by Texas Homesteader ~
Is your kitchen utensil drawer packed full? Is it difficult to find the utensil you’re looking for? Mine was too.
But decluttering the kitchen utensil drawer is the easiest and quickest decluttering task you can imagine! This simple step has improved the efficiency in my kitchen megafold. Come see what I do.
Decluttering Goals For Your Kitchen
Many times part of your New-Year’s Goals is to declutter areas of your home. I know many various decluttering tasks are certainly sprinkled liberally in my monthly New Year’s Goals!
One area that has been sorely needful of decluttering is my utensil drawer.
So when RancherMan & I were unloading the dishwasher one day he half-teasingly mentioned the state of the utensil drawer. I knew something had to give!
Quick & Easy Utensil Decluttering Step
Now out of financial necessity and environmental sensitivity, I’m in my kitchen cooking from scratch daily. So that much home cooking necessitates the right tools to get the job done.
(Plus let’s be honest, I’m a kitchen-utensil junkie. eh hemmmmm!)
Here’s what I did: First I took the entire contents of my utensil drawer and dumped it on the counter.
I sorted out the non-negotiable tools that I use all the time or that once belonged to my grandmother. There are actually only a few of those items:
Stainless-steel spatula
Non-scratch spatula (for my stainless-steel pans)
My grandmother’s antique wire whip
Vintage heavy-duty potato masher
Cookie scoops
Heavy stainless whisk
A few wooden utensils
Much of what was left was either a duplicate of something I had or something that was used pretty sparingly.
I dumped all of those utensils in a box and placed the box in an adjoining room.
That way if I found I needed something after all, it was right there for me to fetch it. I had to be brutal with the culling though.
Be Strong When Decluttering Items!
It was important to remove thoughts of ‘maybe someday I’ll need this‘ or ‘this utensil is too good to give away‘ when dumping utensils into the box.
But I find that’s always the case when decluttering whether the closet, your office or the kitchen. Be strong!
Now after 30 days I bundle up anything left in that box and send it off to Goodwill or perhaps offer it to someone just starting out in their own home.
Simplified Utensil Drawer
In the meantime my utensil drawer is less crowded and it’s so easy for me to find the utensil I’m looking for quickly.
Things no longer get snagged on other utensils when I’m trying to fetch them. The drawer no longer snags as I’m trying to open or close it. (ugh)
This has improved the efficiency in my kitchen mega fold!
It’s like a Snow White fairytale, as I glide around the kitchen whistling a happy tune.
Too much? OK, well at least it does get me in and out of the kitchen quicker!
I must say this has been by far my easiest decluttering move this year. And you can do it too.
Dump utensils in a box and if it doesn’t get used in 30 days, donate everything left in the box.
Give it a try!
~TxH~
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My husband and I are getting ready to sell our house so most of the kitchen has been packed up along with all of the other rooms. I left only essential kitchen tools in one drawer. I am amazed how well we are getting along without all the other stuff. I’ve got a feeling that when we get to our new home there will be a large donate pile (and I did purge and donate before packing this time!). I haven’t missed much of anything that did get packed up. I do miss some of my shoes though – it will be like Christmas when I unpack those!
Well, I do live in Oregon, one of the greatest places I can imagine
Seriously, I was just reading about the permafrost thaw in the way far north (increased carbon release) and it gave me pause to wonder what kind of environmental impact the process of making glass is having. It seems like there is no end to scarry stuff. Of course the creatures (mastodons down to bacteria) buried there once freely roamed the earth, who knows when the current population of earth may be impacted by some incredible cataclysm. We just have to keep doing the best we can, love life and other people and let it go at that. candace
All the more reason to use whatcha got instead of trashing the glass jars & buying something new to fill that need. Good for you for doing your part to be gentle on the earth!! ~TxH~
Hey Candace, Funny you should mention that about climate change. I just started a book called, “The Little Ice Age” I literally just started about 1/2 an hour ago. But it’s non fiction and about climate changes in the past. Tammy did you ever get the, “Year of Plenty” book? I’ve been reading quite a bit so Kaleigh sees me reading and maybe it’ll give her incentive to read. I just finished one about the Triangle Shirt Waist factory fire.
Yes ma’am Nancy, I bought ‘Year of Plenty’. I’ve read a couple of chapters but down-time to read is hard to come by. So far, I really like it! ~TxH~
Many years ago I went through cupboards and drawers in the kitchen looking at things I had collected over the years to see what could do two jobs so as to get rid of (read a box in the basement). I asked myself what could do two jobs and eliminate something, a biscuit cutter could go because a drinking glass will do the job just as well and heaven knows I have plenty of those. Same with things I inherited when my mother died – so I have a blender in the basement and a hand mixer and so on. I actually would never need two blenders but one might “die” and so I have a spare and a big basement. But my bigger problem is being a hoarder of glass jars, not just canning jars (many of which I have now given to the friend up the road and the daughter of another friend just starting out canning as I have recently decided my canning career is at a close. But those Adams peanut butter jars – glass – metal lid- useful for storing small amounts of dry goods – now I ask you!!! Who could throw those out?!! They may be plastic the next time I’m at the grocery store!!!
Glass peanut butter jars, Candace? #jealous! All our peanut butter jars are plastic. But I still use them heavily in my freezer such as homemade broth, chili, pintos, etc. Although I know broad-shouldered glass jars are safe in the freezer, I’m very hesitant to freeze in glass since our freezer is a chest freezer. One wrong ‘clink’ could spell disaster. But I’m super fond of wide-mouth glass jars for other purposes. My family saves squatty wide-mouth queso jars for me and they’re helpful for storing leftovers in the fridge or dehydrated goods in the pantry. ~TxH~