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How did cleaning out your kitchen utensils and silverware drawer go? Find anything you had no idea existed? I still can’t believe how gross our utensil drawer was and I want to remember to wipe it out every once in a while so it never gets that yucky again. Now on to this week’s task!
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 7: Pots, Pans, & Baking Sheets
I really should have named this week baking pans rather than baking sheets because there are all those other types of bakeware that aren’t simply sheets. And, to be perfectly honest, I purged several of my baking sheets right after Christmas morning because Micah bought me these glorious cookie sheets that I never want to stop using. And because this challenge hadn’t started yet I did not take a picture of the gross cookie sheets I got rid of… like seriously gross. They were old hand-me-downs that had layer after layer of cooked on whatever. Probably baking spray and seasonings but still, it’s that layer of gunk that never wants to come off. We tried several hacks we found via pinterest and still that gunk persisted. So in came the new cookie sheets and out went the old.
Here’s the cupboard where the baking sheets live in and now that all the pans can nest into each other reasonably well, along with the cooling racks and pizza pans, this cupboard is so much nicer. Before getting rid of the couple old pans and upgrading to the new pans we were constantly shuffling these around to make them all fit. Now they all slide in nicely!
Other baking dishes were two glass pans with lids that honestly drive us bonkers. The lids never want to stay on. We got these a few years ago and have tried to make them work but I think the lids shrunk or something because the corners constantly pop open. So we are back to two 9×13 and two 8×8 pans which should be okay. Unless we have a week like last week when I make two pans of caramel rolls and a pan of enchiladas and we need three glass pans. But that shouldn’t happen again as long as my brain thinks ahead. Or I’ll have to put something in the smaller pans. I can deal, people. I don’t need to keep buying more!
Finally I got to the cookware. Micah and I are currently saving for NICE pots and pans. I’m talking the type that don’t have teflon coating that eventually flakes off into our food. We are looking at stainless steel and trying to figure out how many and what types. Because we want to do this but haven’t saved up the cash yet we didn’t want to get rid of all our pans yet. Once we do buy new? All the old is going away ASAP! For right now I found one to get rid of because we have two in the same size. I tossed the one that is in rougher shape. I seriously can’t wait to rid the cupboard of all of them but for now I’ll do what I can.
So here’s the shot of everything I found to add to our donation piles. One snowman baking pan (it’s super cute but only has 6 cavities for the 7 of us and is rarely, rarely used in this house), two glass baking dishes with lids, two small cooking sheets that were hiding in the cupboard, and one large sauce pan.
It’s not much but I’m finding that every little bit helps. I should really take a shot of our donation pile in the garage. It’s getting ridiculous! We are saving it all up for an event in town (hopefully) but if that doesn’t happen then it will head to a thrift store that works with local non-profit groups.
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… like my disgusting cookie sheets?
Share a picture in the comments or on social media with the hashtag #clutterbusterchallenge of what you found to declutter
Come back next week for Week 8 of the Clutter Buster Challenge when we take on our food storage containers. Too many lids or an abundance of mismatched items seems to be a common theme in this area of the kitchen. I’ve tried to keep it under control but I’m sure we can find SOMETHING to get rid of in there!
