For a change of pace, let’s get back into the kitchen to check in on all of those small electrical appliances for beating, chopping, blending and whipping up some gourmet delights…..or just those taking up space.
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 small appliances and give yourself a limit. If you are new to the challenge, you can see our Week 1 post here.
To help with the decision making, ask yourself the following:
- Do I use it?
- How many do I have, need and use?
- Does it fulfil the function it was purchased for?
- Is it past its useful life?
- Do I have something else that can fulfil the same function?
- How many can I fit into the allocated storage space?
Put everything aside that no longer has a useful purpose or home in your kitchen.
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 and safely when they are needed – especially items that you use on a daily basis. If you are like me and have your kettle on the benchtop all the time, that’s ok, we don’t need everything packed away. Just make sure that the home the allocate is appropriate for the item and reflects its frequency of use. You also need to work within the physical limits of your allocated storage space. If you can’t fit everything, you need to go back and review and make some further decisions. We don’t want anything homeless in our homes!
What do I do with the ones that no longer have a purpose for me?
If the items are broken or no longer functional they are just taking up valuable space in your home and need to go in the bin (recycling whatever you can of course!).
Very few Charity op-shops accept small electrical appliances because of health and safety risks for their staff, volunteers and of course the end-buyer.
That said, always check out the fantastic GIVIT website to see what is needed by registered charities right now. Electricals donated through GIVIT must be tested and tagged by the recipient charity before they are passed on to a person in need. We love GIVIT!
If they are still in good condition but no longer have a purpose in your home, you can also consider some of these sell/swap and donation options.
- Sell or Swap:
o Swap with your friends or family.
o Gumtree
o Facebook Marketplace or any of the myriad of Buy/Swap/Sell groups
o Ebay
o Garage Sale
- Donate/Gift options:
o GIVIT of course
o Ziilch
o Green Shed (Mitchell or Mugga Lane)
o Let’s Recycle Canberra (Hume)
o Your local “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook.
How did you go? Feel free to share your successes, challenges and tips on our Facebook page.
Happy decluttering!
Melissa x