Purging Kitchen Utensil Drawer

Utensils before

So I was browsing my posts this morning, and had a thought about my Making Space! post.  I realized that the project was started due to the utensil drawer being jam packed, yet I only removed the one slider press from the drawer.  I have admit, that did the trick.  I have been able to use the drawer without an real issues, it now shuts.


It occurs to me in reflection, a definite bonus of keeping this blog, that the drawer could stand a good going-through.  As I sit thinking of it though, I am telling myself that everything else belongs there.  And that I do use it all...sort of.  Even the cork screw, there is a story there.

Corkscrew

We have disposed of at least 3 cork screws in our married life.  We would be doing a clean-out and be on a roll, then we come across the corkscrew and say "oh, that can be donated!"  Then a month down the road, someone would bring a bottle of wine to dinner, or we would come up with some other utilitarian use for a corkscrew.  Now, life has always provided a means, and we have been able to procure a new corkscrew. There was no need to feel regret over the decision to let go of it.  Yet, I feel like buying the new corkscrew is wasteful, and inconvenient.

It is this sort of situation that leaves one feeling like we should just hold onto anything that is useful, as we may need it one day.  Balancing seems to be the answer.  We need to balance the amount of things that we keep with the amount of space we have.  Karen Kingston states in one of her books that we need to believe that life will provide what we need...yet there are many starving people in our world...so maybe these are just really words said, not believed--for valid reason!  Of course this is all the more reason to know that we do not need all the 'stuff', and to consider our real needs.

In balancing it is necessary to consider the priority of the space we have and the items we choose to keep.  If you won so many things that you cannot find them when you need them...Then you are wasting the space, and your time looking,  perhaps keeping them from going to a home where they will be used rather than that other person creating demand for another item from 'overseas', and in the end how many times have you replaced the item, just to then add it to the storage where the duplicate is already lost?

Coming back to the question at hand, the corkscrew.

After

1. PRIORITY OF SPACE  the corkscrew is in the utensil drawer, prime real estate, for items that should be used everday--or at least weakly, at worst once a month.  The corkscrew fits none of those.  I think we have used it 2 times in the 6 years we have lived here.  And there are other things that we do use that belong here.  Having more space in the drawer would make access to used items much easier.
2. PRIORITY OF ITEM:  it is used, but very infrequently.  If I were moving overseas I would not bring it, or even think of it.
3. IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE?:  While i have needed it, is there something else I could use, or even a duplicate?  Actually, while writing I have come up with the perfect solution.  We have a jackknife somewhere that has a corkscrew.  The plan is to write the task of finding the knife down, and not worry about it.  When I come across the knife, we will find it an appropriate home and donate our LAST corkscrew!  

duplicates

 And now that I have worked this through I believe that I will be able to apply it to other items that cross my path, at least I hope so :)  And maybe that jackknife (when i find it) will stand in for at least a few other things too!

 Donations

I have now made a difference in the drawer although the picture does it no justice.  Look how you can actually see the bottom of the drawer!  Some utensils I had duplicates for.   Isn't the mouse grater fun,  I kept hem, but the smaller hand held grater and the turn-handle grater both left.  I kept the large hole grater, as we use it most often.  I love the idea of the hand-crank beaters, but they are so hard to use the kids really cannot do it, and neither can I.  Since i have the electric mixer, there is no need to keep an unused utensil for idealism!  This reminds me, i have an electric hand-mixer under the counter that i never use...

Making Space!

I tackled another kitchen cabinet!  I went to get the cork screw this morning (to pull a rubber stopper from the cod liver oil)  and realized somehow our utensil drawer had become jam packed.  One look and I knew there were at least a few things that did not belong there.  Right on top was my husband's slider press.  Silly, yes, perhaps...he could use his hands to shape, and not this tool. BUT it makes him tremendously happy (just like the Legos my kids do not need), and he does use it frequently.  So for now it stays.  This is a process that everyone needs to be happy going through.

I figured i would just find it a new home, JUST?!  I could find no happy home.  Something had to go!  At first glance I saw nothing obvious to leave.  In fact, I thought I had done a pretty good job maintaining the kitchen stuff.  Not so.  I found this cabinet, and i set to work :)

I found a great Vitamix on vacation last year, and so the Osterizer has sat dormant ever since.  For Now--those fateful words, this will go to the camper and take the recently vacated place of the waffle maker.  We did really enjoy having smoothies while on vacation-they are simple, quick and nutritious.  Not sure if this one is up to the task, but if I am using it, and it drives me crazy I will be motivated to get rid of it.  Then I will just take our Vitamix with us, a bit of a hassle, but worth it.  I also found a new Oster lid that doesn't even fit this model!  I set it aside for a friend who has one that it might fit.

I gave the Brita Filter to my grandparents, I hope it turns out useful to them.  We have been using the more expensive fridge filter because it is there, saves space, and saves spills, also we drink a LOT more water that way.  Not sure about the waste issue with the filters....wonder if they could be recycled?  Or at least backwashed for reuse.  They do last a long time, and make a huge difference in our water taste.  At any rate I no longer needed the pitcher.

