I share my (never-ending) decluttering adventures here, but I think it’s also important to share “after the project” stories.
Last fall, I decluttered my kitchen cabinet and replaced my humongous collection of plastic cups with grown up GLASS glasses. I knew I had to replace them one-for-one because I simply didn’t have enough room in the cabinet to add my new set of glasses to what I already had.
Y’know, since my cabinet was the “container” I had.
I removed the old ones and put in the new ones and then filled in spaces with favorites we wanted to keep.
What I didn’t fully realize at the time was that I wasn’t using the One for One Rule. I was actually putting in one new glass for three or four plastic cups.
Plastic cups can be stacked, glasses cannot. The space that one glass now uses was once occupied by three (sometimes four) stacked cups.
But the point of this post is to say that I don’t miss my plastic cups. Or my MANY cups.
I have significantly fewer options for my beloved icewater, but I’m okay.
In fact, I’m happier this way. The glass glasses are serving the purpose of making me feel like a grown-up, and even when we have guests over, I still have plenty of glasses to put out.
I like pointing these things out to myself because it helps me to know (the next time I declutter) that MOST of what I’ve decluttered . . . I don’t even miss.
What have you decluttered that you don’t miss at all?
--Nony
We used to stack glasses in our cabinet. (Shame on me.) DH and I usually buy a brand of mustard that comes in handy glasses that can be reused as drinking glasses. Since the glass the mustard is sold in is free, and reusable, and actually pretty and sturdy, we just kept keeping the mustard glasses after using up the mustard…until we had a lot of them. Some time last year or so I decluttered our cabinet and repurposed many of the mustard glasses as containers for our pens and pencils. We still have seven drinking glass mustard glasses, and that is plenty.
Congrats on your grown-up glass glasses! 🙂
I always stack glasses, is that bad then? I’ve never broken a glass – somehow neither of my children has either (although they’ve spilt enough juice on the carpet, the darlings!)
Like the previous commenter, I have ‘free’ glasses – our Nutella comes in little pots that you use as glasses. I now have too many, I need to declutter them!
Can I keep my tumblers…I don’t have that many and I have a 2 yr old a 1yr old and a 2 month old…all my glasses would be broken! My 1yr old has already broken my butter dish and a set of salt n pepper shakers! Lol although in a few years when my kids stop picking up my cup and throwing my drinks all over themselves I would like to go to all glass wear 🙂
I had the same experience as you with the purge of the omni-present plastic cups. You know, the kind they give away free at the Halloween parade as advertisements? (and other events as well) They now live in our pantry for that “just in case” moment we need to take a drink on the road. I’ve always loved drinking out of glass more that plastic anyway. They other thing I don’t miss is all those extra plastic food storage containers that seem to breed in the cabinet overnight. Now I limit us to what will stack in three neat piles: one rectangle, one square, and one small snack size. There’s a larger one that holds all the lids. Yay for limits! Now I need to put that same logic to use in my clothes closet!
I purged coffee mugs, drinking glasses ( both glass and plastic), plates, and bowls. I haven’t missed any of them. I think I can purge some more.
I finally got rid of all the freebie plastic cups and lids we had collected over the years, mostly from chain restaurants that serve them with kids’ meals. We used them to death at home when the girls were little, but I have one off to college now and one who’s in high school, so I’m pretty sure everyone in my house is old enough to handle glass… LOL! I bought a dozen big and a dozen small glasses at the dollar store and feel like such a grown up using them, but won’t lose sleep if one or two end up broken.I love love love not having all that plastic junking up my cabinets.
I have a cabinet for the grown up glasses and one for the plastic stacking cups. When my mother-in-law comes over she always uses a glass glass and I’m over here just steaming like WE DON’T USE THOSE WOMAN! The absurdity of my thought process is making me giggle.
OK, that IS funny!
This is the funniest comment I’ve read today! We also have separate cabinets for glass and plastics, but I’ve had to limit our plastic cups to half of one shelf, using the rest of the room for storage containers, which will be my very next purge. It’s just waiting on me to get everything clean so I know which containers have lids, and which lids have containers.
Dana, when I read your blog, or listen to your podcasts, I feel like I’m hearing and seeing myself in the future, as almost everything you say about how you were when your journey first started describes me NOW. I hope I can be diligent in following in your footsteps. 🙂
Lol! I have to watch my reactions to my MIL too because I do the same. Even though, of course, there is nothing wrong with her using the glass glasses 🙂
We did this with our dishes–bought two nice sets and ditched all of the old, unmatching stuff we’ve had for the last 14 years. I WANTED to keep some of the smaller plates because I liked them, but in the end, we decided we didn’t need to and got rid of everything that didn’t match.
