July Clutter Control, 2015

[BookSaver]

15 minutes decluttering the pantry. I had done it recently so nothing to throw out, a couple of items to consolidate into 1 container. Moved like items to be together. Saw some things that should be used up soon.

I also noticed that it's also time to rotate the long-term food storage items. I had put some canned goods in a lidded bucket last fall to use if we were snowed/iced in. In summer we have the possibility that a thunder/lightning storm might knock out our power for a day or two. Next time I go shopping, I'll buy duplicates of the items in the bucket and swap them out.

I'm also giving a side eye to my food storage containers. I might have a couple too many glass jars and plastic freezer containers again. Hmm.

So tomorrow's challenge is "kitchen equipment" which I'm guessing includes utensils, gadgets, and such? That's how I'm going to interpret it anyway.

[Harriet]

Turned out to be 15 minutes here in pantry as well. I was surprised to find more to toss than I thought I would - maybe 9 or 10 items actually needed to go. I was disappointed in some items I would have defended until I paid closer attention so this was a good exercise. It's not perfectly organized, but it is an area with a constant turnover, so I'm content.

I've been going down our chart and am glad to see so much dove-tailing with the ahead-of-Focus regular declutter. Linen closet this week will probably get some serious attention because it's closet week now, too. Linens is a really good place for me to concentrate, actually, plus it will give me some peace of mind to know several days attention to clothing is coming up.

Off to find a sticker. Yesterday I had a smile when I put my hand right on a little fruits sticker for fridge day. I'm easily amused.

[Harmony]

I also did not have to do much in the pantry, but I looked it over. I have a cabinet-type pantry with 4 doors, 2 upper and 2 lower. Yesterday, on the refrigerator declutter I noted that I had that ham bone in the freezer and a bag of beans in the pantry that have been there so long I don't know why we didn't have Jack climbing a beanstock! So thinking ahead I soaked the beans and today combined them and all the spices and the ham bone. It is still cooking away in the crock pot. Never thought beans took this long, but recipe said to do them in the oven 6-8 hours!

I made a mental note of all the extra noodles, lasagna noodles and shell-type pasta, so next time the dgkids are coming I will make use of them. Everything's pretty neat in there with most of the grain things in plastic containers. Less than 15 minutes this time, unless I count the time I used making up the beans.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I spent almost an hour on my pantry. Given that I moved 12 months ago, it was sad to have a full kitchen-size garbage bag of food, most unopened. Mostly baking supplies but also leftover broth from my cleanse before my colonoscopy last summer.

Obviously I did not bake any squares for dh at Christmas or there would not have been so many bags of coconut and tins of sweetened condensed milk. This is where the HGP works really well - you decide what you are going to bake, buy the supplies on sale and bake them. I bought supplies on sale, then didn't do any baking.

I'm making brownies from scratch now (egg, sugar, cocoa and a bit of flour) and same with cookies, and dh doesn't really like sweets so having things around to make him stuff makes no sense. Duly noted.

When we moved, I tossed lots of cake mixes because I wasn't making him cookies from those either.

I've added some additional ingredients to my grocery list so I can use up some of the tinned items. I have three empty tupperware containers as well since I no longer have a lot of flours and cereals on hand.

[Nancy]

A bag of donations left today.

[BookSaver]

15 minutes going through "kitchen equipment" -- still not sure exactly what that is supposed to mean, so I chose to go through 2 drawers.

Pulled out a few utensils that I've never used so they can be donated. Threw away 2 bunches of tangled twist ties, bread bag tabs, a rubber band & a bottle cap.

Tidied a stack of manuals/information sheets that go with various small appliances and gadgets; I keep those papers handy in the drawer with potholders. Tossed a potholder that looked awful. Consolidated the clothespins & clips we use for snack bags.

Cleared the section of counter around the microwave & toaster.

15 minutes went by faster than I expected. Of course, this was before I'd had my coffee, so I was working somewhat on autopilot.

Doesn't sound like much, but it makes a big difference now that both drawers will close easily without pressure.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I, too, am wondering what kitchen equipment means.

When we moved, I went over every appliance and utensil to see what could be tossed. If I had multiples and didn't use multiples at the same time, one or more left.

Re Appliances: We decluttered the electric fry pan and the super large and super small crock pots during the move. Replaced the large crock pot at Christmas (a gift to us but much needed and appreciated.)

I've only used our coffee maker a few time (and good, in theory use my Milata coffee pot) but will keep it due to the convenience of "start the coffee and walk away".

Kept the old blender but then bought a black one to sit on our appliance shelf (out in the open so everything on it is black or stainless) and I tucked the old one in a drawer. That can be donated.

I've been here a year now and so will go through my drawers and see what else can be tossed. I was looking at the juice extractor and recalling a video on how to get the most juice from an orange or lemon and it didn't use a device at all, so I'm guessing that can go.

[Harriet]

On kitchen equipment declutter today -
Have cleared one full cabinet shelf (relatively narrow cabinet). Did that mostly by letting the George Foreman grill and its little parts go for donation. It hasn't been used in more than a year. It is perfectly good, it's just that here we never seem to pull it out for use, and maybe now it will bless someone else. I put its drip pans and scraper into a bag tied to its handle.

I'd say this gives 1.5 square ft of reclaimed space, since I'm also letting go to donation one of those tall plastic cereal holders, also unused for more that a year. We never seem to get around to pouring cereal out of a box, and in fact we are just not big cold-cereal eaters here. Those were really the only things on that shelf.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet: I had a set of 4 tupperware cereal containers that I didn't really use at the house (oats in on, assorted rice and pasta in the others.) Here we decided to use them or toss them and have been using them for a year and love them. Part of the issue was the weird shelf heights and needed uniform packaging. Now I buy the cheapest per ounce of the cereal and we pour it into the containers. I had bought them when the kids were little but I think they were too large for the kids to handle on their own so were put into other service and we kept the lighter, narrower, boxes for the little hands.

As for the George Foreman grill - because we can't bbq here we thought we'd end up buying one but instead the cast iron grill pans are doing the job just fine and mean one less item to store (we moved ds's to our place but quickly returned it to him when he got his apartment.) We've ended up with two grill pans, we bought one, and got one from the giveaway shelf. So now we can cook 8 or 9 burgers at once if we use the two of them at once.

[Sunny]

Day 2 Pantry, from yesterday:
I have done my Day 2 pantry challenge; 15 minutes to go through canned goods and upper cabinets in kitchen. Everything had been done in April so found nothing outdated so moved some things around to organize a little neater.

Our kitchen is a small galley style open to the dining room at one end and the doorway to the laundry/storage room at the other end. We only have room for the microwave and toaster on one counter between the fridge and stove. The other side has two sections of counter on either side of the double sink. The counter near the door is where we keep the coffee maker and a three-tier mug holder (12 mugs); the other side counter is kept open for drying dishes etc. Oh, we have an electric griddle we use frequently, so that stands on it's side against the wall next to the coffee pot. The only other thing I keep out is the popcorn maker on the buffet, which is used often. The other appliances we have are in a closet next to the back door and are not used as much, but convenient when we want them. Most of them were gifts from our dkids so we don't really feel we can donate them, till something drastic happens.