Busiest Moms in the World Clutter Challenge Day 5

Busiest Moms in the World Clutter Challenge Day 5 –

A kitchen for the family is usually the busiest room in the house. We cook, eat, clean, do homework, play board games, make puzzles, decorate holiday cookies and the list goes on and on. With careful planning we can enjoy all of these things and more but the whole lot of it will be more enjoyable with less clutter and more organized cabinets, drawers and spaces.

Some kitchens are small, some large, some have living area attached and some are secluded. Some have tiny windows and some have several large windows. But overall, in my experience with myself and observing many moms’ kitchens they all have lots and lots of stuff.

For the next few days as we fight the clutter monster it will be easy to get distracted by wanting to move stuff around.  I remember a scene in Sleepless in Seattle when Tom Hanks was discussing a kitchen remodel and the client wanted to shift all the kitchen cabinets. In movie land, no problem…. but in the real world most of us have to play the kitchen cards dealt to us.

Our mission is just to put things away and get rid of clutter. If we start moving too many things around then we are bound to get overwhelmed or frustrated.

To help us stay on the task of clutter busting this is the perfect time to grab a little notebook and jot down our mommy perfect ideas of where things should go and what things we might need. We the holidays just around the corner this is even more of a perfect time.

I am a collector of dishes and kitchen gadgets. I have discovered over the years that many gadgets that I bought were impulse purchases. I am hoping as the days progress I will discover the intense need to donate some of these items. Who knows, maybe some youngster will swing by the local Goodwill and discover my gadgets and become the next Food Network Star! But, generally when I cook I use my trusty chef knife and pairing knife for most all my cutting and around only 3 of the pots and pans. I have probably right now around 20 pots and pans. I obviously have issues.

Let’s Get Started:

Today we are clutter busting the kitchen utensil drawers. You may store some of your items in canisters or crocks. You will need a box or bag for donations and a bag for trash or broken items.

Listed below are the 17 must haves in every kitchen utensil drawer.  Well 16 if you don’t partake in a nice glass of wine every now and then.  There are only few items that I would have duplicates of for sanitary purposes.   These are cooking spoons, spatulas and tongs.  Having two pairs of tongs when handling raw meat is a must.  It is difficult to cook quickly if you have to take time to sanitize while you are grilling, frying or searing meat. You may also want and extra spoon or spatula.  But don’t over do it, don’t keep 10 of each.  This makes clutter. Clutter gives you more to deal with and takes up space in the drawer that is not necessary.

1. Chef Knife –  I use Wustof, they simply rock.
2. Pairing Knife
3. Bread Knife
4. Knife Sharpener
5. Can opener (one with a bottle opener built in)
6. Instant Read Thermometer
7. Large Spoon
8. Slotted Spoon
9. Spatula
10. Whisk
11. Masher
12. Kitchen Scissors
13. Heat resistant strainer with a handle.   Joyce Chen makes great ones!
14. Tongs
15. Vegetable peeler
16. Wine Opener – Oxo makes great ones.
17. Meat Tenderizer with one side that is flat

There are many other items you may have in your kitchen utensil drawers. For example measuring tools and heat resistant gloves. The deal here is to decided just what you need and what is taking up space that you may not need. If you can’t decided as you zip around the drawers finding clutter put the undecided items in a box. If you find you don’t open the boxes in many weeks or months then donate the whole box! Yeah for clutter busting!

For today we are just setting our timers or turning on the MP3 player for 2 songs. When the timer or the tunes are finished stop. Put your trash in the cans outside and yes there may be trash. With family life we find trash in many odd places. My favorite is the sock drawer of my son’s room but that is another story.

Put the donation items in your car so that you may drop them off the very first chance you get at your favorite donation spot.