Live the Difference™ with the KonMari Method™ in Your Kitchen!

Live the Difference™ in a Shea Home: How to Spark Joy in Your Kitchen
 
Your home should be the place where everything feels “right.” Every room should feel comfortable and balanced, and the last emotion you want to be experiencing is stress due to CLUTTER.

For many people, the kitchen is where valuable time is spent cooking family meals and entertaining, and managing our daily lives planning for what matters most. We often use kitchen storage areas to keep those items that accumulate - hence the “junk drawer” or using shelving for miscellaneous items. The “Best Mom Ever” mugs and the crazy new gadgets we can’t live without start to accumulate over time. As our lives become busier, it seems the less time we spend organizing and the more time we spend shoving items into drawers.

If negativity is all you feel when you enter your kitchen space, then we’re here to tell you there is a solution...and the solution is CHOOSING JOY.
 

As part of our Live the Difference™ Lifestyle Series, we recently held a second KonMari Method™ event where Platinum Level KonMari Method™ Certified Consultant Tricia Fidler of Heywood Park Collective, shared 8 magic tools to give your kitchen a KonMari makeover. If you missed it, don’t stress! You can see all of her tips below:

1. Subcategorize similar items. Remember all of those gadgets we talked about? Now is the time to tackle the clutter by subcategorizing all of the items in your kitchen into three categories - items you cook with, items you prepare food with, and items you serve food with.

2. ​Keep “like with like.” As mentioned in our previous blog post about Sparking Joy in Your Closet,  one of the best ways to organize is to keep “like with like” – divide items by category (plates with plates, pans with pans, etc.). This also holds true to the food in your pantry! Create zones for storage to maximize ease of use and cleaning.

3. The KonMari Method™ Fold. Vertically store items (file folded) like dish towels and aprons to easily store and access.  Visually pleasing organization of your basic day to day items makes doing the dishes and cleaning up much more joyful!

4. Pantry: contain, contain, contain! Set limited space for storage within drawers/bins and only fill 80% max so you can leave room to invite new items in! Use boxes or bins you already own first – but be wary of the overly large bins. Put smaller containers in larger ones to divide the space and corral smaller items. Try to store pantry goods upright and use clear glass or plastic containers for dry goods, nuts, pasta, crackers, etc. so you are able to see what you actually have before buying more at the store.

5. Decant pantry items. For aesthetics, decant pantry your items and remove packaging from pantry goods. Your pantry isn’t a store – so it doesn’t need the visual noise that marketing language on boxes creates. Only label if needed.

6. Decant your dish soap. Your sink area needs love, too! Decant your dish soap by eliminating visual information that doesn’t spark joy. Your space will be more peaceful and comfortable, especially for items used daily. 

7. Curate kitchen appliances. Sometimes we aspire to be the bread baker, juice enthusiast, or master chef and accumulate appliances at one time we believed would become regular tools in our kitchen.  Be mindful if you truly use an appliance (they can be storage hogs!) and choose to let go of those you don’t use!  Thank them for their role in your life and bid them farewell.  Store often-used appliances (toasters, juicers, etc.) right beneath the counter where used. Keep the ones you rarely use in the back.

8. Clear surfaces. Tables and counters are work spaces, not storage spaces. Ease of cleaning is important in a kitchen space, so it’s important to keep the counters as clear as possible so that you can wipe down thoroughly.

KonMari consultants are available to those who need guidance on their KonMari tidying. You can book Tricia on her website at heywoodpark.com. To see more inspiration, follow Tricia at @sparkjoy_california or @heywoodpark_collective on Instagram.  For more inspiration visit www.konmari.com.

Continue following Shea San Diego on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to learn more about upcoming Lifestyle Series events like this! You can get a sneak peek at what we’re planning this year on our BLOG.

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