Cut the Clutter: Part 2 - The Kitchen

As I wrote previously, clutter drives me nuts. We have clutter in every single room of the house, but the worst culprit was the kitchen. D and I both lived on our own before we got married, and therefore we had two apartments worth of dishes, silverware, and appliances to combine. We also got quite a few of these when we got married, with the idea that the new, matching sets we received would replace our older, chipped, stained, and outdated dishes. And we did pretty well, at first - we got rid of a lot. But, we still held on to quite a bit.

And then I discovered one of the biggest argument catalysts in our marriage: dishes. We both hate to do dishes, and don't own a dishwasher. So, with an excess of dishes, we would go through about a dozen plates (yes, for just two of us) before either one of us would be motivated enough to do dishes. The sink would be overflowing, and the counter tops were covered in dirty dishes. And then, of course, doing dishes took even longer because it had been a week or so since either one of us had done them. It was annoying and causing a lot of unnecessary stress and resentment. 

We came up with a simple solution. I picked out six plates, six cups, and six bowls and put them in one small cabinet. I took all of the other dishes and put them in a larger cabinet with a sign reading "do not use." For the last year, this system has worked miracles! Even if we use every available dish in the small cabinet, it still takes less than 10 minutes to wash them. When we had guests over, we used the "other" dishes, but even then it was rare that we opened that large cabinet since 6 place settings was usually enough anyway.

So now, with the decluttering project underway, it was time to really examine all of those "extra" dishes. I started quite simply: I took everything out of the "other" cabinet and laid it on the counter, just to see what we had in there. Here are some pictures of all of the "extra" dishes we've been holding onto the last year:

Now, some of these dishes are "special occasion" items - such as the champagne flutes from our wedding. And no, I did not end up getting rid of all the items shown here. But it did help me realize what an excess we have been holding onto! So we sat down to go through the piles, and after much negotiation, we sorted out two full boxes of dishes and appliances (not pictured) that we would get rid of. D's younger brother is getting a new apartment, so those boxes are going to help him set up his new place. All of the other dishes we decided to keep  (special occasion items, mostly) got put with our regular dishes. We now have one dish cabinet instead of two. This opened up space to move some appliances around (many were stashed in bottom cabinets and difficult to reach - especially as bending over is getting more and more difficult for me these last few weeks). I have now completely reorganized the kitchen so that everything is easily accessible and has its own spot. I know it seems like such a minor thing, but it really has helped eliminate some stress (when you're trying to stack your food processor on top of your crock pot which is on top of your cupcake pans, you've got a bit of a problem). And even though we'll be moving out soon, we now will have a lot less to pack and move when we go!

I don't think this would have been nearly as easy if we had not previously sorted out our "extra" dishes and gone over a year without using them frequently. I highly recommend this strategy for anyone trying to get rid of excess (although you might not need to wait a full year - it just took me this long to get motivated!)

On a side note, right after I reorganized the kitchen, I scrubbed it down until it sparkled. And then... the kitchen was the only clean room in the house. I found myself going in there just to stand and look around at how clean it was when I was feeling stressed (and D admitted to doing the same thing). There's something about everything having its own place that is really refreshing, especially when everything else in life is chaotic!

So now the question is... what room is next?