It’s time to let the decluttering begin

I know it’s time. It’s been time for at least two years, possibly longer. I need to clean my kitchen. Now, before you send the Health Department to my address, let me explain. What I mean by “clean” is that I need to clean out and organize my kitchen pantry, cupboards and drawers.

If you walked into my kitchen, you’d see a tidy and sanitary place. But don’t walk into the pantry or open a cupboard too hastily. Something might hit you on the head.

Cynthia Ewer, editor of the Organized Home blog, said the first thing I need to do is harden my heart. An efficient, convenient kitchen, she said, must be pared to the bone. I must dare to dump anything and everything that is not absolutely necessary and useful.

• Clear the decks. Ewer instructs me to prepare four boxes with these labels: Put Away (Kitchen), Put Away (Elsewhere), Give Away (or Sell) and Storage. I am to tackle one shelf, drawer or cupboard at a time, putting each item into its proper box.

• Kitchen keepers. Once everything has found its box, move three of the boxes out of the kitchen. Now comes decision time.

Ewer is ruthless in suggesting I need to just get rid of the electric french fry fryer, the strange gelatin mold in the shape of Mount Rushmore and the odd collection of sports bottles I’ve amassed from all those walk-a-thons.

Ditto for pans I don’t use, dishes I don’t like and specialty cooking tools that I never use because they’re too much trouble to clean.

• No more stalling. I’m going to follow the Organized Home kitchen decluttering plan, starting at the top: the top shelves, which Ewer said resemble an unknown landscape on the back side of the moon. (I keep wondering when she’s been sneaking into my kitchen because she seems to know this place quite well.) Determination

Here’s the rule: If I’ve used it in the last month, it’s a candidate to stay. If I used it yesterday, it will be the backbone of my newly organized kitchen.

I am committed; I am determined. I will box and banish. I will not stop until every shelf, every cupboard, every nook and cranny of my kitchen is cleared, cleaned and organized.

I don’t think I’m alone in this need for kitchen organization, so I’m extending an invitation to you to join me. Let’s call it the EC Spring Clean Kitchen Challenge.

All who dare are invited to join me in this marathon event. I could use the company.

Somehow, knowing others are participating in the same drudgery will keep me on track and moving forward.

Mary Hunt invites questions, comments and tips at mary@ everydaycheapskate.com, or c/o Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Suite B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com, a personal finance member website and the author of Debt-Proof Living, released in 2014.