Continuing on from last week with the piles of crockery, serving dishes and platters, we are now moving onto cutlery, kitchen utensils and chopping boards. Don’t worry about BBQ utensils at this stage, we will deal with them in future weeks.
Time to pull out that drawer exploding with whisks, tongs and random utensils that seemed like a good idea at the time and pare them back to what you need, what you want, and what you use.
So how do we decide what stays and what goes?
If you need a refresher, revisit the criteria you created during Week 1 of our challenge to assist you in making decisions about your cutlery and kitchen utensils and give yourself a limit. If you are new to the challenge, you can see our Week 1 post here.
Consider your lifestyle and ask yourself the following questions:
- How many people live in your home?
- How often do you host groups of people? How many people?
- What sort of things do you cook/prep in the kitchen and what tools do I require for this task?
- When was the last time I used these items?
- Is there another tool which can fulfil the same function? This is especially true for any gadgets that do one thing only!
- Whilst they look nice, how many times have I served food on those wooden display/chopping boards?
- How frequently are they all used? Yes, each individual one.
- Do we have a small or large capacity dishwasher? (assuming you are fortunate to have one of course).
What do I do with the keepers?
They definitely all need homes, and ones that minimise the chance for damage and enable them to be accessed easily when they are needed. You don’t want to untwine 10 things just to access the vegetable peeler every day.
To facilitate this, you could install baskets, utensil/cutlery trays or dividers in the drawers (such as this, this one or this one from Ikea, or this one from Kmart).
Clean your Boards
If you want to use this time to also spruce up your chopping boards, there are a number of methods available to clean both wooden and plastic boards including non-chemical options. Here are some suggestions from Better Homes and Gardens.
After cleaning your wooden boards, I suggest you also wipe them over with some grapeseed oil or similar.
What do I do with the ones that no longer have a purpose for me?
If they have broken parts, cracks or visible cuts, or are beyond simply cleaning, they need to go as they are no longer foodsafe.
If they are still in good condition but no longer have a purpose in your home, here are some sell/swap and donation options.
- Sell or Swap:
o Swap with your friends or family.
o Gumtree
o Facebook Marketplace
o Ebay
o Garage Sale
o Silver or good quality vintage pieces may be of interest to second hand dealers.
- Donate options (for cutlery, utensils and new boards only):
o Charity shops such as the Salvos or Vinnies
o Green Shed (Mitchell or Mugga Lane)
o Let’s Recycle Canberra (Hume)
o Your local community organisation or church – they may like some for community morning teas and events
How did you go? Feel free to share your successes, challenges and tips on our Facebook page.
Happy decluttering!
Melissa x