REARRANGING THINGS FOR BETTER USAGE OF SPACE AND BETTER ACCESS TO THINGS

 My apologies for my absence. I thought I missed a week – but I have never missed 2 weeks before. - EVEN WORSE - I NEVER FINISHED POSTING THIS ON MAY 6.

I have been doing some rearranging in our kitchen. As I have mentioned before about the organizing rule of “putting like with like” leaves open the question of what are like items. For example in the field of clothing is it all socks together and all underwear together? My husband pointed out to me about a couple of decades ago that this did not make sense. If I wear some types of underwear daily and some types of socks daily - I am opening two drawers every day. If instead of socks together and underwear together (which I had done since I was in my early teens) which meant I had to open 2 drawers every day. If, on the other hand, I consider types of items I wear just about daily- whether socks or underwear in the same drawer - and put the same of these items which I wear once in a long while in the other drawer I only have to open one drawer almost all of the days. Hmmm, I had never thought of like with like as wear daily together and wear rarely together elsewhere. It does work well.

In the kitchen I had changed several years ago from all of a type of items being together to putting what I use daily or almost so together and rarer used items together. Our everyday dishes – a set for 8 – was on two shelves in one of our 4 kitchen upper cabinets on the bottom and middle shelves (of 3 shelves). But there are only two of us. Every time I needed to use something from the middle shelf I had to get a step to reach the item. I now keep 3 dinner plates, our 2 lunch plates, some unrelated dinner plates that I use when cooking, 4 of our soup bowls (as sometimes they are also used for small serving bowls) and 4 of our small plates (for dessert, side plates, etc), as well as two of the same type of the unrelated plates smaller for use as utility plates plus since I have wire shelf to split this shelf in two I also have 2 small serving bowls. On the bottom shelf of the matching cabinet on the other end of the kitchen I have two each of the glasses we use (I like tall thin ones, he likes short wide ones), 2 mugs for hot beverages, some small glasses used for utility, measuring cups (wet and dry), two ice cream cups and some other similar items. I now can reach what I need to set the table for us without having to climb on a step.

But what about our other two upper cabinets? Well one of them is located over our stove – so very rarely used items are in it as I have to climb, not on my step, but on a chair to reach anything. So the good china and rarely used serving pieces/baking dishes are in it.

The fourth cabinet is next to eh 3^rd, but hanging at the same height as the first two – meaning I can reach the bottom shelf. This is the one in which I recently did some rearranging. On the bottom shelf I have some platters, 2 hot plates to put hot dishes or pots on at the table, and 3 serving bowls of the same size and shape with different designs – about minimum in size of the bowls we own. On the shelf above are other items used fairly regularly – the difference being that I can reach and take out the gravy server with the small pitcher kept in it (pitcher intended as for milk or cream when serving coffee, tea, etc, but more often used by me as an alternative gravy server which is why they are stacked together) and more bowls. In this case from my large bowls used for mixing and cooking, a wooden bowl bought to use for reenacting but replaced by a better one for same, and a medium sized serving bowl.

This setup worked well for us in the past as we did a minimum of cooking for the two of us as we ate dinner out 3 nights a week and lunch out daily. But since the pandemic life and cooking has changed.

Last week I thought to myself that I use that medium bowl on the second shelf of the cabinet at least once a week now – and each time I use it I have to climb on the step to get it down and then do the same to put it away. But it is rare that I use even 2 of the 3 serving bowls on the bottom shelf (they are bigger than my small and medium bowls but smaller than my large bowls. Mostly when I use one of them for the two of us I have made biscuits or rolls and need something to put them on table. Hmmm.

So I took one of the three bowls on the bottom shelf and climbed up and took the medium bowl from the second shelf out and rearranged the bowls on the second shelf to include the one from the bottom shelf and put the medium one on the bottom shelf – no more climbing to get it down.

In addition I have been using some pots which are kept in the lower cabinet, under where the bowls are stored, that I do not normally use with any frequency. It has been hard getting the wok in and out as it is in the back left side of the cabinet. In the front right side of the cabinet I have a 8 quart pot (just went and checked as I did not know how large it is) which normally sits unused in the cabinet except for cooking soup from scratch for holidays but I have also been using to make ravioli for dinner every couple of weeks during the pandemic. Behind it sits several items – some for baking, some for cooking – including a large round flat griddle with slightly raised sizes. These pots have sat in this cabinet for decades with no problems. But for some reason now that I am using the 8 qt pot it does not go back into the cabinet easily as the griddle is suddenly in its way.

