De-cluttering your house
From time to time, I really get in the “right” frame of mind to de-clutter my house. I recently was in that frame of mind. Now, I say the “right” frame of mind because I never like clutter, but I guess I don’t dislike it enough to completely avoid it.
For example, I go to thrift stores a lot, and I’m a gadget person. If I see an interesting gadget (whether I’ve seen it advertised or not) and it is at a reasonable price, it’s probably coming home with me. Sometimes I find interesting and useful gadgets, while other times, I find interesting but junky gadgets.
I also find plates, cups, bowls, cooking utensils, pots and pans, etc., that somehow find their way into my shopping cart and into my already stuffed cabinets at home.
But this week, I was in the “right” frame of mind to de-clutter my kitchen cabinets and de-clutter I did. I guess the fact that I was home alone for several hours helped me stay focused on what I was doing. Nevertheless, that frame of mind stuck with me this time, and boy, did I ever get things accomplished.
I came across some large cups in the cabinet above my refrigerator, a space that requires someone with the length of legs that mine is to need a step stool to reach. You can probably imagine that those cups have not been used at our house for many years. Yes, they were used often at one point in time, but over the years, they have been replaced by other drinking utensils. Out they went!
I also came across a set of 25th wedding anniversary glasses. There were eight glasses adorned with silver, and they were very beautiful. The problem was they were not from my 25th wedding anniversary but my mother-in-law’s 25th wedding anniversary. After she passed away, Ricky simply couldn’t part with them. So they’ve been sitting in my cabinet, taking up much-needed space for about 27 years now. Our 25th wedding anniversary came and went, but we never used those beautiful glasses. I had actually forgotten that I even had them. Out they went!
In another section of the cabinets, but still so high I needed that step stool, I came across a very large and very pretty platter. It had a picture of a turkey on it, and at some point in the past, I have used that platter once or twice, but not for displaying a Thanksgiving or Christmas Turkey.
While I have baked a turkey at various times throughout the years, I always just bought the turkey breast because all of those bony legs and wings were a wasted commodity at our house.
Besides, the matriarch of both sides of the family insisted on baking the Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey, so my beautiful turkey platter became a dessert tray.
Out it went!
While Ricky was still working, and since he has always enjoyed eating, I would set aside a plate of food from whatever I had prepared for our evening meal (we still call it supper) so that he could take it to work with him for lunch the following day. I had several of those plastic divided plates so that he could simply set it in the microwave at work and have a nice lunch rather than just a cold sandwich. By the way, his coworkers always had plate envy. They would come by and ask, “What’s for lunch today?” Well, since Ricky has retired and no longer has to carry lunch to work with him, I don’t need so many of those plates. Out they went!
After I had finished de-cluttering the cabinets above my head I moved on to the ones that required me to sit in the floor to reach.
Let me just say that sitting down on the floor is easy enough, but getting up after your feet and legs have gone to sleep is not as easy as it used to be. That’s all I’ll say about that! Anyway, I came across several items in the lower cabinets that also had to go. After I had de-cluttered, I spent some time rearranging the items that I still use.
Now I have plenty of space in my cabinet. So the next time I go to the thrift store and those interesting items mysteriously end up in my shopping cart, I will have a place to tuck them away until my next “right” frame of mind comes around.
Bonita Wilborn is Managing Editor, Features Writer, and Advertising Manager at Mountain Valley News and North Jackson Press and can be reached via email at [email protected].
