once the space is empty, it’s easier to see the different ways you could work your organization systems. If your current organization method isn’t working for you, switch things up and move items around until you find something that works for you.

Divide and Conquer.

As you’re emptying the items out of your cupboards or drawers, sort them into five categories: trash, recycling, donations, belongs elsewhere, and keep.  Have your trash bags and recycling bins handy so you can place the items directly into them.  You only want to touch each item once to cut down on time. Find a large box for items to donate and take this directly out to your car when you’re finished. Use a basket or laundry bin to collect any items that you find in the kitchen that should go somewhere else in your home.  Sort all items that you’re going to keep into similar categories.  Move quickly through this process – you really shouldn’t have to think too hard about where each item should go.

Organize by zones.

So now it’s time to put those “keep” items back into your cupboards and drawers. Try to organize all of your kitchen items by function in specific areas of the kitchen.  For example, all of your baking items would be in one section, all spices in a second section, and any cleaning supplies in another section.  If you don’t like the functional organization system {or it just doesn’t work with your kitchen design}, come up with some other organization plan that works for you.  Be sure to have a basic plan in mind before you start loading all of your cupboard spaces back up and try to keep similar items together as much as possible.

Create functional {clutter-free} kitchen counter space.

The kitchen counter is PRIME real estate in the kitchen so you want to make sure that you’re only storing items on it that you need daily.  Keep the items corralled on trays to make for pretty yet practical displays and try to keep the front 2/3rds of the counter clear at all times to allow for prep work.  Find all of my tips on how to keep your counters clutter-free HERE.

Keep the papers under control.

Kitchen counters and tables often seem to attract paperwork – despite it not actually belonging there!  If you do need to keep papers in the kitchen, have a dedicated file box or paper trays in a corner to store papers out of the way. If you have a larger space, create a kitchen command center to organize everything off of your counters and other flat surfaces.

Utilize the inside of your cabinet doors.

Cabinet doors hold a ton of unused storage space, so get creative with what you do with them!  Add adhesive storage bins for water bottles or food wrap, hang command hooks for oven mitts or cooking utensils, or use office file holders to store recipes.  I have storage added to almost all of my kitchen cupboards and it’s really provided a lot of free space in the cabinets.  I have a whole post on this coming later this month so stay tuned for all of my ideas.

Whew!  You made it through!  It may seem like a lot of work, but if you do it thoroughly the first time, it should really only require minimal maintenance to keep it decluttered and organized for good!

More Kitchen Organization Ideas

If you’re looking for more kitchen organization ideas for specific areas of your kitchen, check out these posts. There are tons of ideas for any sized kitchen!

Easy Kitchen Organization Ideas

Organizing Under the Kitchen Sink

How to Organize Kitchen Cabinets

The Home Decluttering Diet