I Tried the “House-Hushing” Method in My Kitchen Cabinets, and Cleared Out 9 Years’ Worth of Stuff in Minutes
How many times have you come across an item in the house (especially the kitchen) and thought, “Gosh. I didn’t know we had that!” If you have, you’re certainly not alone. In fact, there’s an entire “didn’t know” decluttering method for this very reason, and it’s a practical way to help you part with items you’d otherwise keep (cue “just in case” thinking). And that’s not the only helpful rule for decluttering your kitchen.
“House-hushing,” similar to “didn’t know” decluttering, has garnered lots of attention on social media, and for good reason. The principle of the decluttering method, created by The Nester, is simple: Clutter creates noise, and noise disrupts the quiet harmony of a space that is practical and organized. It taps into that cathartic feeling you enjoy when purging the unnecessary and paring back to the minimal (like a nice closet wardrobe edit, or a garage detox).
“Hushing the House” — also known as “House-Hushing” or “Quieting the House” — involves relocating all the items in a room to a staging area so that you can let the space breathe (and get a deep-cleaning) before moving specific things back in with intention. Here’s how my first attempt at hushing went.
What Happened When I “House-Hushed” My Kitchen Cabinets
No matter how often I try to rearrange these items (and to teach the resident teenagers how to keep the system), it’s never worked. Opening these cabinets always grinded my gears — nothing ever stacked the way it was supposed to be, oftentimes just shoved in wherever there was room (not the safest option either, lest a glass dish or lid came tumbling out unexpectedly. And yikes! Upon closer inspection, I realized how badly the shelves and interior cabinets needed a good deep clean, too.
After hauling everything out, I couldn’t get to my cleaning supplies fast enough. I set to work, vigorously scrubbing away stains that have been there since who knows when (no judgment, right?). After not too long, it now looked good as new and smelled great, too, motivating me for the next task: to cull down from the mountain of stuff that had been crammed in there just moments before.
An old pink pitcher from Dollar Tree was the first thing to go, followed by a glass top with no matching casserole dish. Then, a stack of eight round placemats I haven’t used in years (and that gave me a splinter when trying to maneuver around them!). As for my trusty Silpat mat and the rarely used rolling pin, I did what I should have done years ago and moved them to the cookie-cutter drawer.
This all prompted further “Hush the House” inspiration, leading me to get rid of four cereal storage containers that were no longer in use at the top of my pantry. That extra space made the perfect home for my giant wok, with enough room to spare for other items from the cabinet I’m decluttering. I also made space for three Pyrex casserole dish tops that now fit perfectly in the cutting board organizer, already located in an easy access part of the kitchen cabinetry.
With so much open space, I carefully considered the decluttered items’ rank of most to least used items, and arranged them accordingly. The roasting pan went on the top left, a perfect surface upon which to stack the seldom-used muffin tins. The slow cooker, on the other hand, is one of the most heavily used in our kitchen — so it only made sense to keep it front and center on the bottom left.
To the right, I stacked inverted Corningware casserole tops into each matching dish, then placed them on top of each other. The extra one now sits in front, perfect for weeknight meal prep (I only use all four on major holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas — and sometimes Easter). That made enough room for the blender and its base to fit behind it. I’m big on breakfast smoothies, so it was important to me to have this handy, without having to kneel, peer, and hunt every time I need to blend something.
The bottom right is now blissfully noise-free, with only a few Pyrex pie plates in it. And I could not be happier! I never thought I’d see my cabinets look this way again (or ever!). Now for the real test: Will two teenagers and a husband remember the method to my madness, and keep it this way? Here’s hoping the “House-Hushing” method turns them all into believers, too!
Would you try the “Hushing the House” decluttering rule? Let us know in the comments below!
This post originally ran on The Kitchn. See it there: I Tried the “Hushing the House” Method on My Kitchen Cabinets and Now Want to Use It to Declutter Every Room
Further Reading
We Tested (and Rated!) All the Sofas at Pottery Barn — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need
See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room
