Are you all ready to rock’n roll?  I was so delighted to hear from so many of you who voiced enthusiasm about joining the Order Matters’ 2012 Organizing Boot Camp.  We will start our program by organizing the heart of a home, the kitchen.  Needless to say, the majority of us spend a tremendous amount of time in our kitchens.  Whether it is for cooking, eating, entertaining, socializing, or doing school work, order in the kitchen is not only critical to our ability to be efficient and effective in the space, but also to our enjoyment at being there.  Our goal this week is to tackle kitchen problem areas and to complete a tune-up throughout this valuable space.

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TOOLS: a notebook and pen, measuring tape, supply of garbage bags, a few large bins/large boxes that can be used for items that might need to be donated/stored…etc., and cleaning supplies.

WORKING REQUIREMENTS: You have a minimum of one week to complete this project.  I recommend that you schedule yourself to dedicate at least 90 minutes each day this week towards your boot camp responsibilities.

WORKING CONDITIONS: Ensure that you have available counter space to spread out, if needed, that your sink is clear of dirty dishes, and that your dishwasher is available.

STAGE 1: Prep work

- Think about your kitchen and its problem areas.  The problems will be apparent.  They will immediately come to mind because they tend to bother you or resurface in your mind frequently. An overcrowded cabinet, a junk drawer, a mountain of tupperware that seems to avalanche on you every time you look for a container for a lunch, purchasing a bag of sugar and later finding that hidden behind the chaos in your pantry you had plenty of of sugar already…Whatever they may be, make a list of big and small organizing issues in your kitchen.  Rate them in complexity from easiest to what might be the most challenging or time-consuming problem to address.

- Rationalize.  Determine why you want to organize these areas and what organization will enable you to do or feel.

- Mentally and, if needed, on paper, break up your kitchen into zones: food preparation, cooking, cleaning/utility area, and food storage.  Depending on the size of your kitchen and its functions, the following zones might also apply to your situation: food serving (if you have a breakfast nook or kitchen table), entertaining (where you store items relevant to special occasions, general entertaining, and holidays), garbage/recycling,  homework/craft activity, and command centre areas (a place for making phone calls, paying bills, maintaining family calendar…etc).  Consider the flow of your usual activities in the kitchen and the current layout of the kitchen contents.  Is there anything that is out of whack?  I am not encouraging you to seek out problems, simply consider possibilities for improvement.   However, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

STAGE 2: It is time to do the hard work

Start with the simplest issue you have identified. 

• Empty out the contents of the area and wipe it clean.
• Sort items into categories.  Sorting often goes hand in hand with the next step…
• If the going gets tough, remind yourself why you are organizing!
  
• Purge!  I urge you to be ruthless.  Eliminate broken, unused, duplicate, and unloved items.  Tell yourself you are making room for an improved, efficient, and effective kitchen (and self).  Using the tools you prepared earlier, discard the garbage, identify items you can donate, move into other areas of your home, or store away.  This might be the most challenging and equally integral step of organizing.  Some of you have mentioned that you plan to move soon.   Shed the clutter now! Do not move it with you to you next home.  More on moving here.
• Assign a home.  Here is where you should ask yourself again whether the previous home was the best possible place for the item.  If the answer is still yes, then don’t change anything.
• Do you need to containerize?  It is not a must.  However, containers can help you keep things sorted and separated, in clear view, and prevent overflow. If you have determined that you want to proceed on the containerizing path, think of what you already have in your home that might fit the bill.  If you do not already have something appropriate, I want you to make a note in your notebook of the type of and measurements for the containers you require (length, width, and do not forget depth).

STAGE 3: Do more of the same

 - Repeat the above steps until you have gone through your list of problem areas.

STAGE 4: Tune-up

- Review the rest of your kitchen and apply steps from stage 2 wherever applicable.

STAGE 5: Containerize & label

- At this point, you might have a list of containers you require as a result of the steps you have performed above.  Go ahead and find containers appropriate for your needs. Label, as it might be helpful to you and other members of your household.

STAGE 6: Maintenance

• Give a tour of the organized kitchen to your partner, children, and others in your life and kitchen.  Educate them of the various kitchen zones and specific changes you might have made.  Stress that it is important to you that this order be maintained.
• Establish routines to maintain the order you worked hard to create.
• Clean up after meal prep.  Never go to sleep with a dirty kitchen!
• Tackle organizing challenges as they arise following the steps in stage 2.

Let’s call this Phase 1 of Kitchen Boot Camp as on Wednesday, we will speak specifically about pantries and refrigerators.

So…what are the problem areas you will work on this week and why?

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