Achieve Complete Kitchen Organization (Just Throw Away These 10 Things!)
Sometimes organizing can be such a daunting task, kitchen organization especially. The key to organizing effectively is throwing away or donating items you don’t need anymore.
You can have a beautiful organizing system in place, but if you have tons of junk you really don’t need, you are never going to be truly organized.
To prevent organizing overwhelm, I wanted to share with you guys a list of ten items you can quickly purge in your kitchen.
Who knows, maybe it will inspire you to get rid of even more clutter!
The easiest way to prep for your kitchen purge is to grab two boxes or bags and have one to donate or give away and one to throw away.
Ready, set, let’s get rid of unnecessary stuff in your kitchen and banish that clutter for good!
Hope this list was helpful and comment below with any organizing tips or more things you found to throw away in your kitchen!
Kitchen Organization: Ten Things To Throw Away
1. Broken appliances or appliances with missing pieces.
So this one may seem like a no brainer, but I have to admit I have a juicer that I just got rid of that is missing a couple of parts.
It has been in the back of my cupboard for three years unused. Yes, you read that right, three years!
I planned on getting replacement parts, but found out the parts are more expensive than the juicer! If you have items like this that you plan on “fixing someday” or have been sitting there for months, it’s time to kick them to the curb!
2. Duplicate items you don’t need.
So this one needs a little clarification because it is on a case by case basis. If you have multiples of the same item, you are just cluttering your space up with more things that you don’t need.
How often do you go through can openers, do you really need three?
Give away the multiple items that are unnecessary, but if you have multiple items you’re keeping in case the other breaks, don’t give that one away. With the ones you’re keeping, I recommend storing them out of sight.
Back to our can opener example, you don’t need to store three can openers in the same drawer. Have one can opener in your drawer, and store the other ones somewhere else.
3. Cookie sheets or pans that have the non-stick surface peeling off.
Cookie sheets and pans almost become a safety hazard because little bits can flake off into your food, yuck! Definitely toss those!
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4. Coffee cups that you don’t love.
If you’re like me, your cabinet might be overrun with coffee/teacups. Maybe because I receive them as gifts regularly or I can’t resist buying cute ones even though I know I don’t really need them.
Whatever your reason, unless you live in a house with a ton of people, you probably don’t need ALL those coffee cups.
One of my favorite organizing books by Marie Kondo cites that if something doesn’t spark joy, get rid of it. There have to be some coffee cups that don’t spark joy for you, maybe you hate the design on the handle is a little weird.
5. Kitchen appliances collecting dust.
If you haven’t used an appliance in over a year, you should ask yourself if you really need that appliance at all. It’s hard because there are so many kitchen gadgets, and they each serve a different purpose.
It’s easy to have your cabinets overrun by the latest kitchen appliance. Donate ones you don’t use, you can feel good that someone else is getting good use out of it.
6. Old and ratty dish rags, sponges, and reusable grocery bags.
It’s much easier to manage washing five dish rags than ten ratty rags. Go through these items and toss them accordingly.
7. Expired food items, spices, condiments, and oils.
Most people probably throw away expired food items regularly, but sometimes spices, condiments, and oils can be neglected. Get rid of these items, not only will it help declutter your cabinets, but will prevent you from getting sick as well.
8. Dishes your children have outgrown, like sippy cups.
For you parents out there, you might have dishes your kids have outgrown. This kind of stuff is just going waste valuable space that you could be storing more useful items in.
9. Water bottles or traveling mugs that are missing tops.
Going through my water bottles the other day, I found a couple with missing tops. I guess I kept them around because hey, they still can hold water.
But you know what also holds water? Cups, and like me you probably have a cabinet full of those!
10. Take out menus or phonebooks you don’t use.
Every so often for some reason, I still get a phone book delivered to me. In the past I’ve kept them and they just sit in my cabinet and are never opened.
The same goes for any takeout menus I collect. The truth is most of us just find this information online these days. Some of you may find these things useful. In this case, it’s perfectly fine to keep.
But, if you find you pull out your phone or computer to look up your favorite pizza places menu, just toss all that stuff.
Bonus Kitchen Organizing Idea
Empty boxes or packaging.
Sometimes it’s so tempting to be lazy and leave a trash bag box under the sink or other packaging from kitchen items. Try to throw item packing away as you use it, so you don’t have a ton of empty boxes that pile up.
Read Next: 10 Things To Throw Away To Organize Your Bathroom
Very helpful ideas.
Glad you found them helpful Sherry! 🙂