Welcome to our Coffee Break forum! Here you can chat to other members, not just about cooking, food and recipes, but anything that takes your fancy. Share your stories, culinary or otherwise. So. What’s on your mind today?
The weather's rotten today so I've been busy in the kitchen.I don't know why I've only just noticed this but every cupboard is full to over flowing with stuff that hasn't been used/needed for ages. I'm not talking about food, I talking plates all sizes, bowls,, cups/mugs, glasses, pots and pans and how many frying pans does one person need.So I ask myself should I get rid of it if I don't use it or even need it any more.Surely our Mothers and Grandmothers managed with far less and had smaller kitchens and bigger families. Is your kitchen full up?
My kitchen cupboards are overflowing and kitchen stuff has overflowed to other cupboards in the house. I have things I have never ever used - but I will one day! I occasionally have a cull but there are some things I would never throw out. One day I will make shortbread with a mould and a battenburg cake in my special tin!
i'm not too bad - for the most part my cupboards are tidy and not cluttered.i did have a clear out last year and put a box of mainly baking things in the basement. Things i don't use very often but certainly don't want to bin.I kept having tupperware avalanches in the pantry, which got old very fast, and realised i needed a clear out!!
I really don't know why I have so much "stuff". Why DO I need 5 frying pans,6 mixing bowls,20 dinner plates, just counted 21 mugs (There are only the 2 of us!) numerous baking dishes (could cover every eventuality!) The cupboards are fit to burst but if I give anything to the charity shop I just know that one day I will need that exact same thing!I need help! Can I get counselling??????
EB - I have Tupperware (type) avalanches too as there seems to be no easy way of storing the stuff. The rest of my cupboards sound very much like Violet's, Tubs' and Esther's and I have pans hanging from a metal curtain rail and butchers hooks.
easy answer - Move to a property with a smaller kitchen.Then de-clutter.Then you realise despite de-cluttering and a small kitchen there is still room for 3 larder units to throw in all your "stuff".Thats what i did.But at least now my "stuff" is pretty much all in the kitchen now - rather than spread around, in a window seat, on top of wardrobes, in the drawers under the bedS. everything except my "posh" dinner service stuff.There is a special tin for battenburg? never knew that - i use a square deep tin, and line it with foil making a "dam" up the middle then i line with baking paper. And my brother has a fancy shortbread plate thingy (its really heavy) think it was lakelands, has a thistle imprint - he uses it all the time.I only have 2 frying pans though - one big bertha, that i also cook spag bol's and cottage pie mix in - and the other - i can at a push fry 4 eggs in.And i also have a sort tupperware mountain - but mine is chinese takeaway containers - not from takeaways i hasten to add - i brought 100 from the local chinese supermarket - so handy for leftovers and home made ready meals for the freezer and my version of chopped tin tomatoes (they stack nice in the freezer) also hubby uses them for his nails and screws and odds and ends in the garage.
I'm glad I'm not alone. We seem to have enough stuff to open a tea room, just counted 40 mugs not to mention the cups which no one uses any more. I have given stuff to charity shops but so does every one else, their shelves are over loaded too. Mind you I did pick up a very nice trifle dish for £3 in a charity shop and yes I do use it. I know that if I offered some of it to my daughters they would reply " we don't want any more of your rubbish" I'd forgotten about the baking tin cupboard!
I also have a special kitchen cupboard full of torn up old t-shirts all folded nicely. One day they will come in handy.
We moved in last november, i sorted out all the boxes and put day to day items in the kitchen and 6 boxes in the basement. That was the plan, then i bring something up and it gets squashed into a cupboard, because i hate going into the basement(to many spiders) At the moment we have 4 baby chicks living in the kitchen as it is to cold in the garage even with their heat lamp.
The battenburg tin was sold at one time in Lakeland - I don't know if they still do them It is ready divided into 4 sections. I am a sucker for anything like that. My Tupperware mountain is under control in one particular cupboard. The cupboards are all reasonably tiday but getting anything out is quite a skill. Putting it back is even more difficult!
I wouldn't say I have too much stuff, because I use everything I have (and I have a very small kitchen) - but do admit to 5 frying pans, all of which get used - 3 exclusively for curry-making!I really need to invest in some more pyrex dishes with lids for casseroles etc. - only got one large oval one and one round one (plus several lids which have lost their bases!). I may have too many cake tins - the 28cm round one isn't going to see a lot of use with only 2 people to feed!My main problem is spices and their storage - I have *so* many spices, most of which live in a couple of miniature 'laundry basket' things for want of somewhere better to put them. I tend to buy spices in large amounts, so small spice jars aren't a lot of use to me - although I do have 50 tiny glass jars, and 50 larger ones that I bought from a catering supplier a while back...Like Sam, I have loads of plastic takeaway boxes too - great for freezing leftovers, or storing dry ingredients.My kitchen is certainly cluttered, but I need it ALL!
God yes - my plastic box cupboard is hell, especially when a stack falls over. Everyday mugs & glasses too numerous to count, tins, pans, pots & implements of all types, & all mostly essential or at least revered (like the mini ladle & the grapefruit knife). One of my duaghter's friends fell about laughing when she was advised to get an 'emergency knife' from the emergency cutlery drawer (i.e. knives & forks I don't like but keep for when the dishwasher has the lion's share). I also still have a shed load of plastic items from when the kids were very young (they are now teenagers), and somewhere in my kitchen I have a battery operated spaghetti fork. And a candyfloss maker - also useless!
I moved a few weeks ago, to a larger kitchen with more storage! I got rid of some stuff but still seem to have lots! Now it's all in the kitchen (well, almost) with seldom used stuff in high cupboards and frypans, saucepans and mixing bowls in deep drawers under the bench.I've got 3 frypans, a saut&"233; pan, stir-fry pan and a wok! Probably don't need them all but they do all get used, so I wouldn't get rid of any.
Yes, I've got loads of stuff, all cupboards are full, I also have a dresser in the dining room with my 'best' crockery and a rack with pans hanging in the kitchen, a couple of jars with spoons and implements, a huge deep drawer full of pans, sets of knives in a block and on two magnet rails, stuff everywhere but tidy. My tupperware is in an old wooden wine box under my butchers block as is my attachments for my kitchen aid.I use everything I've got just some things more than others!My mum managed with far less but didn't cook the same sort of things as we do now, and certainly never had dinner parties.x
violet eyes, I completely sympathise. I have way too much stuff for the amount of cooking that I actually do.Food cupboards are another issue all together. There is no rhyme or reason to their order at the moment and they really need sorting and decluttering. The thing is that life is too short to be re-organising cupboards!
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