These items were listed on a blog as 29 Things To Get Rid Of In Your Kitchen. Thought it might be fun to see what you have and which you insist you really DO need!
The list:
Take-out menus.
Sugar packets.
Parmesan cheese and red pepper packets from pizza deliveries.
Decorative bottles of herb-infused olive oil.
Duplicate salad tongs.
All but one each of large, medium, and small spatulas.
Half-used candles.
Magnets you’re intending to fix.
Advertising magnets.
Kids’ meal toys, including character cups.
Extra napkins you picked up from the burger joint.
Ketchup packets.
Chipped mugs.
Aunt Jane’s highball glasses that you never, ever get down from the top shelf.
The George Foreman grill you’ve used twice in the history of your decade-long marriage.
Anything more than four hot pads.
Stained or holey dish towels.
All but five of the nice glass jar food containers and lids you’ve been hoarding.
The serving platter that you never liked but kept because it was a gift.
Take-out chopsticks.
Extra whisks.
Duplicate ice cream scoops.
The cheese slicer.
Old water bottles that you never reach for.
Tupperware without lids.
Lids without tupperware.
Duplicate can openers.
Duplicate garlic presses.
Baby utensils you no longer need.
I could say with confidence that I have 8 of these in my kitchen. The one I’ll argue to keep? Duplicate ice cream scoopers. At family events we often have more than one flavor of ice cream to offer - a scooper for each flavor - who wants to rinse off between scoops?! I used to keep all those stupid little packets (like the wet naps) but not anymore!
I also have two ice cream scoopers because one is always in the dishwasher.
I have a bunch of take out menus.
I only have two large spatulas because one is always in the dishwasher.
I also have two sets of salad fork and spoon which match my two big salad bowls because again, one set is in the dishwasher. Ditto for tongs which I use for pasta.
I do have packets of Chinese mustard because when H is in charge of picking up he forgets to ask for it.
We have none of those. When we moved two years go, we were absolutely brutal with the de-cluttering with an eye to not leaving our only child with an eventual mess to deal with. We want him to pick out a few things of sentimental value and sell the house and its remaining contents “as is” with no effort on his part. We have a few empty cabinets, drawers, and closets. Our new MO is any new thing in means at least one or more old things out.
We have nothing on the list. I did notice the other day we have an second corkscrew we picked up when we needed one on vacation. I’ve been debating whether to keep it or not. It’s good for a car trip, I think, since that is how we ended up with it in the first place.
adding: light bulb moment - I’m moving it to the glove box in the car!
DH gave me a set of four hot pads and three of them have disappeared.
I think I finally got rid of the packets from Chinese takeout.
I have lots of spatulas and frequently use several for cooking a single meal. They are slightly different shapes, and some fit in narrow bottles.
I went through the Tupperware and made sure they pretty much matched up in terms of tops and bottoms.
I had the cheese slicer out on the table two weeks ago.
I’ve got some wedding gift dish towels mostly for sentimental reasons - I used them every day until my sister-in-law decided I needed terry cloth ones. She is right they dry better.
I discovered today a box of big glass honey jars that I never unpacked after we moved back into the new kitchen. We don’t eat as many dried beans as we used to.
Tupperware with no lid or lids that don’t match anything in the Tupperware drawer. I have to clear it out yearly and buy a whole new set. It’s like socks…where did the matching item go?
Take-out menus.
Sugar packets.
Parmesan cheese and red pepper packets from pizza deliveries.
Decorative bottles of herb-infused olive oil.
Magnets you’re intending to fix.
Advertising magnets.
Kids’ meal toys, including character cups.
Extra napkins you picked up from the burger joint.
Ketchup packets.
Chipped mugs.
The George Foreman grill you’ve used twice in the history of your decade-long marriage.
Take-out chopsticks.
The cheese slicer.
Stained or holey dish towels.
Old water bottles that you never reach for.
Tupperware without lids.
Lids without tupperware.
Duplicate garlic presses. [You don’t need one at all.]
Disagree:
Duplicate salad tongs.
All but one each of large, medium, and small spatulas. [Nonsense]
Half-used candles.
Aunt Jane’s highball glasses that you never, ever get down from the top shelf. [Put them where you can use them ]
Anything more than four hot pads.
All but five of the nice glass jar food containers and lids you’ve been hoarding.
The serving platter that you never liked but kept because it was a gift.
Extra whisks. [No such thing]
Duplicate ice cream scoops.
Duplicate can openers. [You never know…]
Baby utensils you no longer need.[You never know.]
I have my kids’ baby plates and they used one of them as long as they were at home because they liked that it was divided. My D ate yogurt with her baby spoon until she moved out for good several months ago.
I also have some packets of Chickfila honey mustard (too good to throw away), and something that’s not on the list: a drawer full of plastic knives and forks sealed in the plastic package from a local restaurant where I get take-out too often. There may be salt and pepper packets in those sealed bags, too.
Ice cream scoops, spatulas, tongs (not salad, do they count?), whisks. Often need more than one and different sizes/shapes for different things.
We still have a cheese slicer, used occasionally.
