My favorite blog posted an article today “10 Things To Eliminate From Your Kitchen” - I IMMEDIATELY thought of this thread - because some of these have been discussed in this thread!
So…have you eliminated some of these? Should you? Do you have a case for keeping them???
Here are the “top 10”:
- That one hand-me-down appliance you never use.
- Busted drawer organizers.
- Cracked or unused glasses and mugs. (especially the teachers out there who have a million mugs!)
- Gross sponges. (nuff said)
- Plastic containers. (a million cottage cheese containers? Stained or cracked ones??)
- Anything dated on the front of your fridge. (party invitations, last year’s christmas cards…)
- Takeout chopsticks, condiment packets, and menus.(like your closet, if you haven’t used it in months…)
- Extra measuring cups.
- Beer koozies. (do you use them - or just collect them cause they are often free!?)
- Old water bottles. (old, gross ones, ones not being used, used a million times…)
Too simple.
From this thread, I realized I haven’t used the rice cooker in at least ten years. (Found some microwave directions that work just as well.) But. And the old water bottles from camp, where I inked the girls’ names artistically? Sigh.
We have our coffee pot, toaster, microwave, and KitchenAid mixer on the counter. The first 3 are used daily, and the KAid is just too big to lug in and out of the cupboard. The microwave is new and hasn’t been installed under a cabinet yet, but it will end up there eventually. DH also has 2 knife blocks in the counter. Idk why, but he does the majority of the cooking so he can have as many as he wants. Lol.
I routinely go through the house and fill up bags to donate. I have a donation bin in the laundry room and another in the closet of our spare bedroom. It seems easier for everyone to get rid of things they no longer want when there’s someplace to put it.
So The Minimalists website has a game they play at the start of every month. Day 1 you throw out/donate one thing, Day 2 it’s 2 things. I once did an entire month on JUST the junk drawer in my kitchen :D.
abasket, the essence of my problem is that of the “Top 10 to eliminate” list, I only have #6–dated items on the front of the refrigerator. One is a “Save the Date” card for a 2009 wedding (okay, that one can go), one is related to vacation dates in 2014, and one is a list of miles walked when I was last serious about walking–coming again soon, so I probably won’t discard that.
Also, MotherofDragons, that game could get really tough if you discard 4 items on day 3, 8 items on day 4 . . . 
^^I sense that you don’t like to play by the rules, @QuantMech :))
Really, how could you walk by a reminder for a 2009 event daily and not theow it away? You’re pulling our leg.
Oh, no, MotherofDragons, I just thought that the rule could be to discard 2 raised to the power (n - 1) things each day, where n is the number of the day. Actually, that might be worthwhile for me!
Pizzagirl, I am absolutely not joking. The card is there. It is a postcard, with the side with the writing and a semi-legible postmark showing, and the Save the Date picture on the back. I wasn’t even sure whose “Save the Date” card it was until I squinted at it. There are two up for 2016, also. Don’t want to accidentally discard one of those.
Also, I come by this level of organization honestly. My mother once shipped a wedding present that crossed in the mail with a card announcing that the couple were divorcing. (Also totally true.)
But have you thrown it away since posting about it in this thread? If not, therapy may be in order!
Really now. That’s kind of hoarder-worthy that you still haven’t thrown it away.
We’ve had many a container of rocks on our kitchen counters @QuantMech. Right now there are three large rocks sting there. Ok, they are lovely large polished mineral specimens, not ordinary rocks, but still.
We have a box of Kleenex, the toaster, coffee maker and bean grinder, wooden recipie box, marble cylinder full of cooking tools, container of kosher salt, decorative cruet of olive oil, knives in a block, vitamins, an orchid that just finished blooming, the doorknob to the laundry room, an empty can of door and trim paint and two paintbrushes, masking tape and sandpaper. Usually there’s a cloth dish-drying mat but right now it’s in the wash with all the kitchen towels. That sounds like a lot, but I have a bit kitchen. Nothing sits out on the butcher-block island because that’s where we do 99% of our prep and I need the space.
eta - autocorrect make my recipie box widen, not wooden. It’s the recipes inside that make you widen.
I am ok with stuff on the counters as long as the stuff is (i) kitchen-related tools, (ii) used more than once a week, and (iii) is not food or spices other than the fruit in the bowl.
QM, are you the kind of person who is routinely late to events, or who doesn’t allow enough time to get from one place to another?
PG, have we met in real life? Also, I have taken it off the refrigerator, but I can’t throw it away until I have recorded somewhere who got married to whom. The couple is a bit distant, but we might see them every 5 to 7 years.
Where do you record this? May I suggest something on a computer versus on paper
Thanks for the suggestion, PG! The bride is the step-child of a sister-in-law from a second marriage. It is easy to wind up with a large extended family.
Incidentally: Did I mention the box with 35 flashdrives, sitting on the piano?
You guys think I am joking! 
Just have to add: The piano is located . . . in the kitchen!
Again, I am not kidding.
Do you like having all that clutter around? If so, more power to you. Everyone should live how they like (so long as we are not talking about filth or unsanitary conditions, of course).
What’s in your piano bench? Can I ask?
(Mine has a few piano books, and I also use it a storage area for magazines that I"m planning to pass on to others.)