Take baby steps to organize your kitchen.

January is the typical "clean up your life and get organized" month. You're seeing it all over the place-- sales on bins, shelving, bulletin boards, containers... anything you could possibly want to try to get yourself organized. It really does make sense- start the new year with a newly-organized house/ kitchen/closet/ basement/ whatever. But it can be downright overwhelming, especially for the organizationally challenged. So some people just don't do it. My brilliant solution, and what has kept me fairly organized for quite some time, is to take baby steps when organizing.

To tell myself that I would organize my kitchen on a Saturday (or an evening or whatever chunk of time I could set aside) sounded like a huge undertaking. But if I told myself that I would organize the pantry, or the kitchen drawers, or some other aspect of the kitchen, now THAT seemed manageable. Organizing portions at a time, in a systematic way, as I have time, has proven to be an almost fool-proof strategy to keeping up with the clutter and disorganization that comes with... well, with LIVING.

Here are my clear, concise, magical keys to organizing. (No wand necessary!). Once you decide what baby step you are taking in organizing your kitchen, you need to:

1) Empty out
2) Pitch
3) Relocate or rearrange

For instance, using my pantry as an example (which has food on the top shelves and some cookware and gadgets on the bottom shelves): My first step is to completely empty out  the contents of the pantry, preferably when Hubby and small people are not around to get excited and go through all the piles. I vacuum out and wipe down the shelves, replacing shelf liners or shelf paper if necessary. After all, I am getting ready for a new year, so everything should be nice and clean!

When everything is out,  I can look at the contents, figure out what I don't need, haven't used, or is broken or damaged. I throw away broken things, and put items to donate in a box. This is called my pitch phase since I usually end up pitching an awful lot of stuff into the donate box or directly into the trash can. When cleaning out pantries or cabinets where food is stored, I am sure to pitch (into the trash can) any expired or questionable-looking foods as well.

The things that don't get pitched get relocated or rearranged. Things that I don't use regularly but don't want to get rid of need to be relocated. They shouldn't  be taking up prime real estate in the kitchen if they are only used several times a year. I find a place in the basement, laundry room closet or hall closet and store my rarely used kitchen items there. (These are things like a fondue put, punch bowl, holiday jello molds, etc.) Things that aren't relocated get rearranged. This takes more time than the relocating. I put things back into my pantry being sure to group like items together: canned goods together, boxed foods or mixes together, baking items together, breakfast foods together, and so on. Small things like jello and pudding mixes, taco seasoning, and other packets of things get put into a small plastic bin or basket  so that they don't get lost in the depths of the pantry. I like to use small shelves, hanging baskets, stair-step risers or turntables in my pantry and cabinets so that I can fully use the space in between the shelves and can easily see or find what I have. (Now is the time of year when all of those organizational aides are on sale, so run out and get them now if you need some.)

So there you have it. One baby step to a fully organized kitchen. Doesn't that seem a lot less intimidating than tackling the whole thing at once? And when I have a clean, organized kitchen, I spend more time there (is that possible?!) -- or at least enjoy the time I spend there more.

Cheers (!) as you take baby steps to organize your own kitchen. I hope you create an organized space that you love to use. And who knows-- your baby steps that start in the kitchen might just take you all over the house in 2011!