Dish towels are hung up inside the sink cupboard, so no one sees the tomato stains or the small hole.
We have just a few but disagree that they’re not needed. We cook with garlic almost every night and, as empty nesters, don’t necessarily run the dishwasher each day. So, two garlic presses, multiple spatulas and several salad tongs are in our kitchen and used all the time. Not one cheese slicer? We have three and, some weeks, use all three.
My challenge is the tupperware/storage containers. I definitely don’t keep those with missing lids but I don’t always have the size I need…and then there are the times we entertain larger groups and actually need many more than usual. Or we want to send people home with leftovers. I’d have thought by this point in my life I’d have figured this one out!
Unfortunately, I have a canister filled with those dang packets. Funny thing about the burger joint napkins is they never hold up in the home kitchen. And I did give those hi-ball glasses to D1, (we had a real Aunt Jane,) but kept enough glassware and crystal to throw one big party. Luckily, the girls will split those, one day (already agreed.) I should pack them away but like looking at them. Really good whisks are treasures, not the ones that rust.
I have no oven mitts or potholders. And I will likely never get rid of the large cheap plastic turkey platter my mother got for opening a bank account, decades ago. It’s just too sentimental. Use it? Nah. Unless you count the stories/memories it brings up, once/year.
I have a giant punch bowl and all the cups. That can stay, too. Well, it’s all in the laundry room. But I did trash the dozens of chop sticks, still in their paper.
Btw, the half candles you folks are hanging on to need you to throw some matchbooks into the drawer.
I plan to eat the Parmesan cheese & ketchup packets as a last resort after the Big Earthquake hits Seattle and we are running out of food after 3 weeks. They are part of my survival supplies.
I most definitely don’t need those delicious dark chocolate candies, but they mysteriously keep reappearing on my kitchen counter. I am positive I have absolutely nothing to do with it ;
My Kuerig. Yep…I used it for a long time…and loved it. But the affair is over, and I’ve moved on.
I now have a wireless electric tea pot. (one of the ones with the cool to the touch bottom that you set on the electric base…that heats up so fast it’ll make your head swim) LOVE my tea pot. I use it to make all my coffee now, a cup at a time, with a little basket that sits on my coffee cup. I like using any coffee I want. I like buying it by the pound instead of by the K-cup. I also love tea, and hot cider packets, and instant oatmeal, and a dozen other things it does a great job of. Also enjoying coffee bags. (like tea bags…but coffee)
My Kuerig was great when I was using it three or four times a day. Now…it sits for days at a time with no use…and I start to wonder about all that water trapped in there. Is it getting icky? Growing something? And the longer the old water sits…the less I want to use the Kuerig.
When entertaining, the tea pot comes to the table and we can get six people served…the Kuerig creates a line in my kitchen when I’d rather have guests sitting around comfortably.
I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot of Kuerigs at garage sales soon.
Items in my kitchen that I don’t need…cats and a dog. I REALLY don’t need them in there under foot…but somehow they’re always there. They pick a main traffic area to sprawl out in, surf the counters, contribute hairs to recipes…it’s irritating.
So yep…they’re on my “don’t need in the kitchen” list.
What I can get rid of is a set of very, very large ceramic bowls. Put them into the donation box that I have been filling while unpacking. Yay.
What I am desperately missing is my Instapot that baby kiddo swiped when she was housesitling! :((
I just have to bite the bullet and bite another one.
Disagree with OP’s list regarding more than one can opener, utensils and some others. It is nice to have two can openers when both H and I want to open a can at the same time. Other utensils may end up in the dishwasher plus use more than one at the same meal. We have duplicates of some stuff on each side of stove top drawer- including hot pads.
When we moved I got rid of so much junk but did save stuff. Some baking pans and others, set of good dishes, other rarely or maybe never again used things I would not want to have to buy again. A lot of easily accessible storage here so no need to get rid of things.
Someday I will empty out the travel bag with old tea, coffee, sugar…packets. But- that gets stored and forgotten.
I purposely have plastic ware from take out food, nice for taking on road trips. Especially knives since those are not sold by the box- good for making PBJ’s at rest stops.
My steak knife place in a top drawer includes a few of those '60’s free knives. Again, memories and nice to have to cut some things when the dishwasher is only full and run about every four days.
I did get rid of cookie cutters- will never make those again.
Will cull stuff with the next downsize- 20 years from now? No need to get rid of stuff and have (more) empty cabinets.
Wish could get rid of some stuff neither of us is enamored with (gift flowery set of teacups…). If H dies first I have my get rid of list. If I die first I know a lot of stuff he won’t use- and I know he won’t bother to do anything.
Thanksgiving is coming. Likely just the two of us but in recent years it sure has been nice to have multiple utensils and pots/pans. Also when two of us cook at the same time- since H retired he has the time to cook the foods he likes that I don’t for himself.
Generally minimalist but like the luxury of having choices and ability to use stuff freely without needing to wash them out daily.
I have so much stuff in my kitchen that we should get rid of but H insists on keeping. Then again, he does almost all of the cooking so I am willing to compromise.
