Conquer Your Kitchen Clutter Workbook
Although a large majority of the resources uploaded to The Organization Toolbox are printable worksheets, one of my goals for 2020 is to add more organizational manuals as well. And I know you guys are on board since the #2 request I received in my most recent Toolbox survey (next to the Family HUB!) was for more organization and decluttering handbooks! So…to dip my toe into this idea and continue to transition my various products into the printable library, I decided to revisit my Conquer Your Kitchen Clutter email course and re-vamp it into an all-in-one manual that can be worked through at your own pace! The result is a truly valuable and effective resource for dealing with kitchen clutter and improving both form and function in this most used space in the home!
The Conquer Your Kitchen Clutter workbook is a comprehensive “course,” jam-packed full of all my best tips, tricks, and ideas for decluttering and improving function in each and every area of your kitchen. I’ve taken everything I’ve done in our own homes, ideas I’ve helped others do in their homes, the brilliant solutions I’ve seen/read about all over the web, and my tried-and-true S-P-A-C-E decluttering method and rolled them all into one 50+ page, easy-to-reference manual.
This fully color-coded workbook is organized into 7 sections. In addition to a basic Introduction and Conclusion, the primary “course” is organized by kitchen location. Lessons 1 starts in the cabinets and drawers. And as you progress through the next 3 lessons, you will systematically work through every other inch of your entire kitchen. The final lesson focuses on meal prep and planning, so that when complete, you will not only have increased form and function in your kitchen space, but also streamlined the meal prep processes you do there.
Learning How to Declutter Your Kitchen
The Conquer Your Kitchen Clutter workbook includes a brief Introduction to the course as a whole: what’s included, how it’s organized, and what you can expect.
More importantly, however, the Introduction fully outlines the decluttering and organizing process used throughout the rest of the workbook. Learning and committing this process to memory here will translate to quicker and easier results as you work through your kitchen space.
The main organizational method utilized in this course is my S-P-A-C-E process, which many long-time readers and Toolbox members will already be familiar with.
In fact, working through the S-P-A-C-E process for each and every area of the kitchen is the crux of this course, and these 5 zone-specific checklists are key to helping you stay on task and systematically cut through the clutter.
The Introduction also includes some resources to help with the decluttering process, specifically some color-coordinated printable sorting signs, as well as my Ultimate Clean Out Worksheet.
My Ultimate Clean Out Worksheet is a handy single-sheet decision-flow chart that can help you work through difficult decisions while decluttering. Although it’s part of this kitchen-specific course, it can actually help you declutter any drawer, collection or space in your home!
Declutter Your Kitchen in 5 Lessons
As I mentioned above, the true information and “work” in this course is organized into 5 streamlined lessons, each one focused on a single area within the kitchen. Let me quickly walk you through what is included in each lesson!
After the cover page (shown above), each section includes a 2-page summary for that kitchen zone. These pages include a lot of useful information, and I encourage you to take your time reading through everything provided. On these pages, you will find:
- My Favorite Tips & Tricks – These are my best kitchen tips, tricks, and ideas for that particular kitchen zone. They are easy solutions for common problems that you can typically try/implement right away.
- Get Inspired – There are a lot of great ideas in the Blog-o-Sphere, but there are also a lot of really bad ideas and dead ends out there too. It can be exhausting to wade through everything on the web to find the right and best solutions for your home. So…I’ve done it for you! I’ve spent hours combing through Pinterest to find THE BEST kitchen tours, DIY projects, and solutions for the most common kitchen problems. Each lesson includes a whole slew of (clickable) hand-picked links to check out and be inspired by!
After the summary, the following two pages are the real “meat” of each lesson: an Assessment and the S-P-A-C-E checklist.
Each lesson includes an Assessment focused on that specific kitchen area. The Assessment features 6 reflection questions, as well as plenty of space to brainstorm what is working well and not-so-well in your current kitchen. When done with diligence, these assessments can really help you identify main trouble spots, as well as how to remedy them.
As mentioned above, the actual work of decluttering each part of your kitchen is outlined in the S-P-A-C-E checklist. These checklists are detailed, specific and systematic in order to reduce overwhelm and keep you on track!
The final two pages of each lesson are a Notes & Ideas page, as well as the Lesson Assignment Checklist. The Notes & Ideas pages are ideal for scribbling ideas, jotting down measurements, and brainstorming layouts. The Assignment Checklist helps ensure you’ve done everything in that lesson before moving on, and can be added to as you come across additional tasks unique to your space.
Lessons 1 through 4 feature this exact 7-page format. Lesson 5 – Meal Planning and Prep, however, includes a handful of additional worksheets to help you cultivate better meal planning and prep practices.
Workbook Assembly Materials
Finally, this kit is designed to be printed and assembled as a workbook (although you can certainly just print out any pages you need!). As such, you can literally just open it, print it double-sided, and load it into your favorite binder. That said, like all my other kits, this workbook is fully editable, meaning you can use it as an e-workbook just as easily!
The Conquer Your Kitchen Clutter workbook doesn’t include a pretty cover…but that’s because there are lots of other compatible covers already available in The Toolbox! Below are just a sample of covers printed directly from the Ultimate Kitchen Printable Pack, as well as the Binder Covers kits.
However, this kit does include lesson cover pages and matching tabs should you want to put together a fully color-coordinate workbook. After all, it is often the little details like these that keep us motivated and on track when the decluttering gets hard 😉
TIP! You can see how I made the tab dividers here.
Get This Workbook!
The Conquer Your Kitchen Clutter workbook is bundled together with a comprehensive set of kitchen labels to help you truly conquer your entire kitchen! Click HERE to learn more about this bundle or download it immediately by clicking below!
The Conquer Your Kitchen Clutter workbook is a work-at-your-own-pace course designed to help you declutter and improve function in each and every area of your kitchen. If you have a significant amount of clutter in your kitchen and just feel too overwhelmed with where and how to start, my streamlined and systematic process will motivate you and keep you on task until the job is done!
I am so excited to have this first installment of the “Conquer Your Clutter” workbook series done and uploaded to The Toolbox! Keep an eye out for more decluttering manuals to hit The Toolbox this year! Tell me…which spaces do you need the most help with?
Megan
One Comment on “Conquer Your Kitchen Clutter Workbook”
Excellent! I was thinking to myself just recently that I need to do this again. I had a great deal of success in our last house with the original course before we moved. Our current house has just seven cabinets in the kitchen (SEVEN!!), four drawers and no pantry at all. I’m trying to think very “European apartment” but I’ll admit that it has been a challenge for this family of five. Another run through of the course is sure to bring more efficiency to our set up.