We hosted a group of 13 for Thanksgiving this year.
It was great fun, and I find myself looking forward to the next time we’ll host.
For the last ten years or so, my family has rotated the hosting privileges/obligations between my mom, my sister-in-law, and me. But for my last few turns, I’ve done my year at my parents’ lakehouse since we were up there anyway for the week. It still counted as my turn, since I had to make the turkey those years.
So it had been a long while since we’d actually hosted here. I think it might have even been pre-blog.
In these years of huge decluttering progress, I must have purged every last one of my trivets. Or table-protecting-thingy-for-hot-dishes. Or whatever your area of the country/world calls those things.
I remember decluttering trivets. I just don’t remember decluttering every last one of them.
But I must have. I couldn’t find a single one in the moment when the oven timer buzzed.
That right there is what I call Decluttering Regret. A thing that is totally real. And the fear of that totally real thing can keep people like me from decluttering at all.
I assume I decided we didn’t really need many/any since the table where we eat almost all the time has a tile top, and doesn’t need protecting.
But y’all, we survived. I folded up some dishtowels for the things that had to be on the table, and ended up serving buffet style anyway.
The people ate and the people had fun. And the people are all that actually matters.
Oh, and I did see visions of how nice it would be to have a bigger kitchen. But by the next Tuesday, I was mostly over it. I don’t need a bigger kitchen on any other day of the year, so the kitchen we have is fine.
P.S. I realized that night that we have two pretty cutting boards that can also serve as trivets. I realized this around 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Six hours after I needed them.
P.P.S. I found a trivet the next week. Not sure how I didn’t see it when I looked in that exact same drawer in my moment of desperation.
P.P.P.S. We survived. And even the frustration I felt toward myself for not having been able to find non-folded-dishcloth trivets or trivet-alternatives in the moment didn’t dim the memory of that meal with our family.
If it’s something we use that rarely, I have no qualms asking guests to bring something we need. I am far too disorganized to remember where items are that I only use once every few years. We are hosting December 25 for the first time ever, and are asking people to bring serving dishes, chairs, etc. And I’m borrowing a table from work (oops, guess I should talk to my boss about that!)
I don’t think I own any trivets! I use my oven gloves when I need one, which is rare.
I like the idea of borrowing things when you’re in need of something for a one-off occasion. Beyond asking friends and family, there are libraries that are now stockpiling items for their patrons to borrow, like sewing machines and power tools. I’m hoping this becomes a nationwide thing.
It took me a few minutes to figure out what you meant by trivet. The only thing I knew of as a trivet is the tripod for cooking with cast iron. Then I figured out its like a hot pad. I have a whole drawer of those. They get used all the time.
Yes! And Amen. I have gotten better at this. I LOVE pretty serving dishes, but I don’t host many perties/dinners, so I’ve had to learn not to buy the pretty things from yard sales etc because they are so cheap, because I don’t have a place to store them. My kitchen “container” fits what we need just fine and it definitely helps keep us from too many dirty dishes as a 8 person homeschooling family 😉
I’m laughing because we hosted Cousin Fiesta (only the cousins and all TexMex food) the day after Thanksgiving. One of the cousins asked where we keep our trivets and I told her to use a folded up towel. We tend to borrow for things that we don’t use often, though this has backfired occasionally and we end up receiving said item for Christmas.
I use flat potholders for trivets (hotmats) when necessary. I have many that my husband’s aunt knit before she passed away and I use them daily for either potholders or hotmats.
I think this is a declutter win! You decluttered things you don’t use very often, got space you use all the time, and were able to work around the “need” when the time came. Good for you!
This has been my experience in almost every situation when I have gone “deep” with decluttering. Sure, it would have been kind of more fun to have had that one particular curling iron on that one Halloween when I decided I needed curly hair, but I had an alternative, and holding on to something for several years only to use it ONCE is just not reasonable!
We had a eureka moment a few years ago and started using books as trivets. If the hot tray is big, I just use a larger boot or several books of similar thickness. It isn’t glamorous, but totally functional since we have a million books in the house. Subsequently, I ditched ALL our trivets.
I LOVE this idea!!!