Organizing My New Kitchen with The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
We moved last week and I’m now in the process of unpacking and organizing my kitchen. All I can say is thank God I read The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. This is a billion times easier since I konmaried.
If you haven’t yet read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, click the link and get the book on Amazon immediately.
I listened to the audiobook version on Audible.
It took me a weekend to read… and I started “tidying my clutter” right away (OK, yeah I’m type A, but if you have read my blog for any period of time you already know that).
It Really Did Change My Life
I can’t tell you how much this one little book changed my life. Yes, that’s why it’s called The LIFE-CHANGING Magic of Tidying Up.
I “konmaried” the whole house in 2015 after Ollie was born.
This was what my kitchen looked like the first time I did konmari:
But then my kitchen turned into this:
A place for everything and everything in it's place.
It Is Magic
And you know what? Marie Kondo is right. Once you konmari, the house never goes back to the way it was before. Everything happily stays in its place.
And you know what else? You can actually find everything you are looking for! It’s magical.
Yes, that’s why they call it The Life Changing MAGIC of Tidying Up.
How Konmari Works
The way konmari works is, you hold up an object, ask yourself, “Does this spark joy?”
If the answer is no, you get rid of it. Doesn’t matter how — you can sell it, give it away, donate it, or throw it in the trash. The point is to get it out of your life.
On the other hand, if the object does spark joy, you keep it.
And then you ask it where it wants to live.
My Progress
This is what my kitchen looks like right now. I’m about 80-90% done with the unpacking.
There’s a lot more that still needs to be organized in the garage (which is where my 2 freezers are and a pantry area which will come in handy in case of the zombie apocalypse).
I haven’t gotten to the garage yet… I’ll start that after I complete the kitchen.
I’m being very methodical about where I put everything as I unpack it.
As Marie Kondo advises, I ask each item where it would like to live. I also ask myself, where would this item be most convenient for me?
For example, I stored my dish towels in a drawer just to the right of the dishwasher. They are within easy reach for drying dishes, and I like to hang one on the dishwasher handle. I don’t like using lots of paper towels, so I always like to have a dish towel handy to wipe my hands.
I stored my most frequently used cooking tools — spatulas and tongs — in a drawer to the right of the dish towels, directly across from the stove. Easy to take out of the dishwasher, and easy to grab when you are cooking on the stove. This is exactly how I had it in my old kitchen.
It may seem odd to put so little in a drawer. People are used to stuffing their drawers with all kinds of things, with very little rhyme or reason.
But the problem is, if there is too much stuff in a drawer, you can’t find what you are looking for. You have to be able to visually see it.
The ONLY thing allowed in this drawer is spatulas (to the left, facing down)) and tongs (to the right). Nothing else.
I store tools that I use less often in a drawer a little further away. I especially like this compartmentalized organizer, so it’s very easy to see where everything goes (and hence, very easy to find what you are looking for).
Counterclockwise starting top left:
(1) a garlic press and garlic peeler (2) wine and bottle openers (3) chopsticks and chopstick holders (4) thermometers (5) chalk (for my meal plan chalk board) and matches (6) hand mixer beaters, a cherry pitter, a turkey injector, a chip clip (7) VacuVin for wine and stoppers (8) cake decorating tools, silicone muffin molds and rubber bands.
It took me a little while to figure out how to store the everyday glassware and coffee cups. In the old house, I had a coffee station with coffee and coffee cups all in one place. It didn’t work out the same way exactly in our new house… but I quite like this set up.
I had to move the shelves around slightly to suit my needs. The very large glasses and travel mugs my husband uses are at the top (he’s taller and can reach), coffee cups in the middle, and on the bottom shelf, the glasses we use the most (including my son’s sippy cups) and espresso cups.
I’m still working on the staples cupboard. When I konmaried the old kitchen, I came up with the idea of storing small amounts of staples in large mason jars.
I really like this method because it’s so easy to see what is in the different jars. Again, with konmari, it’s very visual. You have to be able to see everything.
I keep larger quantities of these foods in the garage in my extended pantry. For example, in the extended pantry I have 5 gallon buckets of brown rice, sushi rice, basmati rice, popcorn, black beans, and so forth. This way I can buy things a lot cheaper, and we just refill the mason jars from the buckets as needed.
I’ll post again soon when the kitchen is done so you can see my final results. Maybe I’ll do some livestreams, too, to show you how I did it.
Leave A Comment Below
Have you done The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up yet?
If so, let me know what you think!