Decluttering kitchen

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

I'm about to start decluttering my kitchen. It's quite a mess and involves pulling stuff out to get to other stuff at the moment.

It's ok to break up a saucepan set and only keep the ones I actually use right?

How many mugs to keep?

Do you keep little used stuff (such as champagne glasses or cake forks) in the cupboards or boxed up elsewhere?

I have, one shallow drawer, two deep drawers, two cupboards under sink, one corner cupboard under worktop, extra deep drawer under oven and one cupboard over oven. One narrow top cupboard, two normal sized top cupboards. Any recommendations for what to keep where? I am happy to completely reorganise but it's hard to envisage when you are used to stuff living in a certain place.

it is indeed ok to break up a saucepan set! Sell the excess or freecycle them.

regarding mugs - do you have a dishwasher? If you run it when it is full, and still have a couple of mugs left when that happens, then you have the right number. If you find yourself running the dishwasher half-full because you are out of mugs, you need more...but I suspect that no-one ever needs more mugs!

special occasion stuff doesn't need to be in the kitchen, can go in a separate cupboard or box.

my suggestions (from moving house a lot!) - cutlery in the shallow drawer in an organiser. Pans in the deep drawers because there's nothing else you can use those drawers for. Under sink is for cleaning stuff and things that don't mind if there is a leak.

i get rid of things i don't use. so if i know i won't ever use that size of saucepan i would get rid of it. mugs i would keep on the basis that i break them and need spares to replace. if i was really short on space i would box up the things i will need one day but not on a weekly basis, eg the spare mugs.

little things don't take up much room, so i would be less likely to box those up.

special occassion glasses are in lounge unit.

I'd try and keep stuff near to where you actually use it - so for example mugs and tea bags near to kettle!

Not sure if you also need to do your food cupboard - but it is easy to go through and bin out of date food. I find it also a useful reminder as to what is in there.

Good luck.