5 Easy Behind the Scenes Ways to Stop Kitchen Table Clutter Taking Over Your Life
I’ve got 5 easy behind-the-scenes ways for you to stop kitchen clutter from taking over your life!
For many of us kitchen table clutter is a daily source of frustration.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if our kitchen tables were self-cleaning like our ovens?
Mm-hmm, I’m eagerly awaiting that too. {sigh}
In my post, Clear Magazine Clutter, a dear reader, Barbara, asked me in post comments to write about handling kitchen table clutter that seems to grow on its own.
How kitchen table clutter sneaks up on us…
You come home, arms grappling bagged groceries, retrieved mail slipping from the fingers of one hand and plunk down everything on your kitchen table. {me}
You place a stack of watched DVD rentals “temporarily” as the phone rings. {me}
You leave the half read newspaper on top of the table along with the other disorganized things as your child runs in wanting a snack. {me}
You come in red cheeked from shoveling your walkways, pull off your gloves, unwrap your scarf, tossing them with the rest of the kitchen table clutter, intending to put them away…later. {me}
You frantically shove everything off the kitchen table into a shopping bag so your family can sit down at the kitchen table for 6:00PM dinner…at 5:55PM…{aye, you guessed it, me}
Full disclosure: this was {me} “back in the day…” {a colloquialism new to me when I first moved to Connecticut from Manhattan}.
Back then I spent way too much time doing daily battle with my kitchen table clutter.
So how do you keep your kitchen table clear and ready for use?
Here’s the thing:
The kitchen table often serves many different functions; breakfast, teatime, homework, bill paying, reading, temporary placement of…stuff…
Horizontal surfaces act like magnets for clutter if we don’t stay mindful of their true purpose. That’s assuming your kitchen table’s true purpose is not a dumping ground for all your stuff.
It takes some creative change to avoid this trap of kitchen table clutter. Beating yourself up is not a creative solution. Instead…
Clear the kitchen table completely: Put things away or at least remove them from the kitchen.
#1. Play Observer: Notice with bemused curiosity what ends up on your once clear table as the day progresses. No judgement, just gentle observation.
Ask Yourself:
- Is this item left here as kitchen table clutter because I don’t know where to put it? {Designate a home}
- Is this item left here as a reminder to take action on it? {Take action-put away or toss}
- Is this item here because I did not think to take the few extra mindful steps to put it where it really belongs? {Be mindful to do things now, not leave for later}
#2. Mail:
- Designate a place to process the mail {Envelopes, advertising inserts-toss in paper recycle basket or garage recycle bin}
- Designate a place to store mail until you handle it. {Decorative container or wall basket}
- Consider keeping the mail out of the kitchen; try a home office instead.
#3. DVD’s, Library Books Returns:
- Try hanging a reusable bag on a hook for returns in the mudroom or foyer.
- On the way out to run errands, grab the bag to put in your car.
Mudroom Hanging Errand Bag
#4. Outerwear Accessories:
- When you remove your coat and outer things take the 30 seconds to hang them in the closet or on a coat rack or hook.
- Store gloves and rolled scarves in a shoe bag hung on the coat closet door.
#5. Prevention:
- Try putting a decorative handled basket in the mudroom and place things there rather than create kitchen table clutter. Take 5 minutes after dinner, {don’t wait just before bed, you’ll be too tired} and put those things away.
- If the kiddies stuff keeps ending up there figure out why. Is it that there is no supply cabinet or drawer for their school stuff such as markers, erasers, rulers? Depending where they do homework, create a homework zone nearby in a cabinet or drawer.
- Once the kitchen table is clear, try setting the table with placemats and dishes for the next meal. This will discourage putting things down without thinking.
- Declare the kitchen table as a “Clutter Free Zone.” When you catch yourself about to put something down on the kitchen table, reconsider and redirect the action; put the item away elsewhere.
Please share this post on social media by clicking my social media buttons. Someone you may know may really find this post helpful and just what they need.
Post your comments…I so love to hear from you and what challenges you face in hopes I can help.
Hi, I’m Jul’s Arthur. I’d love to help you go from chaos to FREEDOM.
What I do: I help women professionals & entrepreneurs STOP endlessly spinning their wheels stuck in anxiety and overwhelm with the chaos and clutter in their home, and instead START simplifying, so everything has a place, they gain FREEDOM, CLARITY and manifest their DREAM LIFE. I’m also the author of the book 25 Days of Holiday Organizing!
