today: the kitchen

I've been reading this book by Peter Walsh called Does this Clutter Make my Butt Look Fat? and it's fantastic. It's a weight loss book - sort of. His approach is very different. He talks a lot about organizing your kitchen and your life, and taking control of your menu and what you want to eat. He doesn't give recipe ideas, tell you what to eat and what not to, or map out a workout routine. It's more about organizing your kitchen and making it the kitchen you want it to be, and organizing your life. I may not be describing it that well. Click on the link to check it out.

In chapter 5, he talks about the kitchen. He highly suggests organizing it in a big way and more importantly, decluttering. The first step is to quickly go through your cupboards and do an initial purge. Get rid of anything you don't actually use - goofy gizmos, anything you bought off TV after 8pm, anything you haven't used in the last year. If pieces are missing or something doesn't work properly, get rid of it. If you're only keeping it because Aunt Mabel gave it to you, it's gone. Next is more of a spring cleaning - haul everything out, clean the cupboards, get rid of some more, and then reorganize everything back into your cupboards with purpose.

I'm totally doing this today. I should read this kind of stuff more often. I'll let you know how it goes.

I really want to get his other book - It's All Too Much: An Easy Guide for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff. In it, he goes room by room and talks about the purpose of each room and what you want from it. He touched on it in the book I'm reading and I'd really love to find that one too. Maybe this winter will be my purge/redecorate/actually hang some pictures winter.