Last Friday night, as hubby was lovingly frying fish for dinner, he asked for tongs.
Right at the moment when he needed them.
I decided to not be irritated since I would do the exact same thing. Of course, it so happened that I had used the tongs to cook supper the night before and then left immediately for a rehearsal.
Which meant I didn’t clean the kitchen, and they were sitting inside a once-soaking-but-now-stinking pot, with various other not-so-clean dishes piled on them.
In the pulling out process, less-than-lovely water splashed . . . and landed in my utensil drawer.
My open utensil drawer.
Since I had to remove everything anyway, I decided it was as good a time as any to declutter that drawer.
Here’s the shot of the drawer at the moment when I realized I needed a before picture:
Here’s everything that came out of it:
I removed EVERYthing, tossed the liner in the washing machine, wiped out the drawer, and threw away the trash.
Yes. I said trash.
Bottlecaps, construction paper, and pickle-jar lids.
Putting things back gave me the opportunity to evaluate which items I could live without.
I decided I only needed two spatulas.
Since I had no idea what that (scary-looking) thing was, I let it go.
The cheese-slicer (that I didn’t know I had) went into the knife drawer. I also refer to it as my Anything That Cuts drawer. That’s where I would look for it.
When all was said and done, I didn’t get rid of tons:
But the drawer is much more usable (and cleaner) now:
Sometimes, you just have to celebrate the I-had-to-do-it-anyway projects.
I’ll be linking this up to OrgJunkie’s 52 Weeks of Organizing.
What IS that scary looking thing anyway? Seems like I’ve seen one of those somewhere. lol Today I cleaned two of my kitchen cabinets out (took EVERYTHING out of them, wiped the dust away, purged a few no-longer-needed items, and washed the dishes before putting them back. It took me half the day to do three cabinets! I guess I’ll be at it again tomorrow. It does feel good to get them clean and purged!
It’s a pampered chef tool for cutting fruit decoratively. It’s plastic so it doesn’t cut you!
Veggie/fruit corer?
It’s for grapefruit I think…
Yes, the scary looking gadget is for grapefruit!
Sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do….
I have been doing sone serious de littering around here this month. I did not chronicle the kitchen drawers, but I did document 4 other areas! They were all a the “had to be done” stage.
It’s for cutting melons into a decorative zigzag like this: http://0.tqn.com/d/homecooking/1/0/Q/L/melonbskt7sbs.jpg
(because we all have time for that, surely). I think they give them away free somewhere because I have one in my utensil drawer too and I surely did not pay money for the thing. I’ve never even used it!
You should win the sticking wih it award! Good for you!
My jaw dropped at the Anything that Cuts Drawer. That is brilliant. I might actually know where my scissors are at any given moment if I did that!
Oh goodness…look what I missed when I wasn’t reading your posts daily! I may have to drag my 17 year old dishwasher boy (aka son) over here to read that someone other than his crazy mom has an ‘Anything That Cuts’ drawer. Too funny!!!
I have two normal size drawers and two half drawers in my kitchen. Even with those few options I have an “anything that cuts ” drawer. Its between my stove and my sink because that is where I do most of my prep. I thought everyone had one?
I have an “Anything that Cuts” drawer, too. That includes the can opener, because that’s where I would look for it.
I call my drawer ‘the knife drawer’. but it has kitchen shears and knife sharpener in it too. I have a knife holder and trays to hold everything. Even with that my drawers were overflowing until my daughter introduced you and your concept to me. I just did the ‘one in, one out’ with my Christmas gifts. It feels SO good!!!