How To Organize Your Kitchen, The Marie Kondo Way

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

I kicked off 2017 with one thought, well actually, one word, and that was to DECLUTTER. And it almost seemed like a sign when I came across this documentary on Netflix.

Reasons to declutter/organize the kitchen  :
  • It saves a lot of time. 
  • It'll make you want to cook more, because it cuts down on the looking-for-stuff time. 

The kitchen was first on my list, because my kitchen is  was the most disorganized and the messiest. Well, I even have a magnet on my fridge that says something along those lines. 

Here are some of the tips, that have worked for me on my quest for a de-cluttered kitchen. These tips are from Marie Kondo's first book "The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up". Her tips were mainly for clothes, books etc,but they fit perfectly well with organizing the kitchen too. 

1) DON'T ORGANIZE YOUR STORAGE. IT'S A TRAP. INSTEAD, LOOK CLOSELY AT WHAT IS THERE
                  She says in her book that storage methods do not solve the problem of how to get rid of clutter. Instead, look closely at what you have in the kitchen. Go through every single thing in the kitchen and choose what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of. Open that dreaded shelf, the shelf that contains everything you have never, ever used and some more. We all have THAT drawer or THAT shelf. Open it, pull everything out and spread it on the floor and look at it. In Marie Kondo's words, you are supposed to look at every single thing and ask yourself "Does it spark joy?". Well, you can't really look at your 5 year old unused spice jar and ask if it sparks joy, but try? Donate or get rid of things in the kitchen that you have never used in the last one year. 

2) "SOMETIMES" MEANS NEVER
                    How do you decide which ones to donate? Well it's simple. If you are looking at something and thinking, you are going to use it "sometime" soon, it's time to donate it. Is it that waffle maker sitting in the kitchen, taking up space, in the hopes that you'll throw a brunch party one day? Well, if it hasn't happened in the last one year, it probably is not going to happen in the near future. 

3) DESIGNATE A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING
                      Sounds easy, right? But, there have been so many times when I haven't bothered to put things back where it belongs. I didn't realize how much time I was wasting by just looking for things. 

4)  PUT SIMILAR THINGS TOGETHER
                    Things that are spread out are harder to find and if your memory is like me, then good luck trying to remember where things are. Grouping like things together, makes the kitchen more organized and makes things easier to find. Like, I store all my spices needs for Indian cooking together and spices for non-Indian cooking together. Same goes for baking. Group all-purpose flour, sprinkles, icing dispenser and tips etc together. 


"Happiness is a place between too little and too much" - That's a good motto for life and the kitchen ;)


Have you read the book?




3

Favourites Of The Week

Friday, January 27, 2017


Favourites Of The Week

Here are some of my favourite things I have curated for you. Grab a cup of tea and enjoy :)

  • I have the attention span that lasts about 5 minutes and then I am officially bored. If you are like me, then we have hope. I am serious, go ahead and read about it here,
  • I love everything about the seventies, from hair and clothes to home decor. And I came across The Mary Tyler Moore Show on one of the afternoons when I was looking for something to watch. And I was hooked. If you get a chance, please do watch it. Mary Tyler Moore passed away at 80, yesterday. And here's an article about her that I loved reading.
  • Ten things you can do with rotten bananas. Banana Fosters recipe looks super easy and doable and there are three rotten bananas staring at me. So, yeah..

Hope you enjoyed reading them. 

1

Less Of this, More Of That

Monday, January 16, 2017
It's a new year..I guess it's kinda obligatory to write something about New Years before the regular programming (blogging) begins, right? Or, should we just skip the first five dates and go straight to Netflix & Takeout? Let's be old-fashioned and talk about the plans for 2017, shall we?


Less Talk, More Do
Less judgement, More try-to-walk-in-someone-else's-shoes
Less binge-watching, More books
Less Things, More Cherishing/using things I already have
Less pop culture, More..Well.. who am I kidding...Let's be realistic ;)

Less over thinking, More Nike
Less stress, More joy
Less I-don't-have-anything-to-wear, More Gratitude
Less sleeping-in, More sunrises
Less negativity, More yay-let's-do-it kinda vibes around me
Less editing, More writing

Less looking-for-the-keys, More organized
Less getting-news-from-socialmedia, More actual, unbiased news (if that still exists!)
Less complaining, More so-what-do-I-do-about-it (refer to 1)
Less I'll-have-what-she's-having (I love When Harry Met Sally), More standing my own ground
Less wikipedia-ing, More Let's-just-not-know-ing

Also, I'd like to know about your lesses and more(s)... Drop me a line, if you'd like to share yours :)

PS: Photo taken on one of our drives from NY (I think!)

1