BUT THEN…we bought new glasses, intending to do the same thing. Washed and started using the new, but never got rid of the old. Going to do this tonight!
Something I decluttered, but don’t miss? The list is endless. Movies we never watched, games we never played, books I always thought I’d read again…I just told my husband last night that our tiny apartment is starting to look bigger…and he thanked me for all my hard work. 🙂
I love hearing that! Go you!
I’m still drinking out of my “Uncle Si” Tupperware glass. It’s a matter of weight for me. I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder that makes my arm and hand numb and I have dropped things I thought I had a good grip on. The extra weight of the glass causes me arm fatigue. I do have grown up glasses for everyone else. 🙂
What you are doing makes sense though. It’s not a “glass is somehow better than plastic” issue. It’s a “keeping what really works for you” issue, and you are doing exactly that, which is great.
Thanks, Ellen, I hadn’t considered it that way before. Someone bought us glasses for Christmas two years ago so we could get rid of “that nasty plastic” and I’ve been feeling the guilt ever since.
Ruth, my comment might be coming too late for you see, but I have to tell you this – do not ever let people make you try to make you feel guilty for using plastic instead of glass. Everyone (it seems) is down on plastic and touting the virtues of glass containers. I have arthritis in my hands, and like you, things sometimes slip right out of my fingers, so I use plastic. When I drop one, it doesn’t break (which means I don’t have to drag out the vacuum cleaner to get all the little shards of glass up), and the weight of the plastic containers doesn’t hurt my hands, either.
I have to make concessions as I get older, and I just don’t pay attention to criticism to anyone who hasn’t walked a mile in my clogs.
Put me right in the corner of “Use what works for you”!
that should be “…criticism FROM anyone…”
But I’ll bet you knew that.
Elaine, arthritis in my hands, too, but I hate to sound like too much of a cripple, lol. Same for my hips and feet which is why I haven’t burned my Crocs just yet. I get the same pangs of regret when I hear everyone praising their iron skillets. I gave away some of the best, because I couldn’t lift them empty, much less full. Thanks for the moral support!
We are klutzes in my house. DH doesn’t like glass because of all the breakage. But, I was sick to death of the cheesy plastic restaurant cups that filled our cupboards. I kept 2 small stacks for DH and the girls (as the crack, I toss them into the recycling). I found some really pretty semi-translucent turquoise plastic drinking glasses at Target and bought 2 sets of 4. Now at least I have “pretty” plastic for me and for company. 😉
Well, I cannot imagine parting with my plastic cups. I’m SO not a grown-up who uses grown-up glasses! 🙂 Regarding your question, though, I can’t even REMEMBER what all I decluttered last summer – that’s how little I miss it!
I think that soon I’d like to go one better and sort out my “half set” glasses. Basically, I don’t know how many glasses of each type I have, just that I’ve lost a bunch and my single-purpose barware is mixed in with them. (Basically I have one scotch glass, one martini glass, and any guest that is second to ask for that gets theirs in a wine glass if they’re lucky.) Then again for the tumbler-type and juice-type glasses, I’m probably going to be in the same boat again soon if I replace all my “half set” glasses with an almost-complete double set.
First… I can relate to the plastic v glass beverage containers. I strategically shopped for fun/unique glasses when I was preparing to buy my own condo. I pitched all of the plastic containers before moving out of my last place and love remembering the story with each glass that I own. I do have a set of plastic antique tumblers that I inherited recently from my 96 yo grandmother. Those are keepsakes that I will cherish forever.
Regarding things I’ve purged and whether I miss them…. heck no. Like another poster/commenter once I part with it, I have a hard time remembering what it even was.
There’s a world of difference between a set of nice plastic glasses that you like and mangy-mismatched set of every cheap glass you’ve picked up at an event. I went through a phase where glass glasses were too heavy and my Mom got me some really nice plastic ones, even special margarita glasses, and cool tumbler that looked like textured ice. Now that I am doing better, and can do glass again (Ruth I hope you can say the same some day whether you continue to like plastic or not) I do find I like drinking out of nice glasses better. The other thing about plastic is that it does eventually break down from the detergents and the dishwasher heat, and needs to be replaced for health reason which probably those of use who have 20 or so mismatched plastic glasses around are not doing.
I’ve desperately got to get back to only having glasses I like. We haven’t ditched the kids plasticware yet and hubby has some sport event cups that are large and he likes them for smoothies and post run drinks. Part of the catch 22 of decluttering at our house is that I hate shopping and I am really picky and really frugal. I’ve wanted new every day dishes for ages, but I haven’t found anything I like. And in generally I will only go shopping when I feel forced-because we don’t have something-and so I don’t get rid of the stuff I don’t like because until I get something new, well we may not have nice fun everyday dishes but we’re not eating off the table, and we may not have a matching set of 4 glasses, much less enough for company, but we do have something to drink out of. Anybody else get stuck on that?
