The Year of Less: Less Stuff

Showing posts with label Less Stuff. Show all posts

Monday, October 29, 2012

Day 100: Eight Towels

The Task: To have only one bath towel per family member, and give away the rest.

The How: We kept eight because our sixth baby is due in December and she'll need a towel too.

Mostly we got rid of baby towels and hooded kids towels and instead kept the more versatile regular bath towels. The nicest of the extra towels were given away to people expecting babies, a few became rags.

The Verdict: We really don't miss the extra bath towels at all. I'm not sure why we ever had more towels than people. It's just another example to us of how not intentional we were being about the things we brought into our home. We want to be more mindful of what we need and not hoard things in our home that other people could be using!

And when we have overnight guests we can use beach towels as extras!

In other news: Today is day 100! For one hundred days now we've been purging, decluttering, simplifying and making greener choices. We've given away van loads of stuff, everything from knick-knacks and vases to furniture, kitchenwares, toys, books and clothes. Our home is so much more functional, comfortable, organized and easier to keep clean. But more importantly, we are more content than ever with what we have. Consistently giving away our possessions has brought us to a place where we can really see the difference between something we need and more clutter. We almost never need to shop, we aren't looking to the stuff in our home to provide us with a sense of comfort and security and community, and we're spending less and living more! Hooray! I am loving this year of less!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

13 Reasons to Live with Less

1. Because time is too precious and short to spend it looking for, organizing, sorting, cleaning, buying, desiring and managing our stuff.

2. Because to somebody, we are the Joneses. Somebody is watching you and I and trying to keep up with our lifestyles. By living and thriving with less we help to create a new status quo.

3. Because the world simply cannot afford the American dream.

4. Because everything we bring home must eventually be disposed of.

5. Because being the hands and feet of Jesus to a starving world costs something, and having less leaves us with so much more to give.

6. Because nobody has ever found joy by acquiring more trinkets.

7. Because the appropriate response to our own gratitude is generosity. If we are truly thankful for all that we have, we will give it away.

8. Because wanting to buy as much as we can for as little as we can drives an economy that loves money at the expensive of people.

9. Because all of the most beautiful things in life are simple, often intangible, and almost always nearly free.

10. Because less stuff means more room for people and life. More room for epic board game battles and monster Lego creations and impromptu tickle fights on the living room floor.

11. Because someday somebody we love is going to have to sort through every item we chose to hang on to.

12. Because it becomes increasingly difficult to see the difference between our needs and our wants when we are surrounded by so much more than we need.

13. Because we have the choice. And with choice becomes responsibility. Much of the world cannot choose to live with just enough because they don't have enough to begin with. We must choose to live simply so that others can simply live.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Day 81: Computer-y Clutter

The Task: To finally sort through drivers, adapters and power cords that do who-knows-what and get rid of the things we don't need.

The Why: Some of the tasks we've done have been deep heart-matters sort of stuff. Not this. I just want to have less useless junk in my house. Period.

Why we haven't done this until now: Even before this journey, I would consider myself a pretty avid declutterer. I like to get rid of things, to organize and sort and streamline. But I am almost always doing these things while the hubby is at work, and I am never confident enough that I actually know what a computer-y item does to discard it. So I hang on to it, just in case....

The How: Luke was home with the flu today, so I cornered the poor guy with a stack of computer drivers, power cords and CD roms. I asked him about ever item in the stack, and got the affirmation I needed to throw almost all of it out.

The funniest items we still had: I swear I'm not a hoarder. At least, I don't think I am. But for some reason I still had the driver to a dial-up modem we had years ago. And the charger for a cell phone we got rid of last year.

The Verdict: It was kind of fun to laugh at computer games we used to play and joke about how slow dial-up Internet was. And now we have one less basket of junk in our house. Sometimes minimalizing is easy.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Day 80: Borrowing Instead of Owning

One of the ways we've been able to radically reduce our possessions (and it's a big journey, it still feels like we have so much stuff!) is by choosing to borrow rarely used items instead of owning them. Here are some of the things we've discovered we'd rather borrow than own.

