POYEL: Decluttering the Kitchen - Modern Parents Messy Kids

Time for a POYEL check-in. Hopefully you’re settling into a cleaning routine and you’re saving some time each week on meal planning. I’ve heard from lots of you via comments, facebook and email and it sounds like some serious progress is being made. So what’s next? I’m thinking decluttering. I figure the extra time is the perfect opportunity to start incorporating this into our lives. And if you allocated a spot for decluttering in your weekly schedule then you’re already ahead of the game. If not, no worries, as with all other aspects of POYEL – we’re going to keep this nice and flexible.

Here’s how I’m going to approach this phase. Ever so often (I’m playing with the idea of about once every two weeks) I’ll put up an inspiration post like this in which I’ll highlight a lovely little project (most likely a Pinterest find) and tell you what I’m tackling at my house. Then I’ll invite you to share what you’re wrangling with.

Don’t feel like you have to address the same spot in your house as I’m highlighting. I know we won’t all have the same priority spots in our homes and I’m assuming just having a semi-regular reminder to go organize something will be a good start. Also, feel free to share whatever motivates you – your own projects, before and afters, or other inspiring finds from around the web. I’m hoping getting the chance to share your progress here on the world wide web might give everyone a little extra motivation to dive in. Speaking of diving in – ready for week one? Click through for the goods.

If you’re wondering what my reasoning was for starting with the kitchen, let me just stop you right there. Planning and reasoning of any kind were not involved in this decision. I simply opened my lazy-susan the other day and decided I couldn’t handle the mayhem for another minute. I know what you’re thinking, “How can a lazy-susan get that bad? Isn’t the very nature of the thing to keep the cabinet organized?”.

Believe me when I tell you, through a careful combination of neglect and over-stuffing I managed to completely corrupt mine.So, in an organizational fit, I took everything out, wiped down the inside, got rid of all expired or nearly empty containers, and neatly filed everything back in. The whole thing took about 20 minutes (with kids darting in and out of the kitchen) and I didn’t take an “after” picture because, honestly, photos of lazy-susans just aren’t that exciting.

Instead, I’m choosing to feature this lovely little pantry re-do via Magnolia Lane. There’s definitely some stylized craziness going on here (why yes, I do color code my cereal boxes – don’t you?) but there are also a few very clever features. Most obvious is the use of chalkboard paint to convert the inside of the cabinets into a place for menus and grocery lists. Add a magnetic primer and you could have a spot for my chore chart that doesn’t have to be out in the open. Also, you can use the left over supplies to whip up one of yesterday’s DIY Leprechaun Traps – just saying.

The second thing here that I really loved was that chip rack. Did you spot it there in the bottom right corner? It’s not as precocious as the chalkboard but it would definitely be the headliner at my house. My kids love Annie’s bunny crackers and what we call “fruit crushers” to snack on. Currently they have to rummage through a big box to get to them, which can be kind of frustrating. They would think something like this was amazing (one of my son’s new favorite words).

Now it’s your turn! Share with me in the comments what you’re working on or inspired by. Can’t wait to see how it’s going…

This post is part of MPMK’s “Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life”. You can read all about it here, check out all of our projects here, and join thousands of POYEL facebook group members here.