Operation Big House, Tiny Kitchen

I'd been kicking around the idea of downsizing our dishes and utensils for a few weeks, when finally, a few Saturdays back, I up and did just that.

It happened rather unexpectedly. I didn't have a plan to purge our kitchen of its extra dishes before I found myself doing it. I had just gone to tackle a portion of the mountain of dishes that had piled up over the week when I hit a breaking point.

"I don't even need most of this stuff!"

And that thought did it. I was sick and tired of washing All. These. Dishes. It all suddenly made sense with a terrible clarity that eluded me before. I was caught in a vicious cycle of dirty plates, cups, bowls, etc. The more dishes I had, the more dishes we used before we finally ran out and I was forced to wash something so we could eat. And by the time there were no more clean dishes to be used, the amount of dirty ones was staggering, and required nearly a day to complete. That was if I tackled them all, which I rarely did in their entirety. 

(It's not easy to admit this about myself publicly, but it's true: I really, really stink at keeping up with dirty dishes...or laundry...but that's for another post.)

So I did what was necessary and began to go through all the cupboards to get rid of extra or unused items. Doing things like this used to make me feel mildly anxious, and as a result I ended up keeping [much] more than was necessary other times I'd purged. But this time around, it only took me a moment or two to decide for most things. I just began asking myself the same questions about every utensil or dish I pulled from its shelf or drawer.

1) Do I use this?

• If Yes, proceed to the next question
• If No, recycle, donate, or sell

2) Do I need this?

• If Yes, proceed to next question
• If No, recycle, donate or sell

3) Do I have multiples of this?

• If Yes, choose best one(s); recycle, donate or sell extra(s)
• If No, keep for time being

This method of going through cupboards meant realizing that I had dishes I never used, such as the orange plastic Philadelphia Flyers cup Nathaniel brought home for me after seeing Roger Waters perform The Wall in concert. I'd previously held onto it because it was a souvenir, it was the Flyers, it was blah blah blah. The conclusion I came to was that I was keeping this cup for reasons that had nothing to do with utility, so it got put into the recycle pile. 

There were things I used, but didn't need, like the eight hundred (give or take) clear plastic containers I'd saved to store leftovers in. No, it really wasn't that many, but when I'd exhausted that supply and had to wash them all, it sure felt like eight hundred. I resolved to only use the ceramic containers I had on hand when I needed to store something, and to eventually invest in a good set of stackable, sealable, reusable containers. I'm using the benefit of hindsight in writing this: I wish I'd kept some. We aren't spending bus fund money on stuff like this yet, what with bigger projects to finance first, so I'm definitely wishing I had saved a few small ones. It's not totally practical to have only a few large covered dishes for meals, and no smaller ones for opened cheese or half an onion, that sort of thing. Lesson learned.

Most of the multiples that needed to be decided upon were things like plates, bowls, cups and flatware. It's hard to write about what I did here without deteriorating into a simple list of "Six saucers, six salad plates, and so on...". So in a nutshell, I kept enough for all of us, with extras in case of guests or breakage, and little else. Other multiples, like two 13" x 9" glass baking dishes, were simpler decisions: we really only need one. Goodbye, duplicate.

So when it was all said and done, I'd gotten rid of approximately half of what was crowding up our cupboards and - more frequently - our counter top. Of the half that I decided had to go, approximately 50% will be donated, 25% will be recycled or trashed, and the last 25% are things I think I could possibly sell at the flea market.

So does this mean that I'm finally keeping up with the dirty dishes?

Does this answer that question?

Unfortunately, no. It was definitely part of my idea that I'd be washing dishes every day so we wouldn't run out, but I haven't been diligent on this. The Good News is that it takes much less time to wash the things I need when we run out. I've begun to do smaller loads more frequently, and it's easier to find the time to do it, too. I find that I can get a significant amount done just in the time I have dinner in the oven or on the stove.

As we get closer to moving onto the bus, I know we'll have to pare down what we have even more, and some things will need to be replaced. For instance, we're planning to switch most of our metal pots and pans over to cast iron, for the ease of use and cleaning. All of our ceramic plates and dishes will eventually be enameled metal, and likely our glasses will eventually be metal as well (mostly because since this bus will be mobile, we want as few breakable things as possible).

But I'm still glad I did it.

Even baby steps towards downsizing are helpful. There's still a long (long, long, long...) way to go, but I often remind myself that every little bit helps. Now if I could just keep caught up with the dishes...