On a Mission

The last 2 days have been fairly productive in clean out, reorganize and de-clutter arena.

For a non-cook, I had one heck of a lot of cook books. At least half of them haven't been touched for a year. Now they are at Good Will making someone else's life taste better. And in doing that I freed up 2 shelves in the basement den, shelves which now house yarn that was living on the den floor for the last 6 months. That is just a temporary move, of course. I have a closet full of yarn that needs sorting and reduction, knitting books that need thinning and shelves of other random books that need to be moved out. Making my surroundings lighter feels good for my psyche.

Then today I took a hard look at my kitchen. Since I am not a hobby cook (I am more of a cook-to-survive cook), I haven't placed much focus on the tools I use. I had 2 pots that looked dreadful inside - coated pots that chips and scratches in the non-stick surfaces. I try not to think about the fact I probably ate some of those little non-stick pieces. And my silverware was really yucky. We had two very cheap sets that were dented, scratched, worn or bent - and missing various pieces. Then today I noticed that a rubber gasket on my coffee pot was torn and hanging, making for a messy brewing function each morning.

So we took off to the store.

I got a new Kitchen Aid 10 cup coffee pot (my other one was Kitchen Aid and we had it for years - the longest of any coffee pot previously - love that brand!).

Then my husband found a 12 piece pot and pan set of Anolon Advanced Nonstick on deep discount at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and we had a 20% off coupon as well, making it hard to pass up. Minimally I was interested in replacing only 2 pots, but when we found this deal, I was able to get rid of quite a few old pots (2 that were over 40 years old and haven't been used in 15 years). Pictured are 4 of the pieces.

And we purchased a new set of utensils. I went with an old standby, Oneida, in the pattern called Lincoln: a nice simple design with more heft than either of our two older sets. We got place settings for 16 with service pieces. We seldom have 16 guests, but they were packaged in settings for 8. Eight was too few, so we bought 2 packages. The purchases were long overdue - and the time was now.

When the dust settled on the cleaning and replacing this afternoon ... I had created 3 boxes of kitchen stuff for Good Will donation and 3 bags of trash for the county Land Fill. The household spaces where I worked are now less cluttered and more functional. I am still not into cooking, but when I am forced to do so, it will be a pleasure to use my new stuff. And the kitchen surfaces now have a nice uncluttered look.

The downstairs den still has great de-cluttering promise. I also have my eye on my closet, the hall closet, the upstairs pantry, downstairs pantry and the downstairs kitchen equipment storage.