Chapter 3 starts by asking lots of questions about how the kitchen is set up and whether it serves my purpose. I will get to those later. But in the meantime, I scanned through the chapter last night for a task I could tackle in the kitchen, and saw the suggestion to take a minimum of 15 minutes to "literally tear through your kitchen...identifying items that you can eliminate quickly." That sounded like just the kind of quick activity I needed to get back in gear!
I announced my intention to Mike, and again recognized how different we are in these types of activities. He declared that the would not want to approach things way and would much rather tackle each drawer or cabinet methodically, one at a time. That is the plan, eventually (Leeds later talks about going back through each area and revisiting it), but I think it's nice to mix things up a little. My most gratifying part of organizing is decluttering, and this was a fun way to do it. I've been meaning to tackle these top shelves of our two kitchen cabinets for some time, beyond other spots:
That's right, we had a shelf and a half of valuable kitchen cabinet space (granted, it is very high and I have to practically stand on the counter to reach anything)...taken up with vases!! Very impractical. How often does one use a vase? AND HOW MANY VASES DOES ONE HOUSEHOLD NEED? We even have more vases out in the garage!! So out went most of the vases...plus various items from the lower cabinets and other drawers and cabinets I haven't gotten to yet. Including a huge package of Japanese green tea I bought in Hawaii 5 years ago, which is most likely incredibly stale and tasteless by now! And breast milk storage bags I haven't used in well over a year. And a once-beautiful glass salad bowl we got for a wedding present that had a chip in it, so we never used it any more.
Out went a lot of tall water cups and bottles that never get used (not very practical), various straws and bowls, tupperware lids without bottoms, and wonder of wonders, Mike even tackled his egg cup collection and got rid of a bunch of them! (Even though he disagreed with this process...) Our kitchen cabinets have all sorts of space now and are ready for me to reorganize next week.
The result of last night's binge was a box and a garbage bag full of vases, cups, and other stuff to go to Goodwill (and that doesn't include items that went in the trash). Took me about an hour, while talking on the phone to my sister part of the time and watching "Brothers and Sisters" online on my laptop (on the kitchen counter).
Anyone want to start a flower shop?
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