Sorting Through My Kitchen

Last weekend, after finishing my shoe decluttering project I felt empowered, so I took advantage of it and decided to tackle another project the same day.

I just moved into my house last October, so I haven't had a long time to accumulate excess kitchen dishes and gadgets. However, I thought being just over the year mark in my house, I could use the 1 year test. The one year test is used to declutter anything that hadn't gotten used in the past year. I also wanted to go through my plastic food storage containers and make sure that all containers had lids and vice versa.

Here the before pictures in my cabinets:

 

This is cabinet of plastic food storage. My goal was to get this down to 2 shelves.

 

This is the cabinet over my stove and microwave. It holds the plastic and paper goods and usually the party trays (which were currently in the sink to be washed from Christmas parties). It also has some overflow cookbooks, the ones that are rarely (never) used.

 

This is the spice cabinet and it holds some cookbooks, ziploc bags and some random stuff.

 

This is the cup cabinet. I forgot to take a picture, but do you see on the green and yellow mugs on the top shelf? Those 12 mugs are now gone, effectively cutting my mug "collection" by just over 50%! I decided to part with those because I'd rather use interesting and fun mismatched mugs that represent memories and are beautiful rather than boring solid colored ones that match my dishes.

 

This is where my "everyday" dishes are. This one is not too bad even in the before picture.

 

I did one cabinet at a time. I took everything out and put it on the counter, wiped out the cabinet and then started making decisions about what stayed and what went. Here's some of what went:

 

 

 

I got rid of all of my cookbooks except the one filled with family recipes.

 

These 3 pitchers/drink containers went. I still have 2 pitchers left. The clear one with the green lid leaks. The teal one with the spout is really cool but the spout often gets bumped when in the fridge making a huge mess, so it went! The yellow lidded one went too.

 

These plastic food storage containers and bowls are gone now. I still have plenty.

 

These bake ware containers went. I bought a new 9x9 with a lid so the old one without a lid went. The mismatched bread pans went. I never bake bread so I certainly don't need 3 loaf pans, 1 is plenty. I sold the stoneware one for $10!

 

Here are the results:

 

The food storage is indeed down to 2 shelves. That large cup on the top shelf came from another room because it previously wouldn't fit in the kitchen! It may still go a some point, but for now it stays.

 

I got rid of a few bowls from this cabinet that were excess. That 9x13 carrier just moved from a different cabinet to this one.

 

The cup cabinet. Ahh! Look at that space, so zen :)

 

Over the stove cabinet. This one still looks a little cramped, but it is more organized and certainly better without the cookbooks.

 

Look at that empty shelf! On a sad note, it won't be empty for long as those party trays will be up there once they are clean. However, it is still not going to be a chore to put them away. Before I had to shove them and in and shut the cabinet quick! so nothing would fall out. I'm so glad I no longer have to do that, it was really quite embarrassing.

 

I did rearrange a few things in the lower cabinets as well, but I forgot to take pictures :(

 

I am anxious to see how this new arrangement and how the smaller quantity serves me. I think it will actually be easier to get things accomplished with less stuff in the cabinets. Time will tell. The good thing is, if I find myself really desperate for something I've decluttered at this point in my journey, it is all still available in my garage sale pile. My mom and I are collecting things to have a sale as soon as spring arrives. What doesn't sell will be donated to a local thrift shop.