This past week I decluttered a few spaces in the home, the kitchen craft drawers and the office closet. 

These are areas that had become unruly with stuff and clutter. They have been on my list to declutter as we need to start clearing out our kitchen and dining area to prepare for an upcoming kitchen reno. 

 

In this episode I share:

How decluttering one space can require decluttering of another space where storage is interrelated

How I have been slowly reducing the storage in my kitchen over the years

The craft drawers in the kitchen and the maintenance they have required of me

What junk I am finding in my office and my craft drawers

How I declutter these areas (steps I take to tackle it)

What I have learned over years of decluttering my spaces

How I have resistance to decluttering and how I pep talk myself into getting the decluttering done

 

Photos of the spaces and decluttering process

Before we moved in, this was the wall between the kitchen area and the living area

 

The kitchen, before decluttering (2014/2015)

 

The wall of pantry storage in the kitchen, before decluttering

 

Our current kitchen (2021/2022)

 

Decluttering the craft drawers (and sorting into piles as I go)

 

Emptied the craft dresser in the kitchen! Only the top supplies made the cut, to be stored in the office closet

 

The required humble brag memes to let my husband know I will be buying myself a tiny trophy* for my efforts (*probably in the form of aged white cheddar)

 

How the office closet was holding up.... (and if you spy that White Jesus art there, it is a completed puzzle that someone framed- I know, I have questions too. But I brought it home so I could use the frame)

 

Totally emptied out the closet so my husband could build the shelves. It is amazing how much was crammed into that space!

 

Real-life organization that doesn't look cute, but works for us

 

Related links on decluttering and managing 'stuff' in your family

Episode 11. Are we TOO comfortable? + Do we need so much pantry space?

Episode 2. Decluttering the kitchen, meal planning book, capsule wardrobes and the currently list.

Decluttering our home (on instagram stories)

Setting a vision for our kitchen helped me to declutter it over the years

Episode 65. When your kids don’t play with their toys anymore

5 common mistakes moms make when organizing their homes, and what to do about it (+ cheatsheet of 5 more)

Hygge vs Minimalism

All the recently decluttered archives are here

 

 

Full transcript (unedited)

0:12

I am recording this on my Friday, Friday, it is finally a free day for me a free day where I didn't have any work scheduled any school that I had to do. It didn't have to be recovering from COVID, all of that kind of stuff. And the reason why it's a free day is I had finished my coursework a couple days early for this session that I'm in, I do a course every three weeks. And so every three weeks, I turned in that package of assignments for the course. And I tell you every three weeks it feels like I'm delivering a child like I'm birthing something, it's like a labor and delivery every three weeks and then start again on Monday.

0:53

So I had a day to day where I knew I was going to have time to tackle a big decluttering project in my house. And it was one of those projects, that involves a couple areas of the house. And I know you guys have shared this with me about your own hurdles, and decluttering. It's like, well, if I do the bathroom, and then I have to do the whole cloth. And if I do the hall closet, then I need to do the linen closet. Like it just all starts connecting room to room space to space, right.

1:22

I call it the decluttering series. And so I had a decluttering series in my life, so to speak, because here's what's happening in the spring, hopefully this spring, we are planning to do a kitchen renovation.