Day 7 - 30-Day Declutter Challenge . . .

The decluttering suggestions for today are: 

• Purge kitchen cabinets 
• Medicine cabinet: Get rid of expired or medications no longer needed

Of course I chose the easy one first and I kinda cheated, because I don't keep meds in the medicine cabinet.  They live in the linen closet, which I know will be addressed on another day on one of the calendars  :-)  So - on to the medicine cabinet!

 

I know you're looking and wondering where the medicine cabinet is . . .   This was one of the coolest things I did when this bathroom got redone about five years go.  That picture is the medicine cabinet!!

Seriously!  How cool is that?!  :-D  I went through everything.  A few things got tossed, a few put away in more appropriate places, and the shelves got Windex'd.  They were dirtier than I realized!  I also did the glass shelf below the cabinet.  One of my mother's friends got that for me a million years ago.  It's been across the country and back and had at least one of the shelves replaced.  I would be lost without it!  Here are the finished results.  I have a LOT of facial masks.  And beauty water to spray on my face.  Now if I could only remember do use these things . . .  :-D 

This was a pretty simple task.  I was not looking forward to the kitchen cupboards.  They took longer than I expected, but the most stuff to divest came out of just a few of the cupboards.  Here's my kitchen.

This one includes the over-the fridge-cupboard and the small lower cupboard right next to the fridge .

And this one shows the cupboards on the other wall.  I just realized that there are two more cupboards that I probably should have gone through - one has little used kitchen items and the other has all the pots and pans - these cupboards are on opposite sides of the island.  I did take a cursory look at the pots and pans one, but totally forgot about what I call the hidden cupboard.  Oh well.  Another day  :-D 

I started with the cupboard over the sink.  This one had a lot of stuff that never gets used, including some Farmer's Fridge jars that I saved when I was going to take salads to work for lunches.  Now that I'm not working, I have no use for them. 

Here is the "after" on this one.  A few sport bottles and my Thermos moved over from the dish cupboard to live here and a lot of stuff ended up in the pile for the Second Chance Shop. 

Same thing with this next cupboard, which is where all the glasses live, as well as some plant supplies for fertilizing the violets.  

I had a lot of Mason jars.  I don't can.  I don't know why I held on to them all this time.  The all have lids, and someone will be happy to get them, I'm sure.  I divested a few more mugs - how many mugs does one human need?  Seriously. 

Here's the dish cupboard.  Nothing much changed here except for the aforementioned sport bottles and Thermos.  That to-go coffee thing went into the pile for the Second Chance Shop.  I don't drink coffee.

The next cabinet was the over-the-fridge one.  This is the "after" view.  I was able to divest a bunch of plastic cups that were in that basket (which now holds a Banneton bowl for when I attempt sourdough again), and was able to move the flour and sugar that was on the left over to the cupboard above the cooktop.

Yeah.  The cupboard over the cooktop . . . yeah . . . this is the "after" view - it was a mess and there were a bunch more Mason jars hiding here, too.  They all went to the pile for the Second Chance Shop and you can see how much more room was make, since I moved a bag of flour, a bag of sugar, and a bag of powdered sugar here from the previous cabinet.  I also cleaned the doors and the upper trim, all of which were groady beyond belief.  I suppose that's to be expected on the cabinets right above the cooktop (which is also quite groady and I really need to clean it).

There's a narrow cabinet right next to the fridge that is the same size as the spice cabinet above it.  The lower cabinet has pullouts and I have things like the sifter and blades for my food processor, as well as these.  

I checked with a friend who is a champion pie-maker.  She asked which was heavier, which means that the pin would do more of the work, and which felt best in my hands.  The one on the right was the winner and the red-handled one went into the pile for the Second Chance Shop.

Next was the upper wall cabinet.  This is an "after" shot.  A few things were able to be removed from here - mainly large bowls with lids that I never use.  

Another "after" shot.  I will be doing a little more re-arranging in here - that box from Pampered Chef is still sitting in my entryway and there's stuff in there that needs to get put away!  Most if it will likely go into this cabinet.  I let go of a bunch of old Tupperware that never gets used and a few other items that I have never ever used. 

Here are the fruits of my labor.  All set for the Second Chance Shop. 

Next were the food cabinets.  I was not too excited about doing them, either.  I didn't take a lot of photos - I mean, who wants to see someone's food?  There were things that were years out of date and were tossed.  These cans and items all had best by dates in 2020, and most of the cans are only a couple of months out of date.  I can't give anything out of date to the food pantry, but I think I can eat most of this stuff with no ill effects.  And I'm leaving it out on the counter to remind myself to use this stuff up.  There are three jars of Branston Pickle (the gold lids), though, that I'm going to toss.  I hate tossing it because these are jars that I got at the Irish store, which means they were made in the UK which means that there's no high fructose corn syrup in them.  But their best by date was in Jan 2020 - that's almost a year out of date.  I think they need to go.  I may or may not drink the Crystal Light lemonade - I need to see if it has sweetener in it.  If so, it's probably a sweetener that does me wrong and so it will get tossed as well. 

Another productive day.  I'm tired.  This took me most of the day.  I got out for a walk this morning, and then got started.  I took a lunch break and then got back at it and finished around 3.  A full garbage bag went out to the bin, as well as a full bag of recycling.

7 days down, 23 to go!

Nothing happening yet with the amaryllis.

I suppose you might have to be of a certain age to appreciate this one, but it brings a smile to me every time I hear it  :-)