Kitchen Week!

I've deemed this week's decluttering efforts "Kitchen Week!"  We spend plenty of time there anyway, so I'm hoping we can easily peruse through spots in our culinary spaces, purging and organizing the many pockets of stuff that reside in our cabinets.

I went through one shelf that goes deep into a dark, barely reachable area.  The accessible area holds a stack of small dessert-size plates, two stacks of small pyrex bowls, and some kid-friendly plastic plates. Beyond the obvious in the dark recesses, lurked two large margarita glasses from an event we attended.  They served mashed potatoes in the glasses with lots of toppings.  I thought it was a fun idea at the time, but in five years I've never created a mashed potato bar with toppings and served it in those glasses.  Do I need them?  No.

Also on that shelf were a set of banana split dishes and large parfait glasses we received for our wedding.  Four times total can I recall serving dessert in them.  There is some sentimentality to those, so they will go into a storage container for awhile until I'm sure I want to part with them.

You may be asking, "If the shelf looked neat, why get rid of them?"  I confess, I'm reading a book on being a minimalist, so I'm a little extreme at the moment.  (Thus my thought of putting the ice cream wares into storage…in case I snap out of this phase!)   I have this weird feeling as I get older about having to move or downsize someday, and I really don't want to have to go through everything all at once.  Plus, the more you have, the more there is to dust, maintain, etc.

To conclude, please look into the recesses of ONE shelf today.  Just a quick glance.  Is there anything you don't EVER use that you could donate to Goodwill or Salvation Army and clear out some space?