Declutter these Things in Your Kitchen Now to Make Holiday Cooking Easier

Professional Organizer and clutter-buster, Nonnahs Driskill, gives you three easy ways to keep your stuff from taking over your kitchen cabinets.

If you get more excited to cook than to clean and organize your kitchen, you are not alone! Are you itching to make some pumpkin spiced goodness ASAP? Do you get so happy thinking about decorating Christmas cookies that your sleigh bells start jingling?

An ounce of prevention

I know you don’t want to start a cookie pan avalanche when you reach up for the baking supplies. So, here are some ideas to get your cooking hub ready to rumble.

Declutter the pantry

Take 10 minutes to make room in your pantry or pantry cabinets/drawers. First pull out the stuff in the front and put it on your countertop so you can see what’s hiding in the back of the shelves. You may have to climb up on the counter or get out a step ladder. Don’t go falling down, please!

Now get out the trash can and start pulling out what’s hiding in the dark behind the cereal and the wheat thins.

• Throw away expired foods.
• Throw away or donate weird packaged food you will never make.
• Put triplicates and quadruplicates in a shopping bag to take to your local food bank.
• Throw out spices which are over 2 years old. (That will be a lot of them!)
• Throw out all the different types of sweeteners you are keeping for guests at that imaginary brunch you will never host.
• Keep the sweetener you and your family actually use!
• Consider paring down your collection of teas and hot cocoas people have gifted you.
• Definitely donate the tiny condiment packages that come with take-out food or room-service. They are taking up valuable space in your kitchen.

For extra visual pleasure, decant as many food items as you can into clear containers.

Wipe off your shelves and put your food stuff back. Hopefully you’ll be able to see everything in there now without having to shuffle things around.

Grocery shopping with a list is the best way to keep your pantry from bursting at the seams.

Please check your kitchen for items before you go shopping. It feels annoying, I know, to check for every ingredient in a recipe before putting it on your list. Do it anyway! You’ll reduce waste and your pantry will stay organized longer.

Thin out your gadgets

Take an honest look at the things in your kitchen drawers and cabinets. If your family eats at home most nights you can still get away with having only:

• 2 pans (one with a lid)
• 3 pots (all with lids)
• 3-4 good knives
• 2-3 cutting boards
• 1 strainer or collander
• 3-4 mixing bowls

Sure, you can keep more than this if you have room. However, if you are looking to struggle less when getting out your cooking tools, try living with this limited number of items for a while. You could store the extras in boxes in the garage for a month to see if you miss them. Just try it!

Everyone has too many things in their kitchen. It’s human nature to fill up our space with stuff. So take this chance to find a few things you can let go of this season.

Obsolete or redundant gadgets

Maybe you have a pasta maker hiding in the back of a cabinet, or two old coffee makers you’ve since replaced. Be honest with yourself about specialty gadgets like the knives that are just for cutting lettuce. (huh??)

If you have a toaster oven, you don’t need a toaster.

You get the idea.

Let me know what you are thinning out in the comments below. Or tell me what you are so excited to make! Happy cooking and baking!

-Nonnahs

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