The 4 brown bowls are now in the donate box.  I do have a friend that has a similar set, but not sure if I will get them to her, which ever happens first is where they will go.  I also have a table cloth that makes me think of that same friend, and so I grabbed it out of my linen closet and threw it in with the dishes, it will either finally make it to her or not with the dishes---oh, it would make a good skirt though....

I would love to get rid of the Parafin Spa for hand wax....but the kids and their friends love it.  I recently refilled it--i know it is not a good step in waste reduction to use this product--but I bought the wax a year ago.  I will donate when this wax is all used up.  Maybe it will at least keep someone else from buying a new unit.  For the moment we will enjoy this gift from my grandparents (my grandfather's therapist thought it would help him with the pain in his hands, but he did not like it).

Well it felt like a lot more when I was doing it...but still I cleared off one whole shelf's worth of things in the process of finding a place for a 2"x4" by 2" tall slider press!!!

The Simply Reduce Diet

The real, real beginning of this blog, what got me thinking and moving in the direction of change, was our diets.  My husband and children have an allergy to corn.  Yeah, corn, and living in the US that pretty much translates to; my family is allergic to processed, prepared foods.  Tough yes, but a blessing.  We have eaten much better than we might have ever otherwise.

When you start trying to figure out something like a corn allergy you think it is mind-boggling.  That is until it leads to the question of what 'should' we be eating, and then your brain really starts going to mush!  There are so many conflicting theories and data out there.  Raw? Vegan? Vegetarian? Grain-Free, Bean-free, gluten-free, Phytic acid, Paleo, high-protein, no carb .....oh, my! Guess we'd better stick to air and water--oh, wait that is too polluted!

I have always been fascinated at the variation of food that humans ingest.  I did some biological research on an NSF scholarship, and if I fed those tiny little critters (you couldn't even see them) even a few grains of the wrong food you could kill them--they didn't just adapt for a while!  Humans have had such a varied diet throughout history.  Researches tell us one thing based on this high carb diet here, and the opposite of this group who ate no carbs. How can we make heads or tails of conflicting information.

I don't currently have any specific links (feel free to post them in the comments) about such studies.  Now that I am writing this blog, I will have a place to put them when I do come across them.

Across the board, from what research I have seen, wide-spread obesity is a relatively new trend.  So maybe we should change our approach.  Maybe not look at what they were doing right, but what we are doing that they did not.  And maybe, these specific diets that cut out food groups entirely are the opposite of what we need.  After all, is it not the variation of our food that allowed our species to thrive as it has?

My theory is that we NEED the variation.  What we should reduce are the processed foods and the preservatives that are inhibiting our bodies natural processes.  So grains that are made into highly processed and preserved foods should probably not represent the bulk of our diet.  But it is also perhaps not necessary, or even perhaps healthy to cut our grains out all together, just simply reduce them to make room for other nutrients.

The Simply Reduce processed foods, preservatives, refined sugar product, pesticides, genetically modified, antibiotic-laden foods Diet!  Completely doable!  You won't fail, because it's allowed, your goal is to simply reduce, one choice at a time.

Challenged by 100 Things : Paper Goods Overload

half-emptied cabinet

I have been working to simplify my life for some time.  At first thought this should be a SIMPLE process but no....

I actually started a reduce 1000 things challenge through the Ravelry site years ago, and it caught on!  I was posting so much on Freecycle that people were sending requests, and some people (not sure what their angle was?!)  Even wrote to ask if i would ever be done posting.

Then i saw the 100 thing Challenge, and didn't even *want* to attempt it LOL!

Well today I realized that for someone who detests waste, I had an entire cabinet devoted to paper goods!  My MIL loves disposable :(  I try not to start a war, so i simply accept and stash...not working.  I do love to volunteer to bring these items to events that i know that i cannot get them to change their ways, i.e. school parties--but there just are not enough!  So I started using it when my MIL came, which did use some, and pleased her greatly.  However, it simply fueled the fire, and she brought more :(

What  was removed from cabinet in above photo-and the beginning of a blog

Today I decided that I would:

1.  politely show my MIL my stash and let her know that we would "let her know when we need more"

2.  Move the whole lot into a "module"   
      Previously I referred to these as boxes, and had been using this technique of limitation prior,but
      found Miss Minimalist Blog last night)http://www.missminimalist.com/.  I will keep one box and  
      donate the rest.

3. Get the stuff that I use more often often the top of the fridge and into the cabinet  :)

as the paper goods pile on the kitchen floor grew I looked down and laughed at the thought of the 100 Thing Challenge!  I think that I have more than 100 Paper goods items alone....well, if you count each separate item I am sure there are thousands, but if you count each package of items maybe i could squeak in under 100 check out the photo.  I decided to sit down and start a blog I have been thinking about to log my progress instead of counting...

Now I am off to finish the task.  My hope is that this blog will keep me accountable.  Perhaps it could even help motivate another by sharing my journey.

Update:  see pictures of the finished cabinet in the Bacon Grease Enlightenment Post!  Where I ponder the appropriate use of disposable dishes.  Also, I really only *reduced* about 10 bowls, where the water-proof finish had delaminated, these were tossed into the trash unused!