Permission: The 5 Things You Can Let Go Of Series, Kitchen Things
Have you ever thought, "I just need someone to give me permission to throw this out"? That's what this Permission series is all about. We'll walk through room by room, list 5 items per room, and why the items can be easy to get out of your house.
As always, it's your house and your stuff. You may actually need and use the things I suggest you toss. But if you don't, give yourself a little more freedom to find a little more peace in your house by tossing things that you don't need.
Today we'll be in the kitchen. I probably should tell you that the pantry is one of my favorite places to declutter and organize. I'll try to not get too crazy on what you can toss pretty easily. If you want more than 5 items, just let me know.
1. Take out condiments
We've all been there. A major craving, a hurried lunch break, or just a Friday night. Time for a (insert favorite drive-thru restaurant here)! You get home, divvy up the food and condiments and then you are left with 5 ketchups, 3 mayos, and more special sauces than you can count. Well, that special sauce isn't sold in stores and those ketchup packets are just the right size for... something, right? Nah, go ahead and throw away all the things you are going to use right then because in a month, you are going to open your fridge and your stash of these miniature condiments are going to all spill out onto the floor just waiting to be stepped on, cleaned up, and thrown away. Cut out the daunting and time consuming middle-man.
ACTION - open up that fridge and pantry and toss those take out condiments.
2. Expired food
Winter can be harsh on the ole menu planning. You're cold and all you want is to be able to throw some beans in a pot for soup. That winter has come and gone and so have ten more since then. It's time to toss the expired items. If a food pantry won't accept them (they won't) then why should you eat them?
ACTION - open up that pantry and toss anything from 2017 and before.
3. Plastic food containers
Did you grow up with a butter dish as your leftover container? If so, you had a forward thinking, money savvy adult in your home. (I mean, Rubbermaid has made a killing off of making reusable ones and Tupperware has been doing it for ever.) However, those handy containers were not meant to be used over and over again. Let's not start on the heating in the microwave talk. No matter your thoughts on these things you probably most certainly fall in the "missing lid" camp.
ACTION - open the plastics drawer and toss anything that is a reuse (butter dishes be gone) discolored, warped, or missing a lid or container.
4. Water filter
We'll be super short here. I'm guessing it's time for you to change your water filter. This is just a friendly reminder.
ACTION - change your water filter.
5. Strawberry huller
If you are unfamiliar with a strawberry huller I'll give you a mental picture. Imagine tiny metal tongs that take leaves off of your cute little strawberries. Genius, right? Of course! Like so many gadgets they were thought up to save time and energy. So if you have 10 bushels of strawberries to de-stem every day, a strawberry huller is your gadget. But what if you only have 1lb of strawberries for a week? A spoon or knife or even just your fingers will do just fine. Okay, you might not have a strawberry huller but the point is that you probably have several items that are taking up valuable kitchen real estate that can hit the road today because something else in the house will do the job just as well.
ACTION - open your kitchen gadget drawer and toss* anything that can be easily replaced with another item in your home.
*you may feel as if you can't just toss these things, if so, just put them in a give away bag or box and give them away.