Day 20

Greetings!

Today I'm revisiting the kitchen. One of my favorite things to do with my mom as a kid was visit kitchen supply stores and look at the fancy tools. We would play this game with the tools. Basically we'd try to stump each other showing a gadget and the other person had to figure out what it did. This game began my obsession with cool tools. If it has a nifty purpose, I want it. I may never use it but once or twice in my life, but I want it anyway.

You don't want to see the drawers in my kitchen.

The process of going through these nifty gadgets and getting rid of the cool tools that I never use is something I dread. Why? I don't really care about the little figurines or other dust catchers that people collect, they don't have a whole lot of sentimental value to me. What really brings a tear to my eye is the cool gadgets.

I've been trying to figure out a way to keep all of them without living in clutter. I'm seriously considering some sort of modern art creation that would require welding the stuff I never use together...I just don't know where I'd put it...but it sounds cool, huh?

Anyhoo, how does one go about figuring out what one uses and doesn't use? Put all the tools in a bucket. A Tuff Tote works nicely. Take out your favorite spatula (you know you have one) and can opener (unless you use an electric that sits on your counter or something) and any other obviously used item. JUST ONE OF EACH! You can put these in your drawers.

Take the Tuff Tote with all the rest of your gadgets and take it out to the garage or somewhere else where it is not as easily accessible. Write down the date you did this and put it on the tote somewhere. The key here is to only take out stuff when you use it. After you use it, you can put it away in the drawer. One month later go back and look in the Tuff Tote. Any of that stuff you have not used in a month...so you probably don't need it. The only exceptions that I would make are the stuff you only use for special occasions. Holiday cooking is a bit different and sometimes I use different stuff. For those things, I'd take them and store them in a holiday bin. Break them out when you break out your decorations so you can celebrate with all your cool tools.