How to Declutter Under the Kitchen Sink: Spring Tidying Challenge Day

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It's day 2 of neatntiny.com's 30-Day Spring Tidying Challenge! If you're just tuning in, check out the link above for how it works and the link below for what you may have missed, so far:

- Day 1: Kitchen Counters

Today we're decluttering under the kitchen sink!

I know...it's hard to get excited about this. But, it doesn't take long, and you'd be surprised how satisfying it is to organize a 3' x 3' cube!

If you haven't already, please subscribe for a free, printable 30-Day Spring Tidying Challenge schedule:

Here are my tips for organizing under the kitchen sink:

1. Clear everything from beneath the kitchen sink.

2. Clean the inside of the cabinets with your favorite all-purpose cleaner.

3. Decide what items you need/want to keep under here. This will differ for each household and depends on how much other kitchen storage you have.

Things we keep under the kitchen sink include: the fire extinguisher, dish soap, dishwashing detergent, rags, sponges, cleaning supplies for the kitchen, paper towels, and the compost bin.

Just because there's room, doesn't mean you have to fill it up! We store only supplies meant for use in the kitchen under here, since we have a larger supply closet in the nearby mudroom. Not filling this cabinet to capacity will make it easier to see and access what you need.

Our compost bin hangs on the cabinet door right below the sink: this saves space on the cabinet floor and it's handy for scraping off dishes before rinsing. It's also convenient having the garbage and recycling bins in the adjacent pull-out drawer. It's like a one-stop dump!

Shop This Idea

Under Sink Organizer ($22.87, Amazon.com).

Mounted Pull-Out Container ($37.71, Amazon.com). We got ours at IKEA, but it's not listed on IKEA.com anymore.

Mountable Compost Bin ($25.99, Amazon.com).

Some Tips for Organizing Under the Sink:

- Add vertical storage with under-sink shelves or a mounted pull-out drawer.

- Consider whether it makes sense to keep the garbage or compost bin under the sink; doing so limits what else can be stored here. Would you want your food anywhere near the compost?

4. Divide the things that were under the kitchen sink into four boxes/bins:

i) belongs under the kitchen sink (i.e. kitchen cleaning supplies, dish soap, compost/garbage/recycling bins, etc.)

ii) belongs elsewhere in the kitchen or elsewhere in the home

iii) fit to donate or sell used

iv) garbage/recycling

5. Return only the items that are designated under-sink dwellers back under there and organize neatly.

Resist the temptation to overstuff! Because this cabinet's like an endless pit, it can easily become a dumping ground for kitchen odds-and-ends. Anything stored behind more than one or two other things is essentially out-of-sight and out of mind----you may as well not have it at all!

6. Redistribute the items that belong elsewhere in the kitchen to their appropriate drawers/cabinets; redistribute the items that belong elsewhere in the house.

7. Donate. Take the boxes designated as 'to sell/donate' and put them somewhere out-of-sight, but accessible (i.e. mudroom or basement). You'll continue to add to these each day for the rest of the month, with the casualties of each day's tidying task. At the end of the month, you can make a trip (or several) to your local donation bank and/or go on an online selling spree.

8. Dispose of and/or recycle items from the designated garbage/recycling bins.