The Kitchen Drawers

It has been a while since I updated this blog... mostly because I've felt stuck regarding my downsizing goals.  Lately, I've been thinking quite a lot about living smaller and am making some changes around the house.  Now that my daughter is married and no longer living with me, my needs have changed and I want to get back to having less stuff around in my daily life.  

I started in the kitchen by going through some drawers.  

The utensil drawer has been full to overflowing lately, so that's the drawer I started with.  First I dumped everything out on the counter.  How in the world did all this actually fit in one drawer?  

The tray was gross.  First step was to clean it and wipe down the inside and out of the drawer. 

Then I organized stuff into categories.  Who know that I had 5 different corkscrews, two wine bottle sealers and several bottle plugs/sealers.  Not to mention duplicates of several other utensils! 

Such as two sets of measuring cups, four sets of measuring spoons and three pair of scissors.  

After clearing out most of the duplicates and editing to choose only the utensils that I actually use, the drawer is much neater and so much easier to find things!  I actually wish I could keep the metal measuring spoons, but the set is missing the size that I use the most, which makes it very inconvenient, so for now, I opted for the most complete set.  I'd purchased the other set thinking I would like them better than the other two sets, but they feel awkward in my hands and so I always go back to the old tupperware ones. 

I did keep a small box of tools that I have used occasionally, usually for something specific like canning or Christmas baking. I set them aside in a small box and I will re-evaluate them in the next year.  If they don't get used, or I don't go looking for them, I'll get rid of them too. 

The next drawer up was the silverware drawer.  

This wasn't horrible... and yet it was over crowded and getting harder to find what I wanted.  

As before, I dumped it all out on the counter, washed the partitioned tray and wiped out the drawer.

All those fabric pouches are made of anti-tarnish cloth and all have bits of silver ware in them that I inherited from my Mom or have collected myself over the years.  

 It was fun to look through everything afresh and see what was there.

Lots of quirky old spoons!  My Mom used have a spoon rack in the dining room that most of these hung on. 

Some things like the lovely little silver pickle fork and olive spoon were wedding gifts to my parents. It's a joy to have some of these things and the memories that they evoke when used!

This set of flatware is my "good" stainless.  In truth, other than a few of the serving pieces, I haven't used any of this in years.  Time to go to a new home. 

After some judicious culling, the silverware drawer is much less overcrowded and so much easier to find things!  I kept the set of everyday stainless that I used daily - there are 16 place settings, so plenty for most occasions!  If you wonder why I have so many place settings, remember that I have 4 kids of my own and a foster son.  Now that they are marrying, there are usually 10 to 12 people around the table at family gatherings.  And soon, there will be grandchildren... so it makes sense to have enough for everyone!   At least it makes sense to me!  I just wish I had a few more serving pieces such as a slotted spoon and meat fork, but unfortunately, this pattern does not have any of those available.  

Next, I tackled the knife drawer.  

It too, was a jumbled mess and often worried that I'd cut myself while hunting for the knife I wanted. 

Once again, I emptied the drawer onto the counter to sort through and get things organized.  I kept my favorite knives and set aside the rest to get rid of.  A couple things got moved to or from different drawers, such as the rolling pins and grater.  

Much neater and certainly easier to find things now!  

The drawer next to the knife drawer was also a mess and turning into a catch-all for things I didn't know where else to put. 

The rolling pins and grater got moved to the knife drawer.

Now the drawer has baking bags, cake decorating items and canning tools.  

The next two drawers I organized were the drawers containing plastic bags and rolls of foil and a few other miscellaneous items. 

There was another bag of silverware here - 6 place settings of a silver-plate luncheon set that I've never used.  Time to go.  Several partial boxes of matches were consolidated and some old napkins left from other events were added to the get rid of box.  Now I can find the things I want! 

 This drawer wasn't bad, but I put the bags I used most frequently in the high, easier to access drawer.

The last drawer to deal with had a mix of stuff in it and it was getting too messy to find anything easily.

Before and after. Once again, some items like canning supplies got moved to another drawer.  Other things like seasonal/special occasion napkins that I haven't used since I moved in got put in the get-rid-of box. 

One of the things in this drawer was an assortment of cookie cutters.  I also had cookie cutters in three other spots, so I gathered them together and this is the resultant mound of cutters!  Some were mine, and some were from my Mom. 

I pared down my keep pile to these cutters that I actually use almost yearly at the appropriate season. Much more manageable, but probably still too many.  The rest went back into containers to get rid of.  

So, that was my downsizing start for today.  I still have rather full drawers, but much more manageable now.  In time, I hope to pare down still further, but for today, I've culled out about 1/3 of what was in the drawers and kept only things that I know I'll use.  It feels good and even though I can't see the difference when I walk into the kitchen, I can "feel" the difference!