Organising the kitchen

When I moved house, I think I at some point ran a bit out of steam. In the kitchen, I had one drawer that was basically all sorts of stuff that didn't belong anywhere else, just chucked in. And I had another one that was mainly full of a cutlery tray where all the cutlery (in the wider sense of the word; is also includes tin openers and corkscrews et cetera) that I have but not use very often, just sits. It mildly irked me over the years.

Now I had three things coming together that made me finally do something about it. The first thing was: having Neil, who is very tidy. The second was: Alan, the neighbour, who told me he had become a bit intolerant to gluten, and he decided to stop making bread. He gave me his supply of flour, yeast and bread improver. The third was: a Saturday with nothing otherwise planned.

I didn't really have anywhere to put Alan’s supplies! Bread paraphernalia had been in the esoteric cutlery tray drawer, and there wasn't any space left there. And I had wanted to do a big declutter and tidy of my house for a while, and this was made stronger by Neil. So I decided to use my Saturday to rethink this situation.

I started with the arbitrary drawer. I took everything out, cleaned it, threw away some of the stuff in there, and then put everything that was left back in a more or less organised manner. Success! 

Next up was the drawer with the esoteric cutlery tray. I decided that some of the esoteric cutlery could live next to actual cutlery tray in the top drawer. Three matching utensils could hang from the wall. I made a note to buy me some suction cup hooks. And I decided to make a special box for the rest.

I made the box. It was a lot smaller than the original tray, that went in the bin. And that created a lot of space. I first cleaned out this drawer as well, and then put the cutlery box in, and lots of stuff associated with baking bread. Everything fit in!

This won't look organised in other people’s eyes! But in mine, it is.

I was quite chuffed with the result! And I want to do several kitchen cupboards as well. It will take a long long time before I get through the whole house, but there is progress, and that is great. Neil was impressed too! I think I will manage to keep some momentum going until I have made serious improvement. Watch this space!