Ha ha, I can sooooo relate with this. It’s not just the table for me though, the island, the boot box, the desk, the bathroom counter, the coffee table, the speakers…..okay any flat surface is a dumping ground in my house. I love your tip about the bag for book returns, as we have three people taking books out of the library we get a big stack of books every week to go back. I’m adopting this one thing immediately. Also, great tip about not leaving the tidy up until before bed, I’m bad for that and I never get around to it. After dinner it is from now on 🙂
Thanks so much for your comment! I have to say you had me chuckling about the various places in your home that are home to—shall we say—“various and sundry”? Something about horizontal surfaces…clutter magnets. So glad a couple of my tips are ones you want to try and adopt.
What EASY tips!! Jul’s, this post will help so many people {me} ! Thank you for sharing so many great tips here. There are so many great ones I can’t pick just one favorite. Genius!!
Thanks so much, after all it is my hope to help as many people as I can, with simple easy tips that can be implemented right away. I so appreciate your compliments and support, April!
It is amazing how powerful making declarations out loud is. It triggers something in my childhood brain (like when your mom told you certain behaviors were not acceptable) and it’s a lot easier to stick to it. It works for me with anything from keeping an area of my home clutter-free, to helping me stick to habits like putting my outerwear away (instead of on the table) as soon as I walk into the house.
Oh I love this Jovanka, and I completely agree…I do Wonder woman poses and declare out loud my intention before I start on a project. Think it, Say it, Feel it, Do it! We can inspire ourselves…love your use of triggering your “childhood brain.”
Because my son likes to draw at the table while I’m cooking, there’s always a pile of paper and a box of markers on it. Every once in a while, I sift through the artwork or shift it elsewhere for a meal, but it also reminds him that he’s welcome to hang out with me whenever he feels like it.
I’m with Llyane, though, getting the dishes washed (and put away!) is one of my daily goals.
My boys always worked at our kitchen table too, and I love the bond and comfort it creates. They did homework, artwork and the multi-function of the table is great. As long as the artwork being kept on the table works for you, that’s what matters. For us, I put favorite artwork up on the wall and saved only a few other pieces in an art portfolio as memorabilia. I store the boys’ books and supplies in our adjoining mudroom cabinet…easy access for when they work at the kitchen table, and easy put away to clear the table. Yes, Llyane nails it, do those dishes daily…I love my dishwasher, and keep them from cluttering the sink, counter and your kitchen.
We actually got rid of our Kitchen table. Instead, we have TV trays that we set up when it’s time to eat. We don’t turn on the TV, but we sit around the family room in a more social, informal way. When we’re having a fancy family thing, we set the table back up for the day, then stow it away after. My eat-in kitchen has never been cleaner!
What a very innovative solution! Not for everyone, but I love the TV tray idea with no TV, just social interaction and good food shared with family and conversation. Thanks for sharing an out-of-the-box solution, Lisa!
Jul’s, I’m so glad my comment sparked your true confessions of kitchen table reality. My cat is responsible for our clean table for 3 whole days. Shakira kitty jumped on one of my piles prompting a deep clean. Now my challenge is keeping it cleared off longer than for holiday dinners! My biggest sin is when I rebel against mindfully making a decision. I am not a saint when it comes to organizing consistency. Thank you so much for dedicating your blog post to my biggest issue. Why is it so easy for me to straighten up my husbands stuff rather than my own?
Well, Barbara, because it is not about the stuff! It’s about our mindset and our overloaded lives. It’s easier to straighten up other people’s stuff because than you have objectivity, then you are helping and in a nurturing roll. Go Shakira kitty! I’ll have to write another blog post to go deeper about your points here. Thanks for helping me help others, because your in depth comments and questions are on other’s minds I am sure!
My constant occupation in the kitchen is to wash my dishes so that I never have any in the sink – quite a hard job, believe it or not 🙂
I understand…it takes conscious effort. When I lived in London and Manhattan, in an flat or apartment, there was no dishwasher, so yes, dishes became more of an issue. Now, I keep the habit of putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher….annnnnd trained my boys to do the same. Though they sometimes just put the dishes on the kitchen counter letting mama put them in the dishwasher…cheeky boys.