Oh, dishes. Yet another task that is daunting and never-ending. As a stay-at-home mom, I feel like I am constantly in the kitchen, either cooking or cleaning up from a meal. We eat all of our meals at home, except for the occasional lunch or dinner out. This makes for a lot of dishes! Just after breakfast alone, I can have 5 bowls, 5 spoons, 5 cups, 2 mugs and the occasional pot or plates. This is on top of the fact that sometimes all the dishes from dinner didn’t get done the night before! What a start to the morning, huh?
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But how can I get rid of dishes? Don’t I need all the things in my kitchen?” What I have to say is that no, you probably don’t need ALL of the things in your kitchen. It’s time to think outside the box a little and see what you actually need in there!
I started by getting rid of all of the little knick knacky things in my kitchen. Little decorations that I had to move every time I cleaned. Then I went through and took out all the things I didn’t use. There was more than I thought!
Next, I went through and looked at all the things that were single use (i.e. a quesadilla maker) and realized that I could, in fact, make a quesadilla in a pan or on the griddle. You have to think if you can combine uses for things or if the single use kitchen appliance or tool is actually serving your family. We had a waffle maker that we used occasionally, but my family always preferred pancakes to waffles, so I donated the waffle maker and nobody has missed it at all! I’m happier too, because making waffles was not something I enjoyed! Baby food makers fall under this category as well. You do not need a special baby blender/steamer to make baby food! I got rid of my food processor and now just use my Blendtec blender for everything. We don’t eat cheese, so I don’t need a grater specifically. If something needs grated I use my mandolin on the julienne setting. The list could go on and on about single use items in the kitchen! Try your best to realize what you use for only one specific task and think about a way to use a multi use item to complete the same task.
Duplicates are something that pop up in kitchens a lot, especially after you get married! When I got to decluttering the kitchen, I found duplicates of spatulas, slotted spoons, ladles and even a crock pot! Do you have multiple pots and pans of the same size? What about pitchers, mixing bowls, kids cups, coffee makers, tupperware, etc.?
Now comes the time to trim down on the dishes. Start with your children’s dishes. I got rid of all the mis-matched child specific dishes in my kitchen; save three kid plates, some bowls and a set of silverware for each of them. Having all matching kids dishes makes it so much easier to store! They drink out of our cups (which are just mason jars). I won’t lie, I was nervous at first because kids using glass, yikes. I thought for sure we’d lose a cup or two in the transition. But, it has ended up going pretty well! Each kid also has one snack box (we use these), the boys each have a Yumbox for school, and they have water bottles. Everything fits in one small cupboard in the kitchen and it’s lovely.
As for your dishes, keep only as many as you need to eat off everyday plus extra for guests. This was easy for us as we already had a modest dish collection. Our dishes consist of 8 large dinner plates, 8 medium dinner plates, 6 dessert plates, 9 bowls and 5 small bowls. For cups, we use mason jars which also double as storage containers for food! John also enjoys having nice cups for beer and cocktails, so we have 2 shelves for those. If ever they won’t fit, we know it is time to get rid of some to make way for the new. I enjoy coffee mugs so we have a nice collection of those as well. Here is where I say, if something in your kitchen brings you joy, don’t feel like you have to get rid of it in the name of minimalism. I don’t have any interest in paring down my mug collection because I enjoy picking out which mug I’m going to drink my coffee from every morning. They all have a special story or meaning or I just think they are beautiful! Please take this into consideration before getting rid of stuff! I don’t want you to be sad later on because you felt like you had to give up your favorite mug!
We go through a lot of silverware every day so for this I say keep as much as comfortably fits into your silverware tray. Try to see how much silverware you are using each day or try living with less for just a while before getting rid of the extra. When I did this, I found that I was having to wash silverware between each meal and it wasn’t serving us well.
When it comes to serving utensils, you need less than you think. We have one crock on the counter that holds the majority of our serving utensils (except for the smaller ones that came with our silverware, which live in the silverware drawer) We have one ladle, two spatulas, 2 wooden spoons, a whisk, a pasta spoon, tongs, a basting brush and 3 rubber scrapers.
It can be tempting to keep around extra measuring cups and spoons. I used to have 3 sets in my drawer because I didn’t want to have to wash them between meals but they weren’t fitting very well in the drawer. I had to rearrange them each time I put them away like a puzzle to make the drawer close. Each set had at least one cup/spoon missing. I finally got rid of all of them and bought a new set of cups and spoons, just one, to keep in the drawer. I realized it wasn’t much work at all to rinse or wash them between meals.
Cookbooks were one of the last things I got rid of in my kitchen. I honestly never used them because I find the majority of my recipes online (thanks, Pinterest!). If there was a recipe I used frequently in a sea of unused recipes, I took a picture of it then donated the book. We do have a few cookbooks still with a lot of great recipes in them that we decided to keep, but no longer a whole cupboard!
Now, with all of your newfound cabinet space, you can start to clear off your counter! You would be amazed at the feeling you get when your counters are cleared off. We now store our toaster and Kitchen Aid mixer in cabinets. I thought I would be annoyed by having to get them out each time I wanted to use them, but I haven’t really noticed a difference because it takes 2 seconds to get them out and set them up.
On our counters we keep a coffee maker, espresso machine, blender, beer bottle opener, bowl of essential oils and a diffuser. It’s still more than I’d like to keep on the counters, but our cabinets aren’t terribly functional and I have trouble finding spots for the rest of the things!
Tell me the one thing you wouldn’t get rid of in your kitchen. What about the things you think you could do without? Let me know!!!
