This week on the podcast, we talked about clutter and its tendency to collect in our homes. We had some fun laughs about the reality of our messes, too! I was inspired by our talk and the information provided from my www.Clutterbug.me results. I wanted to share my before and after pictures of my Clutterbug project – my kitchen.

Travis and I still had a box in our kitchen from when we moved almost 10 months ago. I was fed up with looking at that box one day, and unloaded it onto the kitchen island. The idea was to identify what was in the box and then put the items away, but I ran out of time to find a new home for these last straggling items, so they stayed in that spot. Now they were sitting on the catch-all, an already cluttered problem area of my home. 

The clutter got so bad, we could no longer work at the kitchen island, and complacency had become the norm. Each day, one more thing wound up on the island and did not leave. My husband even started leaving the groceries out; instead of putting a can in the pantry while unloading the groceries, the can would find its new home on the island. 

Clutter stacking up on the kitchen island, inside the cabinets, and "the box".

Since the Clutterbug quiz suggested storing things in clear containers, I got these acrylic bins from amazon. Unfortunately, I did not measure my cabinet space (whoops), and the bins are too big for my pantry. I was able to use a few of them around the kitchen, and I will get some smaller ones for the pantry. I can use the remaining large ones in my craft room. 

This week I worked a lot of overtime at work, so I haven’t had as much energy or time to dedicate to my organizing. I did however decide to organize the cups though. The clutter was persistently on my mind after I had mentioned them in an earlier blog. The nice thing about spring cleaning is that it doesn't have to be done all at once. In fact, the best thing to do is one small area or task at a time. There are a few areas that got worked over that I didn’t capture with my camera – mainly the pantry. I tossed out a lot of half eaten cracker sleeves, stale cookies, old protein bars, and random odds and ends that were taking up space. 

I'm happy the way the catch all areas turned out.

For the near future, I have plans to clear out the utensil drawer and utilize the empty cabinet space above the fridge, but I know that it will be little by little. I don’t want to try and do a total overhaul on the kitchen all at once, which would wreck a major working area in our home. Next up after the kitchen will be my dressing table where there are a slew of cosmetics, hair products, earrings, and misc. items strewn about. I am really looking forward to that much needed project.

Have you had a chance to check out the Clutterbug quiz to see what type of Clutterbug you are? I’d love to hear about your style! Maybe you can share some tips in the comments!