At the start of September, I set two lofty goals: slice my grocery budget to $200 and declutter my kitchen. Of the two, decluttering the kitchen has unexpectedly become the bigger burden. I’m not a gourmet chef; I don’t host epic dinner parties on a regular basis. It’s not like I was trying to part with my shoes or something. So how hard could it be, right? It turns out, it’s been far more challenging than I expected. Though I am still in the midst of making a final pass through my kitchen, here’s my vote for ten items that any kitchen can do without.
- Junk mail. Don’t even bring it inside. Ever. I now sort my mail right over the recycle bin in the garage.
- Hardboiled egg slicer. Really, any gadget that takes more time to clean than use should go.
- Mugs. A set of coffee mugs to go with your dishes is fine. Maybe you have a favorite souvenir. Ditch the rest.
- Unwanted food items. Any items that are continually passed over should either be purposefully used up or donated.
- Office supplies. How many pens, scissors, or sticky notes do you really need?
- Storage containers. If you have more storage containers than your refrigerator can hold, it’s time to bid adieu to a few of them.
- Candles. Keep one or two, but consider donating, selling, or regifting the others.
- Special occasion anything. If you host high tea every weekend, I suppose you could make the case for a set of china tea cups. Otherwise, I’m not buying it.
- Outdated items. If something has expired, check this list to see if it’s safe to eat. Otherwise, toss it. This applies to expired coupons, as well.
- Anything else you have not used in the past month.
Now that I have identified much of what needs to be edited out of my kitchen, I am sorting items into three categories: trash/recycle, donate, or sell/consign. Though I haven’t completed a final count, I do know that I have already used up or removed far more items than I thought I owned. The clock’s ticking, so back to decluttering I go.
*Unless you live in a magical land that accepts expired coupons. If that’s the case, I’d like to become your neighbor.
So Tell Me…What else would you add to this list? What are the must-have items for you in your kitchen?
“Really, any gadget that takes more time to clean than use should go.”
Oh my god I need to get rid of my food processor. (Especially since I’ve used it so rarely that it might as well not even exist. I still grate carrots by hand and everything for exactly this reason. Also, the arm workout.)
Now that’s multitasking that I can get behind 🙂
Agree with Des that the cleaning rule is a great one… But I put the egg slicer and food processor parts in the dishwasher and spend no time cleaning them! 😉 Good reminder that there’s no set list of things we should own, but we should each find what works for us and get rid of the rest.
That’s definitely true. Whatever works. I think the last tip really helped me the most – if I haven’t used it in the past month, out it goes. The same is true for food! I was shocked at how many food items like soup and such that we pass over, considering we don’t even have a pantry – just cabinets.
We just recently had to deal with this since we just moved last month. We got rid of a ton of plastic cups and kids’ cups that we no longer use. We also finally threw out all the mis-matched glassware. One nice set of glasses from HomeGoods is really all you need.
Yes! When we got married, everyone was so puzzled why we only wanted one set of glasses, one set of dishes, and so on. I’m so glad we stuck to our guns, because if my kitchen felt cluttered without that stuff, I can only imagine. Cheers to HomeGoods! 🙂
Great list. As we finish up the kitchen, I’ll be deciding on what will re-enter and what will be given away/sold/trashed. I’m actually kind of looking forward to it. Although we do not have an egg slicer, I’m sure there are plenty of other items we have that we never/rarely use that can go. Such as coffee mugs. We too have too many of these because somehow they always seem to be free or gifted to us. Those will be the first to go.
As for the junk mail, while our kitchen doesn’t suffer from paper/letter pileups, our office certainly does. Great idea of sorting right over the recycle bin! I’m going to give that a try.
Oh, and one more thing. I have been told that coupons do not expire in the state of MT. And there is a house down the street up for sale…just saying 😉
I love this. We had a slicer/corer for every imaginable type of fruit: apple, mango, pineapple, etc. Those are all gone and we can still eat fruit. Go figure. And now our drawers close!