Minimizing the Kitchen
Posted by Mom on October 26, 2011
After reading The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul
Dave Bruno and spending some time on the mnmlist.com blog I have decided to take a shot at the whole minimalist thing. I started with my own closet with great success. It helped that I am between sizes thanks to having a baby a year ago. I now have one drawer in the dresser and one side of a very small closet. I also got rid of a lot of things I just shouldn’t wear anymore (leather shorts) and things I won’t have an occasion to wear (elbow length leopard print gloves). Dave Bruno had the luxury of only limited his personal items and those did not include anything in the kitchen. I plan on this being the hardest thing to minimize.
I did a little research online to see what the “must-haves” are. Some of the websites I found were devoted to cooking and some to minimalism. It was interesting to see what the different sites said to get rid of and what they said to keep.
http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2010/04/how-to-setup-a-minimalist-kitchen-part-1-things-to-avoid/
This is a cooking website. It was pretty serious about what to get rid of although she’s having trouble getting rid of her ice cream maker (!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/dining/09mini.html?pagewanted=all
Above is an oft-sited website about what you need to keep in the kitchen. I really appreciated the tips on how to find cheap kitchen wares but since my goals is to get rid of stuff not to buy more, I am going to try to ignore those ideas (or add them to my Christmas list). In my opinion this list is TOO inclusive. A salad spinner? I can make a pretty good salad without spinning it.
http://www.missminimalist.com/2009/11/whats-in-a-minimalist-kitchen/
This one was my favorite. Not only was the writer intent on keeping the things in the kitchen to a minimum, she also addressed items such as plates and silverware which weren’t mentioned in other blogs. Those things take up lots of room in my current kitchen, so they need to be considered.
So after my research, here is the list of things I plan on keeping. Everything else must go.
- One non-stick pan for Adam & Ava’s eggs
- Small, orange Rachel Ray pot for small items & sauce
- Medium, red Rachel Ray pot for most side dishes
- Large, red pot for pasta
- One large skillet that my grandma gave me for sauteing
- One baking pan for oven stuff
- One cookie sheet for frozen food/pizza
- Coffee maker
- Knife set (until I get the three necessary knifes as spelled out in the NY times article)
- 2 colanders (I often use both. I like to rinse beans in the small one and use the other for pasta)
- Collapisable steamer (until I get a real steamer)
- Glass cutting board (its too loud but I dont want to get a new one)
- Bamboo cutting board
- Glass measuring cup
- Red food server (or spatula, as I call it)
- One slotted spoon
- One serving spoon
- Red tongs
- Red rubber spatula (yes I have a lot of red dishes)
- Silverware for four (forks, spoons, knives)
- 2 silverware settings for Ava
- whisk
- can opener
- 2 red mixing bowls
- 2 black plates
- 4 small bowls
- 2 small plates
- ava’s plate (suction on the bottom, ridges on the side to help her scoop food)
- 2 glasses
- 2 coffee mugs
- 2 tea mugs (Adam likes large mugs, I like cute dainty ones)
- 2 corningware dishes with lids
- 2 small corningware dishes to heat ava’s food in (I don’t like to use plastic in the microwave)
- 1 electric mixer (for the three times a year I make mashed potatoes)
- 1 glass bowl
- 1 to-go pyrex set (to take things to pot-lucks)
- crockpot & panini maker for camping only (to be stored in the pop-up)
- 2 waterbottles for smoothies/shakes
- 4 baby bottles & six nipples
- 2 sippy cups for ava
- oven mitt
Everything else must go! This will include
- Bread Machine
- Popcorn maker
- about six corningware dishes
- rolling pin
- deep fryer
- griddle
- toaster
- red ladle
- a ton of baking dishes and stones
- large crockpot
- many glasses
- corelle plates
- extra baby bottles & nipples
I am going to do my cleanout on Saturday. We will see how it goes!