Large Kitchen Items: We've given rarely used items such as a second roasting pan and a large chafing dish to my sister-in-law who caters weddings. This way, these things are being used many times throughout the year instead of the once or twice we may need it. And when we need those items for a big shindig, we are welcome to borrow them back (along with anything else we may need!)

Movies and Television Series' on DVD: Let's face it, we probably won't watch every single episode of Corner Gas ever again (it would, after all, be the forth or fifth time...) but if we ever decide to watch them again, there is a good chance that we can borrow them back from the library we are donating them to. I wouldn't suggest donating anything to your local library that you know you will need again, it may end up getting sold in a book sale or damaged. But for items you may-sorta-kinda want to refer to again someday, this is a great solution....because it's actually getting used in the mean time!

Camping Supplies: Unless you regularly go camping with everybody you know, there is really no reason for every household to own every possible camping item. We can avoid buying some things by borrowing them from friends and family who weren't going to be using them that weekend anyways.

Serving Utensils: When hosting a potluck or large holiday dinner where everybody has committed to bring something I can just remind people to bring the serving utensil needed for the dish they are bringing. That way I only need to own one ladle, one pie server, and one slotted spoon. This keeps my kitchen drawers more manageable for all those days when we don't have 3 different pies to serve.

Some benefits of borrowing (and lending) instead of owning:

It saves money.
It builds and encourages community.
It allows our things to be used, instead of collecting dust, when we don't need them.
It means we don't need to devote space to storing infrequently used items.
It reduces rampant consumerism. Which means less stuff being manufactured, less stuff being transported, and less stuff being disposed of in a society where the richest 16 percent of the world (if you are reading this, that number almost certainly includes you) consumes 80% of the worlds natural resources.
Stuff begets stuff. I'm not sure I can explain why this is, but the more stuff we have/want/buy the more we think we still need. In some backwards way that I can't quite articulate yet, having less = wanting less.

I think this is an important principle of minimalism, but also of being a conscious consumer, building community and living with a global perspective. We are looking around our home for more ways to put this idea into practice. And we get all excited when a friend asks to borrow a tool from Luke's necessarily large tool stash instead of buying one they will rarely use!

Friday, September 28, 2012

Day 69: Why the heck do I own so many vases?

So far on my 100 days of decluttering on facebook I have given away 8 vases. Eight. And you know what? A quick glance around my living room reveals at least 4 more. I had no idea that I had a thing for vases.

And the weird part is that I don't even know where most of them came from. Stuff just kinda shows up and moves in, right?

Before this journey began, I don't think I gave much thought to what I brought into my home. Sure, I discouraged my husband from bringing home mostly broken furniture he found at the dump, and I only bought things that I thought were sort of pretty (at the moment, anyways) but I didn't really think "Hey, Kelly, do you actually need 12 vases?" Nope, I don't remember ever asking myself that.

But I don't need 12 vases. In fact, truth be told, I don't really need any vases. I could put flowers in a pitcher or a mason jar. Mason jars are minimalist workhorses. They can hold flowers, or candles, or pens, or pickled beets....talk about a multitasker!

But I digress. My point, I suppose, is that I am realizing that I need to start asking more questions about the items I bring home. Like "Do I need this?" "Do I already own something that could fulfill this purpose?" "If I was moving across country and only had a couple days to pack, would I pack this item?"

"Is this item more valuable than the otherwise empty space it will take up?" Because space is beautiful and empty surfaces are a beckoning to play and create and share ourselves with one another.

And the big one: "Is there something more valuable my money could go towards?" Like, you know, food for the hungry? Or a card for a neighbour who needs to know I'm thinking of them? Or a couple Pumpkin Spice Lattes for me and a friend while the conversation oscillates casually between the trivial and the heart-cries in that way that can only happen over a hot drink with a good friend?

I'm actually going to keep a couple vases. There is nothing wrong with owning something pretty to plunk your flowers in. But I'm going to stop buying vases. And, more importantly, I'm going to ask a lot more questions of the stuff I bring home. I'm going to be a better curator of our possessions, because rooms with less stuff have more room for people and life and laughter.

And I'm going to treat a good friend to a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Day 59: A Simpler Approach to Seasonal Decorating

When it comes to simpler living, Ma Ingalls is my hero. I know she wasn't a minimalist on purpose, and that she is at least a little bit fictionalized, and that her life was oftentimes very difficult, but when my girls and I cuddle together on the couch to read from the Little House series we sigh and swoon at the beautiful simplicity of the life they lived.

