Friday Declutter Challenge - utensil drawer!

Grrr I don't want to declutter my utensil drawer. I definitely wanted it decluttered, but the idea in the passive tense is more appealing than when it is written in the first person. Never mind, organising queen at http://organisingtips.blogspot.com/ says I must, which is very reassuring. As it sounds like we might be moving house within the next couple of months, gradual decluttering is definitely necessary, and there was waayy too much stuff in the utensil drawer. (The challenge was also for the cutlery drawer, but mine just needs a quick wipe out which I'll do later when I wash up. I had a more pressing drawer today!)

That is because it used to be shared between two drawers, one for everyday utensils like wooden spoon, knives and potato masher etc, and the other for baking stuff like spatulas, sugar thermometer (that I've rarely used but love!) etc. I emptied out the overflowing drawer and decided that it was maybe time to revert to that system. But now the 2nd drawer was overflowing with jars of herbs and spices spilling everywhere.

So I sorted those out too. Baking ingredients like baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, arrowroot (what is that?), cream of tartar (same question!) and jelly diamonds went into the baking cupboard, as did some stray bottles of food colouring and flavouring. Some very lovely spices I was given for Xmas in pretty pots that don't actually do up properly - well, I don't use them, and the pots don't work, so I'm afraid they're in the bin. Some open packets of spices went into a tupperware thing where they can hopefully keep a bit longer, and not spill everywhere. My fave spices are in marmite jars which now take up a lot less space, so I can fit some baking stuff back in.

And the rest of the utensils fit a lot better in the other drawer. I chucked out quite a few bits, including defunct oven lighter, broken jacket potato skewers (normal skewers are fine), a cheap, blunt knife, a barbecue thing that is huge and a give-away gadget that makes lovely carrot curls, but it utterly superfluous. The rolling pin is relegated to the pan cupboard because it only fitted in diagonally, which had been bugging me so much. And I was a good girl and made sure to use the opportunity to clean those drawers right out, and then used some bits of double sided tape to stick my chopped up table cloth drawer liners in - hopefully they won't get all bunched up now.

It's gonna take a while for me to get used to the new arrangement. But it feels good. Absolutely knackered now as the midwife came this morning and I had to sit on wooden chair for ages filling in forms, my back is really hurting. Also up with poorly D again last night, though he is a lot better and I got more sleep than the night before. Did manage to bake some cookies though, hurrah!

bye bye nasty old plastic plates

I found a cool website which sets little decluttering challenges. I'm gonna try and join in with the china cupboard one.

Here is my china cupboard before - it isn't the worst cupboard in the kitchen by far, probably because we use it a lot, but there's some unnecessary stuff in there:

Why are there so many of those horrible plastic plates? Why one egg cup on each shelf? Do we need all those odd plates and bowls toppling around up top there? Do we have to keep those nasty charity shop plates we bought when we first moved out?

Here is the cupboard after I took out some crud. I like the fact most things on the bottom shelf are the same colour. Unfortunately Ben said we do need 10 dinner plates occasionally, and he is right. So nasty ones stay for now. As do quite a lot of plastic things, for sentimental reasons. I found a nice china bunny bowl which Dan can use for brekker, and he has a matching bunny mug which is nice for milk or hot chocolate. And all the egg cups are together again. I've decided it is necessary to have 4 types of bowl. I have:
4 pasta bowls
4 cereal bowls (+bunny bowl)
6 glass bowls which look pretty with desserts in
4 earthenware type pot things, nice for mousse, servings of dips/hummus etc, and one day I might try souffle or creme brulee in them.
Had to keep quite a lot of the random plates because they were my great nannas and I love them.
The glass cupboard is something I have been meaning to attend to for a while. I like my colourful glasses but they rarely all fitted in. Just got rid of some nasty free coke glasses and some plastic cups (one child does not necessitate 17 plastic cups). Might look out for a set of matching, unbreakable, non-plastic mugs for children with handles. Do these exist? Realised none of our mugs match either but never mind. Some don't have handles but are well loved nonetheless.

Well, that feels a bit better anyway. Will give some liberated plastic stuff to neighbours kids and the rest is probably best off in the bin really. Bye bye nasty old stuff.