Oh and Nony, if you are still reading this and have not fallen asleep- One organizer tip that actually does work for me, is to load your glasses into the cabinet the way bartenders do. So all the tall ones line up behind each other, and so do the short ones. That way no one who wants a tall glass has to reach over the short ones to put it away or get it out. Think about all the times they have to get out and put away glasses. I find it makes the formerly-before-I-discovered-your-blog-dreaded task of unloading the dishwasher easier.
Oh and what I purged that I don’t miss is that I forced my kids to purge the three baskets of “misc” toys, mostly party favors and stuff that didn’t fit any other category, down to one, everyone’s life got much easier. Now my kids actually play with toys they like instead of dumping the bins out and then fighting me about picking it up.
I just started canning last year, so as children (and I) break the juice glasses and our sets are getting mismatched, I plan to use jelly jars as drinking glasses. I suppose we’ll only be short when canning season starts, before we eat through a few jams and jellies!
I don’t miss the enormous bag of clothes I shipped off to thred up last weekend. Thank you for your post about how you don’t care who helps de clutter your stuff / who makes money off the things you de clutter. I needed that to let go of a bunch of stuff. Somehow I had a ton if clothes that I was waiting to take to a consignment shop. Waiting like 4 years… The perfectionist in me just needed permission to be free of it and get over “this is worth something and I shouldn’t just give it away” thoughts. Now I have a closet and I can see the clothes I actually wear!!!
I LOVE this comment, Paula! And with Thred Up, you’ll make some money, right?
I don’t know that I’ve ever missed clothes that I purged. I do have to say that most of my purges aren’t good enough for ThredUp to take, but someone can use them! Goodness knows I don’t need anymore rags.
I had a surge of decluttering this morning. I’ve tossed 20 plastic containers in to the recycling bin … toilet cleaners,air freshener spray, shampoo, kitchen spray, bathroom spray, hand cleaners. Etc. Every sink seemed to have a container a quarter full, so I tipped the contents in to one bottle of each flavour and hauled some new ones out of my hoarders store. ( they put the tax up a few years ago so I bought way too many products at the lower rate. NB Bleach doesn’t keep very long – it becomes salt water after a year or so) The house is bigger and the drains are fragrant from all that rinsing! Your blog does inspire me. ♥
I can only think of one thing out of a bunch of stuff that I regret decluttering–so that’s a pretty good ratio! (I don’t regret it as much as my kids do–oops!)
I haven’t regretted anything – yet! I’m sure I will at some point, but it’ll only last a minute and if I find my life has changed and I truly need it, I will buy a new one, but if not I will make due for a minute and go on down the road. Thanks for the inspiration! I do need to take another look in my kitchen cabinets… I know I can purge more now that they are better and I can see what I truly use!
i must admit, i really struggle with the one-for-one concept. even though one of my sets of dishes is a chipped, mis-matched set that i bought half at Goodwill and the other half at Big Lots. Even though we never use it for anything other than as platters for defrosting meats, or putting food that needs to drip after it comes out of the frying pan. Even though we never have a use for teacups and saucers. EVER. even though it ceased being our go-to dishware after i bought a set of wooden salad plates and bowls at a yard sale for $1. Even though i have a set of “nice” plates handed down from my grandparents. the fact that the bowls that go to this set are mine and hubby’s favorites for pasta somehow is stopping me from getting rid of the entire set. logically, seeing it written out like that, i know i should maybe just keep the bowls (although i think more than one of those might be chipped come to think of it) and get rid of the rest of it…. or all of it…..
I may be wrong, but your new glasses look like the ones that I picked out for Christmas from World Market! I had broken several glasses and wanted a new set. Today I am planning to take my old glasses to a resale shop, so I guess I am practicing the one in/one out rule!
Decor, so many decorations.
I don’t tend to buy them, but they end up here somehow.
I have a few friends who moved far away & I acquired items I thought I wanted, or was urged to try. I gave it about a year and said, nope!! Bye, bye!!!
I still have a huge TV moving box of wall hangings that we haven’t unpacked from moving 2.5yrs ago. Part of the reason I haven’t gone through there is I have a sentimental mirror from my grandmother’s house that requires near professional hanging techniques. So I don’t want it sitting out to get broken while we declutter the rest.
In a strange turn of events, my family got me this decently large wooden box for a birthday or Christmas. I really had dread on what to do with it. But turns out I had a place for it, and could use it as a container for any non currently used decor. It’s big enough to be a reasonable limit to extra decor, but small enough that it’s clear there’s a LIMIT!!