7
DCthe
washington
post
.
thursday,november
11
,
2021Home
BY ERIN CHAN DINGClutter has a way of coalescing
in a kitchen — mostly because we
love using the space.
“It’s an area where we tend to
congregate and socialize,” says
Jennifer Truesdale, a certified
professional organizer. “Many
times, it’s the drop zone for every-
thing coming into the house.”
Cathy Bock, a certified profes-
sional organizer, says the large
number of counters in kitchens
also attract clutter.
“A lot of people, they just can’t
keep flat surfaces clear,” she says,
noting the increase in working
from kitchen counters and tables
during the pandemic has caused
those areas to become clutter
magnets.
Hailey Johnson, also a profes-
sional organizer, has her own
theory: We find half of what we do
in kitchens enjoyable and the
other half, not so much.
“It’s so easy to mess up your
kitchen, because cooking and eat-
ing food is very, very fun, but
cleaning up from cooking, eating,
all of that, is not fun,” says John-
son, who’s based in Austin. “I will
go crazy about the type of food
that I’m making, use a bunch of
pots and pans and many bowls,
not really thinking about it, and
then by the end, I have this beau-
tiful meal and eat, and
then I have like 20 dishes in the
sink.”
What experts like Truesdale,
Bock and Johnson say is not to
allow clutter to overwhelm the
kitchen. The best antidote is to
clean and organize with inten-
tionality and in increments.
Here’s what they recommend you
do based on the time you have:10 minutes
Pick items off the floor: Get rid
of anything on the kitchen floor,
such as shoes, bags, p et toys or
papers, and give it a quick sweep
or vacuum. “It will make the
kitchen look more inviting to
walk into,” T ruesdale says. She
notes that people with furry pets
or kitchens with high-volume
traffic may need a daily sweep of
their floors.
Clear counter clutter: Take all
the accumulated paper and mag-
azines on the counters and gather
them into a bag or box that can be
sorted when you have more time,
Truesdale says.
Do something — anything —
about the dishes: Take at least
one step toward cleaning the
dishes. If there are dishes in the
sink you haven’t washed, rinse
them. If you’ve rinsed them
but left them in the sink,
stick them in the dishwasher,
Bock says. And if you let the
dishwasher run overnight, put
those dishes away. Johnson sug-
gests stashing dishwashing
gloves by the sink both as a
reminder and a way to avoid
dirtying your hands. “I find that if
I don’t have gloves, the idea of
having to wash my hands after
getting them all yucky stops me
from doing it,” says Johnson,
owner of Organizing Imperfec-
tion. “Putting dishes in the dish-
washer, I know, is the least fun
thing. Realistically, it’s a very,
very, very quick task.”
Plan future tasks: Keep a
whiteboard in the kitchen for
jotting down tasks to complete
during the week. “I’m a big believ-er in doing a brain dump,” Bock
says.30 minutes
Do all the dishes, then disin-
fect: If you have 30 minutes to
clean, don’t just take on one as-
pect of the dishes. Instead, clean
the whole stack. Thirty minutes
should be enough time to wash
and dry the dishes you’ve left
piled up in the sink, Johnson says,
then finish by disinfecting and
wiping down the counters, too.
Start with a single pantry
shelf (and move on from there):
Facing the prospect of organizing
the entire pantry can seem im-
mense, so start with one shelf. In
addition to grouping like withlike, Bock suggests picking out
the items that will expire first and
moving them to the front. And
whether you keep your spices in
the pantry or the cabinet, she says
a stepped spice rack will save you
from spending time turning la-
bels and picking through contain-
ers to figure out whether there are
parsley or basil flakes inside.
Focus on the fridge: Go
through your fridge and throw
out items that have gone bad. If
they’re about to expire, flag them
with a label and plan to use t hem
soon. To prevent the guilt and
frustration that comes with toss-
ing produce, Johnson suggests
putting condiments in the vegeta-
ble drawer, then arranging fruits
and vegetables in the fridge door,
so they can be seen — and subse-
quently used. “Food that you’re
trying to eat more of,” she says,
“you want to put that somewhere
where you can see it.”An hour
Choose a zone: With an entire
hour, focus on making at least one
area of the kitchen shine. “With
any organizing, it’s better to con-
centrate on one area, because
then you can get it completed,
and then you’ll see the results,
which will inspire you to work on
the next area,” Bock says.
Truesdale suggests dividing
your kitchen into zones, such as
food service, food prep, food stor-
age, cooking and cleaning. “The
key to an organized kitchen is not
going to always be an Instagram-
worthy, picture-perfect kitchen,
but one where everything has
dedicated placement, and you
can find what you are looking for
in seconds versus minutes orhours,” she says. People who do
well with visual cues, she says,
should consider clear containers,
labels, color coding and alphabet-
izing.
Take inventory of kitchen
tools: Sort through your tools and
donate duplicates you don’t need.
“Once we get all the like things
together, you may find you have
20 spatulas because they were
hidden all over,” Bock says. “If you
get rid of the excess stuff you
never use, then it gives you more
room to store things. And if you
have less in your cabinets, it’s
easier to find what you have.” She
also suggests allocating one
drawer for baking tools and an-
other for everyday cooking items.
And if you have something you
rarely use, such as plates for the
holidays, store them in cabinets
that are harder to reach.
Clean your appliances, stove
and microwave: An organized
kitchen isn’t worth much if it’s
grimy. Assess the pots, pans and
appliances you’ve used the most
and do a deep soak and clean. An
hour should also give you the
time to remove the coils from the
stovetop and wipe off the grime
underneath before disinfecting
the area, Johnson says. Wipe
through the fridge to get any
extraneous drips and spills. Do
the same with the oven. And don’t
neglect the microwave. “I always
feel like if I got to the microwave,”
Johnson says, “I really cleaned
the kitchen.”
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Thursday.Tidying up your k itchen in 10 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour
THE WASHINGTON POST ILLUSTRATION/ISTOCKThe kitchen is “an
area where we
tend to congregate
and socialize.
Many times, it’s
the drop zone for
everything coming
into the house.”
Jennifer Truesdale,
a certified professional
organizer