My 4 year old would be thrilled to spend her days playing barefoot in plum creek with a homemade bonnet swaying on it's strings down her back.

So as silly as this may sound, sometimes along this journey to a simpler life, I ask myself what Ma Ingalls would have done. I've stood in my kitchen holding single task kitchen tools asking myself "Would Ma Ingalls own this?"

And lately I've been contemplating how Ma Ingalls celebrated the seasons. In fact, how anybody celebrated the seasons before pinterest, and magazines, and entire aisles in Walmart devoted to seasonal decor.

I live in a place that has four distinct, beautiful, humbling seasons. The notion that I would need to store boxes full of manufactured decorations in order to savour these seasons is starting to seem a little bit ridiculous to me. It seems especially odd as autumn approaches, a season marked by contentment and thankfulness.

The rhythmn of the year is a beautiful thing, and it is only natural that we would want our homes filled with the sights and smells and festivity of the seasons. But the fact is that there is nothing in those seasonal aisles at Walmart that will make the season more meaningful for our families. Nothing. There, I said it.

So instead of decorating for autumn this year, I am letting autumn permeate our home. The pumpkins waiting to be turned into pie, the sunflowers from the yard, the apple pie jam we will make and cool in jars on the counter top. The lovely braided garlic from the Farmer's Market that will be disappearing a little with each stew and pot pie we enjoy together.

I have a wire wreath form that I will be adorning with seasonal foliage, and I might splurge on a scented candle if I find I have a spot to enjoy it. But aside from a few small items, our goal is that most of our seasonal decorations would be consumable or compostable.

The Verdict: I feel like a weight has lifted. I don't need to craft a fall mantlescape or create a charming porch vignette. My seasonal decorating can happen organically, as I find a place to perch our winter squash until it is time to make soup or fill our house with the scent of autumn while I heat apple cider on the stove.

I like to think that Ma Ingalls would approve...

Friday, September 14, 2012

Day 55: Decluttering the Clutter Busters {ha!}

The Task: To get rid of some of the racks, dividers, totes and baskets that are now useless because I'm no longer trying to cram as much stuff as I can into our space!

The Why: Today's task is as much a celebration as it is a chore. In the last 55 days of decluttering we have made a huge stack of empty totes, bins, and organizers in our basement.

Minimalism is turning all those storage solutions that we thought would fix our clutter problems into clutter!

The How: I am keeping a few favourite baskets until we are done decluttering/reorganizing because I may find that a certain basket is useful in a place I haven't dealt with just yet. I'm also keeping some large totes because they make for a great place to brood baby chickens (if you don't know what I'm talking about, that's okay) but for the most part, these things can go. I can't believe that just 2 months ago we had enough stuff to fill all of these baskets and totes and bags and bins!

I'm giving away some of these things to friends on facebook and I'm packing up our thrift store donations in reusable bins, the thrift store can either sell the bins or use them!

We talked about saving the bins until we move, but there isn't a move on our immediate horizon and free cardboard boxes are easy enough to come by.

The Verdict: This just makes me smile. It feels like a reason to celebrate. I no longer stroll through stores looking for clever ways to stash my stuff. Our closets have tons of room because they aren't filled with things that add nothing to our life. I am loving how much easier it is to keep our spaces tidy and organized with less stuff. Hooray!

Plus, I feel a little bit like we're "sticking it to the man", so to speak. We are solving our clutter problem without making a trip to a fancy home store or buying the latest clever storage solution. We're learning that the answer to a more peaceful, cozy, welcoming home is not about having the right stuff, but less stuff.

What about you guys? I know many of you are following along, radically minimizing your own belongings as well. Do you have a pile of totes and storage devices that are evidence of how far you've come? Are you finding your home easier to keep tidy and organized with less stuff around?

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Day 52: Sorting and Storing Kids' Clothes

The Task: To radically reduce the amount of kids clothes we have stored in the basement.

The Why: Our 6th baby (a girl!) is due in December, less than a week after my oldest child will turn 6. That means that we are approximately one week short of having six kids in six years. When you are perpetually pregnant, you acquire a lot of baby clothes.

