Cleaning out my island

Dec 29, 2010 by Ben

Time to clean out my island.

No, thats not my island.

Here is my island.  isn’t it pretty?

A few times lately I’ve been cooking and looking for some tool or utensil and I know have 7 of them, but can’t find a single one.  My drawers are overflowing with kitchen stuff and I don’t know why I might ever need 12 scrapers, or 8 wooden spoons all at once.

So I set out to clean out my kitchen island drawers and get rid of some items that I have way too many of and never use

Here is the mess

This is the worst drawer.  An abyss of utensils and implements of destruction

This one is also bad, but slightly better with the silverware being somewhat organized, even if my knives don’t fit in the tray

And here it all is.  Everything that was in my drawers taken out.

5 whisks

why do I have 12 scrapers?  seriously, why?

4 peelers

an entirely separate set of knives and sharpener, even though i have much better knives in the knife block on the counter

and enough wooden spoons to beat a Octo-Mom’s children

a bunch of chopsticks

And once I had everything out I was able to clean out all the gunk in the drawers.  yuck

putting things back now.  this drawers wasn’t so bad

Here’s the middle drawer with many things removed

Here’s the first drawer with a lot less in it.

Here’s the pile of stuff to go into a box and see if I miss it or need it.

Into the box to be set aside and then eventually donated.

Here’s the grand tally of everything I had in the drawers:

• 12 Flexible scrapers
• 2 tongs
• 1 garlic press
• 1 wedge blade cutter thingy
• 1 ice cream scoop
• 2 can openers
• 5 whisks
• 2 potato mashers
• 5 spatulas
• 4 big spoons/ladles
• 1 slotted spoon
• 2 pasta spoons
• 2 cork screws
• 1 bottle opener
• 4 peelers
• 1 melon baller
• 8 wooden spoons
• 1 wood spatula with holes
• 1 baby fork (we don’t have kids)
• 3 graters
• 5 knives
• 1 knife sharpener
• 8 pair of chopsticks
• 1 pair large chopsticks
• 1 turkey baster
• 1 mandolin slicer
• 1 apple corer
• 1 lemon squeezer
• 2 egg slicers
• 1 turkey injector
• 1 kitchen aid dough hook

Here’s what I put in a box to set aside and see if I’d miss any of these items before donating them.

• 4 wooden spoons
• 1 slotted fork
• 1 part to a nut chopper I don’t think I even own anymore
• 1 spatula
• 1 spaghetti spoon
• 1 large spoon
• 1 whisk
• 1 metal whisk
• 5 knives
• 1 knife sharpener
• 1 baby fork
• 1 bottle opener
• 1 peeler
• 6 white flexible scrapers

I could probably get rid of more, but my wife hates it when I do this, so baby steps.  I may take another pass at this in a little while to see what I use and what I don’t.

Hope this inspires you to tackle a small area of your house and get rid of things you don’t need that get in the way of the ones you do use.

Ben…