Tag: kitchen

Week 4, Day 6: Forming Habits and Muscles

Donna Joy

Today I took a break from slogging through a few disaster zones in my basement and came upstairs to empty the dishwasher.

<pause for a moment of gratitude for a working dishwasher>

As I put a clean measuring spoon back in its holder, I noticed a couple sets of measuring spoons already there. My daughter and I love to bake, and I have kept a few sets of measuring spoons on hand for years so we can measure out multiple ingredients without having to pause to wash measuring spoons in the middle of a recipe. But while I am incredibly happy to have a working dishwasher again, the last few months without one helped remind me that it actually is possible to wash all your dishes by hand, especially if you need a quick turn-around. Who knew? 

I stacked up my favorite set of measuring spoons (the only ones narrow enough to fit in some of my spice jars) and removed all the others: Thank you for your service, buh-bye. As I turned back to finish emptying the dishwasher, I realized what had just happened.

The process of evaluating those measuring spoons was practically subconscious and completed before I realized what I was doing. All of the decision-heavy, time-consuming, slow work of decluttering each space and category of my home has been building decluttering muscles and forming habits in me. 

Wax on, wax off, paint the fence, and wash the car – all along I’ve been reducing my tolerance for clutter and building not just declutter muscles, but decision-making muscles.

NOTE: This was where I was going to insert a calm picture of our charming pink dinosaur holding our only remaining set of measuring spoons. But someone used…quite possibly every baking tool we own while creating carrot cake cupcakes and cream cheese frosting tonight, and they are all currently strewn about the kitchen. (Did I mention how thankful I am for my new dishwasher?) We’re all about keeping it real here, folks.

Challenge Week 2, Day 1: Dishes

Donna Joy

This week I’m focusing on “How I Eat” – everything from my dishes, to the space I cook in, to what I buy and how I prepare to eat.

My process has developed a rhythm:

         Pull everything out of its home and make a pile in the middle of the room
         Begin to evaluate
         Suddenly remember where I have stored more items in this category
         Retrieve those items and add them to the pile
         Begin evaluating again
         Bag/box up culled pieces 
         Return surviving items to their homes and try to figure out how on earth they all fit before

Today is dishes – plates, cups, serving pieces, etc. and my process was the same. Empty everything from my cabinets onto the kitchen table. Remember that I have dishes stored in the basement. (I may have progressed to keeping all seasons of clothes in my room, but my dishes still swap out of basement storage from the Friday after Thanksgiving till sometime after New Year’s.)  Retrieve basement dishes. Begin process again. Send children to round up the stacks of dishes stashed in their bedrooms and other places. Wait for them to wash and dry those dishes. Begin process again. 

Most of the actual evaluation process centered on recognizing where I really am in this season of life. I keep 20 dinner plates in my cabinet. I had also been storing a set of inexpensive china, my Christmas dishes and assorted other pieces like the melamine plates I pull out for summer parties. I bought those 20 dinner plates because there was a time in my life when it was not uncommon to have at least that many people over for dinners and parties. Now is not that time. I think it’s been at least two years (well before Covid) since I’ve hosted more than 10 people. The only thing 20 dinner plates in my cabinet accomplishes now is helping my kids get away with stashing plates in their room for way longer than I want to think about. Especially now that we don’t have a dishwasher, I want to limit my dishes so we get in the habit of washing, drying and putting away our own dishes immediately. Well, that’s the goal, anyway. #dreamBIG. 

I recently donated the china. It wasn’t something I felt like I needed to keep dedicating space to. As for the Christmas dishes, I realized over the last few years, I’ve been bringing up my dinner plates and a small sampling of other pieces – not the whole collection – to mix in with my everyday white dishes. It gives the festive touch I like without me spending a day swapping and washing an entire cabinet full of dishes.  So I’m donating everything but those pieces I’ve already been prioritizing. 

I’m not ready to say I’m done with larger gatherings at my house, so I kept a handful of plates and bowls in my cabinet and moved the rest to the now emptier cabinet in the basement housing my Christmas dishes. 

Nothing today was earth shattering or drastic, but when I went to serve dinner tonight, I grabbed a serving bowl from the cabinet. I didn’t grab a serving bowl and remove all the bowls stacked inside it. I didn’t move something out of the way to grab the serving bowl. I just reached up and grabbed a serving bowl. That moment (and all the times it will be repeated) was worth the day’s work.