It isn't uncommon for friends who are done having kids to give us big black garbage bags filled with clothes. We've also received clothing as baby gifts and I've been known to browse my local thrift store for great deals, especially when that pregnancy nesting urge causes me to swoon at the sight of anything itsy-bitsy.

My solution, up until now, has been to immediately donate any items I know for sure that I won't use and to store the rest in totes, sorted by size. This "solution" has resulted in us collecting hoards of children's clothing. It's like a Baby GAP outlet in our basement.

This is embarrassing...

Eeek! Insane, right? Yesterday I had to haul all of this up from the basement (in my pregnant, tired, grumpy state) tote by tote and sort through it all. I swear that the best way to become a minimalist real quick is to haul all of your crap a long enough distance from where it was hiding that you just don't want to haul it all back!

The How: My favourite decluttering technique that I've embraced on this journey of less is to set limits for our stuff. It allows us to keep only what we've decided we can reasonably use and store, and it discourages shopping because we have a limit on how much space our stuff can fill up.

So I set a limit of four bins of clothing for our kids to grow in to: one for the baby girl on the way, one for our twin girls, one for my little boy, and one for my two oldest girls (who are close enough in age and size that things get handed down without needing to be stored anywhere in between.)

I'm giving away all of the clothing items that I never particularly liked or that we have too many of. Very worn and ratty things are becoming rags.

Also, I'm giving away all of the boy stuff my son has grown out of.

*sniff*

I asked a good friend yesterday if she would like some of the baby boy clothes for her son and she responded by asking me the very thing I had been asking myself. You're getting rid of the baby boy clothes? But what if....?

What if we have another baby after this one? And what if it's a boy?

The math of the matter suggests that if we have another baby after this one (undecided) and it's a boy (turns out the whole "it must be a boy, since you have so many girls" thing is not actually scientifically sound), my son will be nearly 5 years old by then. That is a long time to be hoarding adorable little boy clothes, just in case.

It should be a crime to keep spiffy little outfits like this hoarded in the basement when some other little man could be wooing hearts in it. No?

The Verdict: I know I told you all a while back that I'm not very sentimental, but I'll confess; packing up the little boy clothes choked me up a little bit. I'll get over it.

I have 5 big blue recycling bags full of clothes to take to the thrift store, plus a box of girl stuff for a friend having her first baby girl this winter and a box of the best of the boy stuff for my friend's little man.

And I'm left with my 4 totes of clothing plus 3 smaller totes of winter gear such as snow suits and boots.

And my favourite part: because I got rid of so much stuff, I'm able to store everything I'm keeping in matching totes. Yes, that's the kind of thing that makes me giddy!

The Lessons We're Learning: Honestly, decluttering is a hassle. I don't want to do all this work and then keep collecting and consuming stuff and have to do it all again in another 5 years. We don't want to spend our lives moving our stuff around, and having yard sales, and finding versatile organizational solutions so that we can cram as much as possible into our storage areas.

We need to be more careful about what we bring into the home, pickier about how many hand-me-downs we accept (although we are certainly grateful for them!), and quicker to redistribute things we don't need.

Oh, and free stuff is never entirely free. It costs time, energy, space, and sometimes even a trip to the mall for a cute little cardigan to go with it.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Day 51: No More Answering Machine

Can I start by letting you all in on the embarrassing truth that every single conversation Luke and I have had, ever, about an answering machine has resulted in at least one of us breaking out in the chorus of this ridiculous song. It's actually been stuck in my head all morning. Now it's stuck in your head too. You're welcome.

The Task: Ditch the answering machine (and the double handset cordless phone it's attached to!)

The Why:

I'm home, like, 95% of the time. Seriously, it's kind of sad.
Pretty much every time that I don't answer the phone because I'm busy snuggling a baby to sleep or changing a diaper and I think to myself "I'll just let the machine get it", the caller doesn't leave a message. And then I'm mad at all of humanity for no good reason.
We really don't need to be accessible at all times. Do we?
If it's important, they'll call back.
Or they could call Luke's cell phone, or email me, or facebook us. Or drive to our house and leave a note on the door.
And if somebody isn't able to do any of those things to contact us they are probably just calling to sell us tickets to the circus, or invite us to take a short customer satisfaction survey.

