31 Days of Decluttering - Day #16 - Kitchen Utensils

Today's focus - kitchen utensils.  In true "Product Junkie" fashion, I have a lot of these too.  Every time I walk into Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I walk out with some new kitchen gadget.    

The "before" photo:

Luckily for me, I had already cleaned/organized my utensil drawer when I did Day #3 - Junk Drawer.  All I had to do was go thru what was already in the drawer & utensil holders.

Today's steps according to "From Overwhelmed to Organized":

• Throw out anything that's broken or missing pieces
• Relocate anything that doesn't belong in your utensil/gadget drawer (or wherever you store them)
• Donate all utensils or gadgets that you haven't used in 3 months (except for maybe a few specialty tools that are only used occasionally)
• Consider your cooking and baking habits and purge accordingly (i.e. if you eat a lot of take-out, you probably don't need 6 slotted spoons or 8 spatulas/flippers, or if you rarely bake do you really need 7 whisks?)
• Keep in mind how often you wash dishes and only keep as many utensils/gadgets as you regularly use between washings
• Think about how often you entertain and purge serving utensils proportionately (i.e. if you don't entertain very often, you may not need 4 cake servers or 5 soup ladles)

The items that didn't make the cut:

I really didn't have a lot of utensils that don't get used.  My husband LOVES to cook and uses most of what we have.  I like having a back-up just in case he melts anything from the red/white container.  (The grill and plastic don't go well together).  The spatula it all cut up and dinged.  It's getting tossed!  There's nothing wrong with the grilling prongs, but I already have a set we use for corn on the cob, so I really don't need this set.  It's going to either my mom and dad or my sister.

Even though I only got rid two things basically, I still organized the two utensil holders and further organized my utensil drawer.  That was worth 15 minutes.  :)

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