Kitchen Tidy

In my efforts to move towards a more minimalistic life, I moved on to the kitchen to try and reduce my possessions by 50%.  Kitchens seem to attract extras of everything, – plates, mugs, saucepans, glasses – and I am not sure why.  I think it is because all kitchen things are basically useful, they can be used for preparing, cooking and eating food and so you can feel that you have to keep them.  So it comes under the category of ‘might be useful at some unspecified time in the future’.  

I have quite a lot of crockery, flan dishes and salad bowls because I did some entertaining for fifty or so people in the past.  However, this is unlikely to happen again.  If I found I had to entertain for large numbers in the future I think I could probably borrow some dishes from friends if I really needed them.  I also inherited a lot from my mother, incomplete dinner and tea sets with, for example, 2 cups and five saucers. I have decided that I no longer want to keep things that I may use once in a blue moon. 

So I went through my cupboards and removed doubles of everything.  I decided to donate (or sell, if lucky) the things I didn’t keep, unless they were very worn.

Crockery – I decided not to keep the incomplete dinner and tea sets.  I also looked at my everyday china of which I had two sets plus odd plates, bowls and cups.  All odd ones and doubles went. The same goes for glasses, a lot of specific glasses such as for sherry I never use, so I decided they could go too.

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Saucepans and frying pans – the same goes for these, although I still have too many at the end of the day.  I had two colanders, I am not really sure why, so out one goes.

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Cutlery – I decided not to keep three sets of cutlery and did not keep one stainless steel set.

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Cooking utensils – these were divided into metal and wooden and as you can see I reduced them by more than half I think.

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I also went through baking sheets and tins and did not keep any non-stick ones that were worn or scratched. However, I don’t keep great stocks of food and I regularly check dates on items such as herbs and spices, so I don’t really need to go through them.

At the end I feel my kitchen is much lighter and airier and I can get what I need out of my cupboards and drawers much quicker than before. I can also keep my surfaces clear. I am not a fan of having a lot of equipment out on the counter tops as I feel that this gives a very cluttered look to the kitchen and also they get very dusty if they are not used frequently.

I still have more to do decluttering the kitchen but on the whole I am quite pleased with the outcome.