The only reason we have an answering machine is because somebody gave us one for free and then it broke, so we replaced it. And when we replaced it we bought one that comes with two cordless phones because that's the kind of phones people have these days, right? But then we had to keep our cheap 7 dollar no-electricity-needed phone for the not uncommon occurrence that the power fails in our rural community.

So now we have three phones.

In a 1000 square foot house!

And the really funny part is that the cord on the cheap 7 dollar phone is so long that you can actually walk pretty much anywhere in the house with it, making the (two handset!) cordless phone purchase kinda, um, dumb. I don't know what we were thinking.

The How: We listed the cordless phones with answering machine for sale on kijiji, and plugged in our zero-electricity old-fashioned plain-jane wall phone. Although the energy savings from this switch won't make a noticeable difference on our electricity bill, I like that we aren't wasting electricity on a completely unnecessary device.

And imagine how much electricity we would save as a society if everybody ditched the electronics they could happily live without?

The Verdict: I can see why answering machines were a great thing when they were invented. There was a time when it was difficult to relay information to people. But with cell phones and email and facebook, I think we are far more likely to suffer from being too accessible than not accessible enough!

And if I'm snuggling a baby and the phone rings and I choose not to get it, I can be pretty sure that I'm not missing out on anything more important than the precious moment I'm enjoying.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Day 45: Completing (and abandoning!) Projects

The Task: To collect all of the projects I have on the go and either complete them, make some progress on them, or abandon them along with all of their accompanying craft clutter.

The Why: I have a confession to make: I like to plan for and shop for a project more than I like to actually work on a project. My craft closet was stuffed to the brim with the makings of some great (and some not-so-great!) craft projects than never came to fruition.

Plus I occasionally put off mending a torn piece of clothing for so long that by the time I finally do mend it, it no longer fits the child it belonged to when I first said "oh, no big deal, mommy can just sew that...."

When we think of clutter we often think of knick-knacks and useless kitchen gadgets, but to me the absolute worst type of clutter is to-do list clutter. Projects that hang over my head undone stress me out and make me want to avoid working on projects at all!

The How: I unloaded the craft closet into my laundry room (I wish I'd thought to take a picture. It looked like the craft store went binge drinking with your grandmothers fabric stash and together they threw up all over my laundry room.) Then I went through each item and decided which projects I would complete and which ones should be abandoned.

I spent a couple hours today working on the projects I decided to keep and was able to mend a stack of clothing and make some real progress on a couple sewing projects I am excited about.

And I have a mostly full tote of craft supplies to give away.

The Verdict: I feel so liberated! All of those projects I had planned for and shopped for and then lost interest in are no longer hanging over my head! The only half done projects left in my craft stash are ones I am super excited about.

By completing some projects and abandoning others I was able to move most of my craft stuff to just the top shelf of the craft closet, making room to use it as an organized homeschool closet as well! Woohoo!

And it is so nice to be caught up on all the clothes mending. In fact, I just might like this feeling enough that next time I say "mommy can just sew that button back on..." I will actually do it, like,um, that day!

Friday, August 31, 2012

Day 41: Putting a Limit on the Scrapbooking Supplies

The Task: To fit all of this...

into this....

(after some serious purging, of course!)

The Why: I use Project Life to keep my scrapbooks simple, in theory. Project Life combines the simplicity of a photo album with the flexibility and creativity of a scrapbook. The problem is that I had collected so many scrapbooking items that getting out my supplies was an ordeal, and sorting through my options was overwhelming.

I love the strategy of creating limits for our stuff. By having a single bin for my scrapbooking supplies, I not only make scrapbooking simpler and more fun, I also prevent myself from buying more than I need, since I can only keep what will easily fit in the bin!

I have to actually use my craft supplies before I can shop for more.What a novel idea!

The How: I have a general look that I'm going for in my scrapbooks and use many of the same items over and over again. I use a lot of brown kraft paper and white pens, paper doilies and labels. So I just went through my craft stash looking for items that go well with my scrapbooking style. I basically created a customized kit that is full of things that delight me.

