The mugs. I have too many as well. The biggest ones are the most desirable for MY morning coffee and cups of tea. Smaller ones? Useful for guests. The kids have attachments to certain ones. Others are good for the car.
Some things I inherit from students who have lived with me and I am surprised by what becomes useful. A small rice cooker is all I need, apparently and the other is in the basement. I’ll keep the big one for guests. Same with the smaller salad spinner. D moved away and left some fine stainless steel pots. Who knew that they were a better size than the ones I have used for decades? When you bake xmas cookies with three close friends, all the spatulas are in use. Metal, silicon, wood and whatever.
I have not used the waffle maker since kids were in middle school either. But there may be grandkids someday!
I have a basket of dishes for a garage sale, and gave away volumes of heavy handmade ceramic stuff in the move as well as all sorts of mugs, and miscellaneous dishes. Eventually the kitchen will be remodeled here and I’ll have extra basement storage. My biggest decision is basement, or the kitchen, where storage is limited.
Whenever the kids and their friends are around, the waffle maker comes out at least one morning. I’ll keep it around for that. They still love their waffles.
I’m a minimalist and detest clutter, especially in the kitchen, so there are no waffle makers or fry daddys or anything of the sort that only gets used once/year. Well, and my kitchen (and house) is very small. But…I desperately want a dutch oven
Do items put away neatly in cabinets and drawers bother you, @NEPatsGirl? I dislike clutter, too, and I have clean, empty surfaces but stuff put away tidily, it is out of sight, out of mind for me.
@doschicos, not at all, I just don’t have that kind of storage unfortunately. And, I’m now downsizing even more lol. I’m even going without a true oven this time around and going to try getting by with a stove top and convection/micro. I don’t bake at all and can count the times I’ve used my oven on one hand each year, though it has been good storage for my pans lol.
And we use our waffle maker regularly because the grids flip over to a flat surface and the top flips all the way over to become a second flat surface. Makes waffles once a year, makes pancakes more often, makes grilled cheese sandwiches, but weekly it warms tortillas.
@dragonmom , I have a cheese slicer like that! I bought it when I got carried away in the cheese department of Wegman’s. I’m sorry, but I don’t use it. It’s probably one of the only things left that I think I should get rid of. And I have a huge complement of kitchen gadgetry, pots and pans, utensils and bakeware. I have TWO wafflemakers (Belgian and whatever not Belgian is) and I don’t use them often, but I can if I want to.
Cooking is one of my main hobbies, and I’ve accumulated some swell equipment over the years. It made it easy for DH to buy Christmas presents over the years. Since he’s an electrician, he respects good quality tools, for whatever purpose.
I have a teeny tiny kitchen, but a nice closet that I use as a pantry, and I can haul out whatever I need when inspiration strikes, or when a recipe calls for a specific size pan. I purge the tupperware and miscellaneous items at least twice a year, so I’m pretty clutter free, in my opinion.
And we did accumulate a lot of duck sauce packets in the early years of our marriage!
No take out menus- we don’t have anyone who delivers to our neighborhood aside from a couple of bad pizza places. The few times I pick up food to go I don’t order from home but stop on my way home. We also are guilty of at our regular spots we always order the same items so no need for menus.
No sugar packets
My H does like to save the red pepper flakes and Parmesan packets. I toss them. We have a jar of red pepper flakes and we grate fresh Parmesan
I disagree on multi salad tongs. I sometimes serve multiple types of salad with the same meal. Or depending on the serving bowl I’ll use a different set. The pair I should get rid of are the Tupperware yellow ones that came with a large salad bowl 30 years ago
Disagree on multi spatulas- I use metal ones on the grill and some pans. Non stick coated pans get silicone ones. Plus if I’m making different items and each needs a spatula don’t mix when cooking. If I’m cooking chicken plus roasting a pan of vegetables I use different spatulas or tongs to turn.
I keep old dish towels that I’ll use to wrap a hot pan in when I’m bringing food to a party to prevent spills in the car. If I leave them somewhere I’m not upset. I love dish towels and collect them when I travel.
I keep glass jars that I’ll use to bring salad dressing to friends. I also use them to put used oil in if I fry something. I probably could do a clean out and eliminate some.
Same with the water bottles. I did it several years ago and it could be done again
Same with plastic containers
I got rid of a lot of the old electronics several years ago. Kept only what we used regularly.
I have a large kitchen so it’s easy to keep multiples of items I use regularly.
re post # 47. I do not equate a minimalist kitchen with tools left out in a container- ours always go in hiding. I also cannot stand the thought of open shelves or even glass fronted ones in a kitchen (dining room glass fronts show off the good stuff). Open shelf items would get dusty/dirty. Plus need cluttered views for both.
I also dislike appliance garages- the toaster stays out for daily use (as do tea kettle and coffee maker for H). Plus the more frequently used than stove oven toaster oven (cooking for one or two).
No substitutes for ice cream scoops- got rid of old ones when got the spatula that heats from hand warmth. Many of my hard plastic utensils are of different shapes/sizes. No reason to make do with one size fits all ones. The only time they miss hand washing is the day the dishwasher is full and going to be run.
Never owned a waffle maker and that use has long passed.
Got rid of most repurposed plastic containers except for some that work well for freezing individual leftovers.
Too few mugs as H’s supply has dwindled through breakage over the years. The logos do wear off after years of use as well. I can’t seem to find any but too large mugs in stores either- have some of those that go unused (not living in hot chocolate area any more). Even the tourist spots want to sell too may large instead of coffee sized mugs.
Wallfle makers? I have two…an All Clad one…and some little round plastic one. I need to get rid if the All Cld one…because frankly…the little plastic one makes better waffles.
I could get rid of all but one of my wooden spoons…they seem to multiply. I’ve replaced the old mugs with new ones.
I have a few too many saucepans… but they are all different sizes…and they do get used. No digital thermometers to get rid of…only one cheese slicer but I like it. DH eats ice cream every night. The ice cream thing is his.
I want to get rid of ALL the extra water bottles and commuter cups. I mean really…we only need ONE each.
I’ll take the Le Creuset. If it’s the size I have…it fits into a fixed rate large priority mailing box. I’ll pay the shipping!! I have a foodie kid who,would LOVE this!!
I guess the two items on my kitchen counter (a black marble lazy susan with salt/pepper mills and a ceramic utensil holder with wooden spoons) make it cluttered mess. As for the pantry–I don’t have open shelves–I have cherry cabinets (Thomas Wilkerson) that have solid doors. Inside the cabinets are drawers that pull out so it’s easy to see everything inside. You can’t see into the pantry from the kitchen and if you walked into the pantry all you would see is the cabinetry except for one counter with a prep sink.
