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How did cleaning out spices and baking ingredients go last week? It was great hearing from several of you! Several were quite surprised at what they found and didn’t know where the items even came from. I totally get it! I swear that items breed when we aren’t paying attention to create new clutter in our lives. Hands down, it’s the truth. Or we just forget when we buy stuff and where we stick it all. Maybe that’s it.
Ready for this week?
If you are just joining us, here’s the deal:
I still had this mindset of decluttering being a big ol’ chore up until a few months ago when I read this fantastic post from Nony at A Slob Comes Clean. It was like a huge light went off in my brain! Decluttering is simply the act of getting rid of what doesn’t belong, isn’t needed, or belongs in the trash. It doesn’t mean buying a whole slew of new bins for your things to go in or coming up with some type of system that you hope will change your life – that’s organizing. It’s a whole different ball game. Right now, I’m in the game of decluttering. I just want things GONE.
When there’s less stuff, especially less of what has no purpose in your home anymore, organizing can often happen naturally. You won’t be cramming thirty towels into the closet because you only need ten and they fit nicely. You don’t need to dig through a tub of medicines to find what you need only to keep coming across bottles that are long since expired.
Here’s my challenge: Each week, take on ONE area of your home. I’ve already made the list for you so that part is done. Go to the area, throw away trash, put items that you no longer need but are still in good condition into a donation box, and put other items where they belong. Simple!
Week 6: Kitchen Utensils and Silverware
We bought this house about two and a half years ago and it wasn’t until after our offer had already been accepted that I realized something was very seriously wrong with our kitchen. It only has two drawers! And really, one of those drawers technically belongs to the built in desk so that left us with ONE drawer for the whole kitchen. Um, what?
We TRIED to have the silverware in the actual kitchen drawer and putting all the utensils in a bin on the counter but that simply didn’t work. Yeah, we probably have a few too many utensils (doesn’t everyone need four or eight spatulas?) but even if we went down to one of each type it was still too much for the counter.
We weren’t using the desk as a desk so we moved the silverware to the desk drawer, which is conveniently right by the table, and put most of the utensils in the real drawer. The big cumbersome items like ladels, spatulas, and serving spoons stay in the utensil caddy and the flatter items like rubber spatulas, pizza cutters, mini whisks, and scissors stay in the drawer. We are making it work.
But over the years I know our collection has grown too large. As I’ve learned what types of items I like and don’t like I’ve received many utensils for gifts. We also like having several of certain items so we aren’t constantly handwashing one or two over and over to be able to use them each day.
I pulled everything out of the drawer and sorted it first. Goodness.
Then I looked at the drawer. Yuck. Seriously. We pulled things right out this drawer to use in food. Blech. Now I know better.
I narrowed down my choices and found these utensils to get rid of this week.
I also found all these markers and pens in the drawer. I like keeping one or two in there for writing on freezer containers but I don’t need this many. They went back to the drawer in the basement where they belong.
Next I moved on to the silverware drawer. I didn’t find too much extra to purge in here. I know in another few years we will need to get rid of all the IKEA silverware for the kids and invest in a larger set of real silverware but for now this is working. I do want to find a better insert because this thing is not meant for this drawer. Eventually it will happen…
All I found to get rid of in this drawer were chopstick wrappers and corn on the cob holders. What good are two holders for seven people? And these kind ALWAYS break on us. I swear we had at least six when we moved in. I’ll have to be on the hunt for quality corn holders this year.
What did you find to get rid of this week? Did you discover any items that showed up mysteriously? Any items you question why they have survived in your home so long?
Share a pictureor on social media with the hashtag #clutterbusterchallenge of what you found to declutter
Come back next week for week 7 of the Clutter Buster Challenge when we take on our pots, pans, and baking sheets! I have been meaning to go through these for quite some time. See you then!
