Well, this week we are back to kitchen cabinets. Previously I had talked about the bottom shelf of my cabinet over the dishwasher (also known as the left hand cabinet). Right now I have managed to fit in service for 4 of Christmas dinner, soup, and dessert plates on the same bottom shelf. They will soon be returning to their box in the basement.
On the second shelf from the bottom I have some small serving bowls in a stack, some oval bakers also in a stack, some pudding cups - yes, again in a stack, and some spare mugs (behind the stack of serving bowls). On a wire shelf above them I have the rest of my dinner size and small plates, as well as 2 rimmed bowls. I can reach the front of this shelf, for the back, I need a step.
I realize now that I left something stored on the bottom shelf out. We take medications and the bottles for same are between the stacks of the dinner and smaller dishes. On the second shelf up I have a plastic dish that I can count the pills in and then pour them through a spout on the front of it into the daily pill boxes or from larger pill bottles into smaller one with a pill splitter kept in it.
In the next shelf up I have an assortment of items which match my dishes. I was young and foolish once and bought many accessories for the dishes that I thought would be of tremendous use. I am now starting, as I write this blog and realize the space I am wasting, to get rid of some of these items. This shelf has small round casseroles with lids - the sort in which one gets French onion soup in restaurants, a butter dish (I use a plastic one that seals closed instead), sugar bowl, candy dish and a couple of other things that I cannot see without climbing up, and the cups are hanging from a rack of hooks at the top of the shelf- all matching my dishes, as well as a cruet. I cannot reach this shelf without a step for the front or a chair for the back.
Now, the top shelf. I know that most kitchen cabinets have only 3 shelves, but I have 4 in this and the right hand cabinet (the other side of the sink). The cabinets are rather old - perhaps back to when the house was built in 1949 - either that or the fact that there are few cabinets in the kitchen (they are 2 of the 3 wall cabinets, other than the one over the stove) is why there are 4 shelves - oh, and the shelves are fixed and do not adjust in height.
The top shelf has things I very rarely use as I must climb up on a chair and climb onto the counter to reach this cabinet. I don’t like climbing and when I do climb onto the counter I am always concerned that I will break the counter. So this shelf has stuff I never use. Salt and pepper shakers that make another dish set from this company (all white, I thought they looked nice for company), small drinking glasses that match nothing, 3 ceramic glasses, with the bottoms indented that matching my set of dishes and are in holder with 3 rings for “relishes”, 3 more cruets (one matches the one below, the other 2 match each other), and a bagel holder. This last used to be used a lot, but we stopped eating bagels and it was stored up here out of the way.
So that is my left hand cabinet. From listing everything in it I have found out something. Try listing what is in your cabinets and it becomes more obvious what you can get rid of and not miss. My husband and I have had a storage problem for DVDs and I had planned to clean out and get rid of the drinking glasses which were sold to match my dishes (kept in the right cabinet) and move my good glasses there so we can use the space where they were for more DVD storage. I think I will be getting rid of more than the drinking glasses. Who knows what else I will get rid of by listing what I have and using that to realize what can easily be donated.
Next week onto the right cabinet.
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