The most time consuming part was to go through photos and only keep the good ones that I actually plan to scrapbook. My new rule is that if a photo isn't good enough for the scrapbook, it isn't worth keeping!

The Verdict:

I did it! I created a compact little kit full of scrapbooking supplies that I love to use. It's easy to take out and use, and then put away when I'm done.

Having a little container full of embellishments I love is really so much more fun than the huge selection I had before. I open this happy little container and start dreaming of the possibilities!

Last night I was eager to use my new little scrapbooking station and loved that even when everything was laid out on the coffee table in a jumble, I was still able to see and use everything!

The scrapbooks sit on a shelf in my living room. One of them holds my unused page protectors.

If you're wondering, I use the White Signature Binders and the Clementine edition Journaling cards (although the new cherry edition looks super nice too!), along with a wide array of the photo pocket page protectors.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Day 33: Purging the Children's Toys

The Task: To limit the children's toys to the ones they really use and enjoy

The Why: If you have young children, you know that kids toys seem to multiply in the toy bin. When friends who are new moms ask which toys are best to buy for their kids I tell them not to buy anything, toys will mysteriously appear in their home and in a few years they will be looking around the living room asking "Where did they all come from?"

The How: First of all, I should point out that my kids have grown up with a mom who regularly reorganizes and declutters. In our home, phrases like "less is more" and "when in doubt, throw it out!" are common. So they are particularly good at purging and decluttering. They know that getting rid of things they don't use actually makes the things they do use more fun.

We starting by laying a blanket on the front lawn and taking every single toy outside. We grouped toys together by type, throwing away anything irreparably broken as we went.

We decided that the favourite toys pretty much fit into 4 categories; mega blocks, the tea party and dress up stuff, the trains and cars, and the playsilks. With only a couple exceptions (including a small basket of baby toys), we are donating almost everything else.

Here is what we've kept:

Plus we have a drawer full of mega blocks by the kitchen. This is a great way to keep our busy twins occupied for whole minutes at a time.

And we piled all of the dolls and stuffies on the living room floor and let the three oldest kids take turns picking an item to keep until our "stuffy basket" was full. This turned out to be a fabulous way to do it, the kids all got a say in what was kept and the tangible limit set for them helped them to part with what was left over.

The Verdict: We got rid of one giant Rubbermaid bin heaping with toys as well as a recycling bag full of stuffed animals. All in all, I think we've reduced our toys by at least half. My kids are pleased with what we chose to keep, and I am so pleased to not have to pick up/trip over/curse at a million toys every day.

Also, it gave us an opportunity to discuss with our kids why we declutter. We talked about not storing up stuff on earth, and about how too much stuff makes it hard to enjoy and care for and appreciate what we have. We talked about kids in developing countries who are thrilled to receive one tiny shoebox full of toys each year, and how our own gratitude for how much we have should be demonstrated through generosity.

Of course, our kids still have a ton of other things to play with. We have craft supplies and board games, books, puzzles, and bicycles. We have a sprinkler and kiddie pool for hot summer days, and I let them use my loaf pans to make snow bricks in the winter. They even have a swing set and a slide in the backyard, a fire pit for roasting marshmallows on cold autumn evenings,and a garden to tend and explore. These kids definitely are not suffering from a lack of things to do!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Day 27: Decluttering the Kitchen (Part Two: The Minimalist-ish Kitchen Tour!)

Welcome to the longest post in the history of blog posts. Don't say I didn't warn you...

As I mentioned yesterday, Luke and I have been working hard at radically decluttering the kitchen. We are eager to embrace the less is more philosophy in this space that we spend so much of our time.

But I'm hesitant to call it minimalist. We are a large family that cooks from scratch, entertains often (just last weekend we had nearly 40 people at our house for a birthday party!) and decorates cakes for fun...what is minimal for us would be excessive for many others.

We did try to eliminate multiple items. We've really discovered that having one of what you need, washing it and putting it away is far more efficient than having half a dozen of them that could at any moment be in the drawer, the dishwasher, the sink or the counter top. So we have one wooden spoon, one casserole dish (for a baptist homeschooling mom, one casserole dish is pretty radical!) and one turkey roaster (Yes, I had two of them. Don't ask....)

