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I’m answering this question: What do I do once the 28 Days steps are under control? I’m talking this week about how to keep going. Where do you focus your efforts once the basics are no longer completely overwhelming?
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--Nony
:/ and also 🙂
So I’m on like, Day 2.5, and everything is fine so far, dishes clean, yay! But after doing all my dishes, I decided that I wanted to do something I havent been able to do in years. Because I only have 1 counter in my kitchen, and it’s normally full of dirty dishes, I haven’t made Christmas cookies in at least 6 years… according to the expiration date on my vanilla extract.
SO … I checked the drawer where I used to store my cookie cutters, and they weren’t there. I’m the kinda person that whenever a drawer won’t close, I grab whatever my eyes fall on that I don’t think I really need and throw it in the trash. Yes, the trash. Nobody wants to buy the junk in my house.
So I assumed I had decluttered my cookie cutters and decided to go out and buy a new set, plus all the ingredients for the cookies, and a new set of baking trays to replace the ones i scrubbed for 20 minutes that still felt sticky once they were dry. Those are now in the trash as well.
When I got home, I put away all the ingredients, folded up the target bags and opened up the drawer where I keep disposable shopping bags, and a glint of metal caught my eye……….. there were my cookie cutters! Cue the eyeroll… but now I’m in a dilemma!
The first place I looked for my cookie cutters was the drawer in my microwave cart. Slob logic says that’s where I should now store them… but that drawer is full of things that go in that drawer. Plastic silverware and straws, pancake rings, those rubber things for opening jars. It’s full of stuff I use often, because it’s in a prime real estate area of my kitchen. There’s no room there for any cookie cutters, either the halloween ones I found, or the snowmen that I bought. (I remembered having some cookie cutters, but didn’t remember which holiday they were for. Very me.)
I tried to declutter some of the stuff from that drawer, but I really do use that stuff daily, and I haven’t used cookie cutters in years until today. I was only able to throw away a couple napkins and move a random box of pudding to the pantry.
There’s plenty of room in the drawer i use for disposable bags, cause we are the rare couple that actually use more of those than we bring home, (I even end up buying tiny trash bags sometimes) but should I put the cookie cutters back into a drawer where I literally just lost them TODAY?
A second, unrelated thing… when I went to check my spice cupboard above the stove for food coloring, EGADS! It was nasty. I said a silent thank you to my Mother in Law who recently bought me a really high quality step ladder as an early Christmas present. No more standing on wobbly barstools to change lightbulbs for me! Woot! It was amazing and made it so easy to clean out that cupboard.
I followed the rules, mostly. Obvious trash went first. I chucked about half the stuff in there. Then, I switched out my ‘spice box’… I like to keep my spices in a cardboard box. The spice bottles are small and end up pushed to the back where I can’t see them. Then I end up re-buying stuff I already have. So now i put all my spices in a box so I can just pull out the whole box while I’m cooking and put the whole thing back when I’m done. The Maruchan brand 12 pack ramen boxes are exactly the right size for my spice cupboard, but the one I was using was grimy, so I switched it for a new one. I had a box in my pantry with just 2 packets of ramen left in it. But I couldn’t just put the clean box back into that cupboard, cause it was genuinely gross. So I pulled everything out, (I know I’m not supposed to do this) cleaned out the cupboards, and put it all back. I was able to put my foil and plastic wrap in long-ways! So much more space! And without the foil box sticking out, I can even close the spice cupboard doors!
Maybe I could use a second ramen box for my cookie decorating supplies and cookie cutters and store it up there too? I might not think to check the spice cupboard for cookie cutters, but it’s 100% the first place I look for food coloring, piping bags, and sugar sprinkles, and those are all cookie baking supplies too.
Thoughts?
Help! I’d love to become a Patreon but I have questions! I’ve tried emailing but haven’t heard back. I’m in the decluttering closed group on Facebook but members are not allowed to post and there is no interaction. Is the secret group better than that?
Jimmie,and
Except for the VERY IMPORTANT distinction of YOU following through so quickly and thoroughly (Go YOU!) 8 ) with decluttering the drawers/cabinets mentioned, purchasing needed supplies, AND cleaning (actually removing dirt and grime from) the cabinet…most everything else you said is so ME! But I am horrible at following through,
(AND at throwing things away when they have outlived their usefulness.) 8 (
But I THINK Dana might say (to both of us) that the answer to the question is more about where WE (any one of us, in OUR own home) WOULD look for an item than where we SHOULD look for it. Right? So it sounds like you found your own solution. By putting cookie cutters with items/ingredients you would use to bake (even something that doesn’t require cookie cutters), you will find them when needed. And hopefully, you might access that area often enough for NON-cookie-cutter-baking that you will get accustomed to SEEING the cookie cutters in that spot, and THAT will BECOME the first place you would look! 8 )
And take a minute to celebrate YOU! Sounds like you are in a roll. Yay!
Disclaimer…*I* am NO expert at ALL, and the comment above is just MY interpretation of Dana’s amazing advice! 8 )
Sorry, that comment should have said “Jimmie Lynne”
May God Bless you Dana & all your followers. I totally agree with above comments that the solution is “where would you look first” not should & it sounds like you’ve figured it out & are doing amazingly well, with all the cleaning, declutter & using of space. So lovely to hear your story & well done!