How To Declutter Utensils, Knives, Measuring Spoons & Cups

Today's mission is to declutter utensils, knives, measuring spoons, cup, and gadgets from your kitchen.


This mission is designed to be done while working on organizing the kitchen, as part of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, during both week #1's Kitchen Organization Challenge and Kitchen Drawer & Cabinet Organization Challenge.

Of course, you can do the mission whenever you want or need in your kitchen.

Whenever you do it though, I promise you're going to really love the results.

This mission is pretty simple, and applies to the following types of items: kitchen utensils, such as wooden spoons and spatulas, small cooking equipment like tongs, peelers and whisks, kitchen knives, measuring cups and spoons, as well as mixing bowls, and small kitchen gadgets of all varieties.

What the mission doesn't include (because these types of items have their own mission days) are the silverware drawer, as well as decluttering small appliances. There's also a days to declutter bakeware, and pots and pans.

I know it can be a bit confusing deciding if something is a "gadget" or an "appliance," and honestly it's not a big deal which day you declutter these things -- it will all happen some time very soon anyway if you continue to work through the Declutter 365 missions. In my brain I've separated the declutter appliance day from the declutter utensil day by deciding electric items will be decluttered with appliances, and non-electric items will be decluttered today, with the utensils and gadgets.

Easy things to declutter today include anything broken or heat warped, since there is no point in keeping things that don't work.

In addition, you may want to declutter duplicates of items, keeping your favorite or the one that works best and getting rid of the rest.

Further, consider getting rid of utensils or gadgets that only have one function if a multi-functional tool will do the same thing.

As always, also get rid of items you haven't used or needed in over 6 months to a year, or things you don't actually have room to store. That means if you've only got one kitchen drawer for utensils, you've got to keep decluttering the space until everything you keep fits into that space, with the drawer easily opening and closing.

If you'd like some guidance about what are essential or helpful kitchen utensils and gadgets (or at least my opinion about what is essential and helpful) check out this article with my list of essential kitchen appliances and utensils.

Below I've got lots of pictures from readers who've already done this mission to show you how much decluttering these types of items will positively impact your kitchen, and get you excited to tackle this task for yourself!

Top photo courtesy of a reader, Cassie, and before and after photo collage courtesy of a reader, Mei-Li

Before & After Photos From Readers Who've Done This Mission

Lots of readers have done this mission and sent in some remarkable before and after photos to show their results.

Above are photos from a reader, Bonita. She did a great job, didn't she?


The photos above are from a reader, Jane, She said, "Got a big bag of donations out of 15 minutes of work, and while I was cleaning the drawers, I washed the fronts and handles also. This is an overwhelming chore I will NEVER do all at one time. So today, three drawer fronts got scrubbed very clean."


Here's another set of before and after photos, this time from a reader, Samantha.


Finally, above are two photos sent in by a reader, Mary. She said, "This is my kitchen gadget drawer before," and "wonderfully decluttered after."

It is wonderful Mary! What a great job!

How To Declutter Kitchen Knives

One of the types of items to at least consider decluttering today are some of your kitchen knives.

Certainly some knives are essential in your home. At a minimum I suggest you have a chef knife, paring knife and bread knife.

If you have additional knives, and you actually use them frequently and have enough room to store them safely, you can obviously keep them as well.

However, if you have multiple sets of knives, or some are dull or poor quality, seriously consider getting rid of some of these items.

Once you've got quality knives you'll appreciate how well they work while cooking and preparing food, and won't want to use the lesser quality items anyway.

That's exactly what the two readers who sent in these photos above did. The top photo was sent in by Nicole, and the bottom photo was sent in by Lynne.

Are You Ready To Get Rid Of Your Kitchen Utensil Clutter?

Here's one more photo, this one from a reader Sally. She said, "This is the stuff to sell in a garage sale! I am thrilled because it only took 15 minutes."

Remember, once you've decluttered your utensils and gadgets it'll be time to organize what's left. You can get ideas for that in the following articles here on the site:

• Kitchen Utensil Storage Ideas & Solutions


• Utensil Crock Ideas

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!

Get This Kitchen Decluttering Checklist + 32 Other Decluttering Checklists For Your Home

Right now you're decluttering your kitchen, and there's a lot of stuff to declutter in this space.

Get your 2 page kitchen decluttering checklist, plus 32 other decluttering checklists, to help you declutter your entire home here.

I've done the hard work of breaking down these tasks into smaller more manageable steps for you, so you don't get overwhelmed or worry you're forgetting a task, and you can go at the pace you want, whether that's fast or slow.

In addition, you can tackle these decluttering tasks in whatever order you want when you use these checklists!

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Getting Clutter Free 15 Minutes At A Time Hall Of Fame

Getting Rid Of Kitchen Clutter Hall Of Fame

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