I'll confess that a few times I found myself wondering "would a minimalist have this?" and I had to remind myself what we're doing here. It's not about roughing it or having some bare minimum list of essentials, but about only owning the things that are helping us to lead the extraordinary life we're choosing to lead. It's not about having less for the sake of less, but refusing to consume more for the sake of more.

So come, snoop through our maybe-sorta-kinda almost minimalist-ish kitchen.

We are keeping 1 casserole dish, 2 muffin tins, 2 cookie sheets, 4 cooling racks, a cast iron skillet, 2 pizza pans and a big beautiful woven trivet tray thingy.

I took a very scientific approach to deciding which casserole dish to keep....I kept the prettiest one!

I suggested to Luke that we probably don't need to own chopsticks and he suggested that we don't need any silverware except chopsticks and I took that to mean that the topic was not up for debate.

In our cooking utensils drawer we have 3 knives and a knife sharpener, kitchen shears, a pizza cutter, a cheese grater, citrus press, 1 flipper, 1 wooden spoon, 1 ladle, a kitchen scale, a set of measuring cups and measuring spoons and miscellaneous small tools like the vegetable peeler, can opener and meat thermometer.

We had a whisk too, but I broke it yesterday making buttertarts and discovered that a fork accomplishes the same task pretty well.

I use dollar store cork tiles to keep things from slipping around inside the drawer. This doesn't work if you slam the drawer, but if you're gentle it works quite nicely!

I finally have a baking drawer! I've always wanted to put all my baking supplies together in one drawer but have never been able because I had too much stuff!

We have 4 mixing bowls, a dough cutter, a pastry blender, a set of biscuit cutters, 4 ramekins, 3 spatulas (probably a little excessive, but I like them all...), a funnel, some measuring bowls, tea towels for covering dough while it rises, and some cupcake liners.

That nifty white device is a whipped cream dispenser. You put cream in it and it comes out like store bought squirty cream but without all the weird additives. Which may seem rather indulgent but we are kinda whipped cream snobs; in our 7 years of marriage we have never once purchased a can of processed squirty cream, and we wear that fact as a foodie badge of honour!

We kept only one frying pan, but it's a huge one! We also have a set of 4 pots (we keep two of them on the pot rack, along with a colander), a sieve, a steamer basket and a stick blender. I heart my stick blender....

Some bbq tools and 3 flexible plastic cutting boards.

We didn't declutter the spices at all, but we probably should because I can't remember the last time I put marjoram in anything. Ever.

By streamlining the number of cake and dessert pans I own I believe I have also greatly streamlined the amount of curse words I will need to utter when retrieving my spring form pan. Just sayin'....

For small appliances I have a kettle and a french press coffee maker, a stand mixer (with some attachments), a food processor (with a blender attachment), a salad spinner, a toaster, a crockpot and a hand crank ice cream maker (which, um....we used three times last week...)

One thing we did that we should have done sooner is we got rid of all of the food processor attachments we never ever use. We've been housing parts for years that we don't have any interest in using, just because they came with the food processor. Ditching them was somehow freeing!

We have 2 tea pots because I have a favourite and Luke has a favourite and if we had tried to figure out which one to keep, one of us would have been sleeping on the couch.

I have everyday white dishes plus white china dishes that we use frequently. When we have both of our families over for one of the kids birthdays we rarely need to use disposable dishes, so I consider our massive amounts of dishes to be a great thing! The baskets hide the kids cups and baby bottles.

That cake plate on the top shelf is probably going to get donated to the thrift store, I just put it there for the picture because that shelf was empty....

All of my cake and cookie decorating supplies now fit in two labelled shoe boxes that I store in the pantry.

We also have a stock pot, a 22 x18 sheet cake pan, and a turkey roasting pan stored in the basement.

The verdict: We are donating 4 diaper boxes and a laundry basket full of kitchen stuff!

I think we will probably eliminate even more as time goes on. There were a few things we were uncertain about, so we kept them tentatively in order to avoid a massive case of purger's regret sending us frantically to the store.

After this experience I would say that emptying the entire contents of your kitchen for a big giant purge is A) a little bit crazy and B) a great way to do it. After having the entire contents of our kitchen laid out to be seen all at once, neither of us has any doubts about whether or not we own enough stuff!