If you are struggling to come up with something great for your mom with Mother's Day coming up, I've got a great idea!
Of course, flowers and a lovely dinner are always welcome, but here is something you can add.
Book a weekend to help your mom declutter and organize her kitchen.
Make plans to do it together with her. Think of it as gifting your mom with your time. Because decluttering is something quite personal, you need your mom’s presence as well as your own for this project. To quote the lovely decluttering queen Marie Kondo, no one knows what “sparks joy” for your mom beside her. What she wants to keep and what she wants to discard are decisions only she can make.
Let's make it more fun for her to work in the kitchen. Make more space. Make it hassle-free to get pots and pans out. Ensure she doesn't have to climb on chairs or ladders to reach things. I would say keep the top shelves empty.
Also, get the nice cutlery and wine glasses out of the “just for special occasions” cabinet and encourage her to use them every day. Using your “fancy dishes” daily helps to think about every day as unique.
Your mom should feel good when she's in the kitchen and enjoy cooking and spending time there, which will mean having it organized and making it easy to find the tools that she needs right when she needs them.
Categorize your kitchen items like Marie Kondo and according to the KonMari Method.
To work through the kitchen and all its items, start with categorizing them into these groups:
- Food
- Eating tools
- Cooking tools
Put all items in one category in one place, such as on the kitchen table, where you have a good overview. It's important to pull everything out of the cupboards and off of the shelves.
Food
Let's say you start with the food category. Take everything out from the fridge and from the cupboard that stores dry foods, cans, spices, etc. Put it all on the kitchen table and go through every item one by one.
Check expiry dates and foods that haven't been touched and probably never will be.
And what you don't want to keep, give away.
Cooking tools & Eating tools
Choose only the ones that "spark joy," the ones that you really love and find beautiful or that you need for practical and essential reasons.
Find a home – a specific place – for every item and store them by category.
Your mom should be able to see and easily access everything stored. The pots and the pans should be easy to take out and use and put back again every day. The same is true for the mixer, the salad bowl, the toaster, etc. In order to be able to easily access everything, you probably need to discard a few items.
So, check how many bowls there are. Does she need so many? Go through all the items one by one and help your mom to be quite firm in the decision-making process.
Do we really need hundreds – ok exaggerated, but you know what I mean - of the same item? No, they just take up space, and we tend to only use the ones on top of the pile while the ones on the bottom or behind, way in the back, are forgotten.
Try to catch yourself when your mind is saying: it might just come in handy sometimes. The reality is that it probably never will.
Be grateful for every item that has served its purpose, and show your mom how she can say thank you to every item she decides to discard.
Also, remind her that these items can continue to make someone else happy since you can donate many things. The bowl your mom decided to donate will make someone else happy instead of being tucked in and forgotten in a cupboard.
Don't forget this part. The gratitude step is very helpful, even if it can feel a bit silly to begin with. It makes you feel good and erases bad conscience while “getting rid” of things.
Kondo says; if you want a kitchen that you can enjoy cooking in, which we all want, aim for one that's easy to clean.
Enjoying everyday time
As I mentioned above, encourage your mom to start using the “just for special occasions” cutlery, glasses, tablecloths, etc. There doesn't need to be guests in the house for the nice things to come out.
Your mom and dad are remarkable on their own, so help them begin to set an elegant table for two!
Happy Mother's Day! Love you mom!
