How To Declutter China Cabinet, Hutch, Sideboards And/Or Buffets
Today's mission is to declutter your china cabinet, hutch, sideboard and/or buffets, that hold your china, silver, crystal, and additional items for use within your dining room.
This mission is designed to be worked on while we're focused on the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge dedicated to organizing your dining room, although of course you can work on this mission whenever you need.
Further, I've tried to make this mission as broad as possible, to include whatever type of furniture or storage unit you've got in your dining room, or perhaps your kitchen, that holds your china and crystal, and perhaps your silver, and most likely many other things.
You might have a china cabinet, or instead a hutch, sideboard, buffet, and some people even use a curio cabinet for holding these types of items.
Whatever you've got, today's the day to focus on clearing the clutter out of it.
This mission may also sound like it would take longer than 15 minutes, depending on how large your furniture is, and how much stuff you've got in there.
That's OK too. As usual, these missions will take you as long as they take, for the amount of stuff you've got to work through, and so I encourage you to work in 15 minute increments, until you get it done.
On the other hand, I've got several missions on the Declutter 365 calendar throughout this week, which may help empty this cabinet or hutch out over several days, depending on what you store in there. That means you don't really have to do it all in one day anyway!
Some of the missions we've already had, or will have that may apply to clearing out clutter from inside this cabinet include:
- Declutter china and silver
- Declutter table linens, such as tablecloths and napkins
- Declutter candles
- Declutter collectibles and collections (depending on what you collect, you may store and display them in this type of furniture); and/or
- Declutter serving dishes, and similar items used for parties or large gatherings
As always, I do not expect you to clear out everything from these dining room storage areas, because you are more likely than not enjoying and using some of these things. Those things that are enjoyed, used, and there's storage space for are not clutter.
Instead, clear out what doesn't belong, should be placed elsewhere, and what you no longer want or need. Tidy up what you do keep, and make sure it all fits and that you can easily access it when you need it.
In addition, if you've got time, since china cabinets, and the items held within them don't always get dusted frequently, you could also dust and freshen up the items you've got stored in there, making them look their best.
Remember, do not get overwhelmed as you work through this mission. Depending on what you've got in there, you might need to make some big decisions about what to keep or get rid of, or how to get rid of certain things.
To keep from being mentally overwhelmed, and to prevent yourself from making a big mess that is difficult to clean up, work within one cabinet, one shelf, or one drawer at a time. Make decisions about everything held in that space before moving on. Put back what you're keeping, until you've gone through it all, and then you can rearrange and organize what's left.
You will need to keep decluttering until everything you are keeping neatly and easily fits into the space available, without being crammed in there.
If you're still making decisions about what china, glassware or silver to keep versus get rid of, since that was yesterday's mission, don't forget to check out this article about how to declutter silver and china to help you make those sometimes tough decisions.
Photos From Readers Who've Already Done This Mission
Below I've gathered a few photos from readers who've already done this mission, to hopefully get you inspired to tackle this task for yourself.
These photos above are from a reader, Beth, who showed the before and after when she did this mission in her own china cabinet. As you can see, she had a lot of different types of items in the cabinet, so she had to work on each section separately.
You can do the same yourself. That's why I suggest focusing on just one drawer, or one shelf, or one side of a cabinet at a time. It allows you to make decisions about a smaller amount of items at one time, and finish making those decisions completely before moving on to the next set of decisions.
This next photo is from another reader, Renee. She focused on an area of her hutch that many of us have to deal with, the flat surface which had gotten cluttered. She said, "I have decluttered my hutch top. I also went through papers on the inside twice and pitched. I have more to do on the inside of this hutch. My husband bought me new canisters on our vacation, so I got those set up here and the old ones are on sale on e-bay."
If you've got flat surface clutter on your hutch or sideboard too, make sure to check out this article about how to declutter flat surface clutter, and then keep it from coming back. I know this can be a big problem for people in their dining room, as elsewhere in their home!
Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!
Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.
The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!
Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.
Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.
In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.
If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!
If you haven't already, make sure to also check out 52 Week Organized Home Challenge article that this mission is designed to be a part of, all about how to organize your dining room.
In addition, you most likely won't declutter everything from inside your china cabinet during the mission. To the extent you're keeping china and glassware, make sure you know these tips for storing china, glassware and crystal properly.
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Share Your Comments, Tips & Ideas
I would love to hear from you, sharing your thoughts, questions, or ideas about this topic, so leave me a comment below. I try to always respond back!