I had taken the griddle out during the week – since it is rarely used I was going to move it to the basement storage closet (well, technically area where the gas meter is located in the finished part of the basement with walls and door to hide it). But then I started thinking again. I took it and put it in the back under where the wok goes and moves some smaller items where the wok goes to the other side where the griddle had been. It worked. The 8qt pot fits back into place in the front right of the cabinet (with smaller pots stored in it as before) and has no problem coming out and going back in. The left side of the cabinet has the wok in the back on the griddle and since it raised up slightly off the floor of the cabinet and some items which were there have been moved to the rear right, it can be more easily taken out and put back. I did have move one large pot lid to the small half shelf at the back of the cabinet over all of this – but it all works so much better now.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

What area of your home just does not work even thought it meets the “like with like” rule? What other way can the items be sorted to still be “like with like” just using a different standard of “like”? How or when or how often things are used is just as valid of making them “like” items as the items actually being the same kind of item.

STORING ITEMS LIKE WITH LIKE - SOMETIMES WHAT IS USED ALL THE TIME WITH SAME AND WHAT IS USED RARER TIMES WITH SAME IS BETTER

 When I first started reading about getting organized I was a teenager in high school.  One mantra of organizing that I learned about then is to group like things together.  To this day my closet had my shirts sorted by color, my two skirts together and I have 3 hangers, which each hold multiple pairs of pants, hanging from a hook each attached to the back (2) and side (1) walls in the closet.  (These 3 hangers – one holds my jeans, one holds the 3 pants of non-jeans pants I own, and the third holds my old ripped jeans that I use as pjs.)  

My husband was always amazed at this organization – especially since most of the rest house is not so organized – by a lot.  (He is not the greatest organizer either.)  He has changed my thoughts on using this rule for everything.  

I had always (since I was maybe 14 or 15 years old) kept my underwear together and kept my socks and stockings together.  When I lived with my parents this was one drawer.  When we got married my underwear went into the top left drawer of my dresser – a half width drawer – and my socks/stockings went into the same size drawer below them.  

One day husband pointed out the waste of time – every day I would open the top drawer, take out underwear, close the drawer, open second drawer and take out socks or stockings and then close that drawer.  He knew I had in both drawers items that I did not wear as often as others.  That started me thinking – what about putting together items needed every day and ones that are not often worn?  I redid those two drawers – the top drawer now holds my underpants and bras and socks. In the second drawer are things like my slips (haven't worn in years, but if need to dress up will need) and my stockings and pantyhose – only needed for work, religious services and the extremely rare other reasons to dress up.  Now I only have to open one drawer most mornings.  

In the kitchen I organized my dishes.  My everyday dishes, a set of 8 servings, were stacked – all the dinner dishes together, all the soup/cereal bowls together, all the small plates together, etc.  This involved two shelves of a kitchen cabinet.  I am 5' 1”.  I can reach the bottom the shelves, but not the ones above.  This meant every time I needed something on the second shelf I needed the step to reach it to take it out and then again to put it back – which of course meant that items were left in the drying rack for days sometimes if I did not feel like climbing up.  I took out 4 dinner dishes (use for serving plates for us also), 4 bowls, and 2 small plates from our every day dishes.  I fit a stack of 3 small serving bowls in the cabinet also.  (The cabinet has a wire shelf rack I added in it so I have 2 shelves in the one cabinet.)  Mixed in with the dishes and small dishes are 2 lighter dishes each also – these I use as utility dishes – serving, cutting on, draining on, etc. Now it is rare that I need something from another shelf for dishes and I don't have to climb up daily – easy to take out and easy to replace.  I have our drinking glasses in the matching cabinet on the other end of the cabinet.  I have 2 mugs on the bottom shelf, two of the drinking glasses I like, two of the ones husband likes, 2 ice cream glasses and 3 measuring glasses.  There are other items on this shelf also, but these are the basic items use from it and I can use without needing to climb up.  Again the upper shelves hold items not used on a daily basis.  In the third cabinet I can reach (between stove and refrigerator) some platters and serving bowls on the bottom shelf.  

Perhaps the problem is “what are like items”?  In both of these cases if like items means all of the same type of items together, the idea does not work.  If instead it means “items I used all the time vs. items I don't use often” it does work.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

How are your items sorted?  Do you have items you use frequently and items you use rarely together as they same type of items?  Or do you put items you use frequently together where they can easily be reached and used and items that are rarely used together in places which are harder to reach for storage and retrieval?  Try the second idea – it works much better.

WHAT WORKS IN ORGANIZING FOR ONE PERSON DOES NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE - WHAT ARE YOUR PROBELMS OR SOLUTIONS?

 How about some of you write an email to tell me some of your problems with getting organized and declutter or something which you found helpful or a problem that you have.  I know that some of you are reading my posts – it would be nice to get some response.  

I know that the blog wanders a bit for one about organizing.  When I wrote early posts I ended up discarding what I wrote – does anyone out there want a list of “I put 3 dinner plates on the bottom shelf of one of my kitchen closets with two utility dishes on them and our two lunch sized plates on the top of the stack.”  or I keep my good china in the cabinet over my stove set up so I can easily pull out 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 cake plates, and one coffee cup and saucer”?  

I though not.  I sort figured the process of working on trying to get organized and what I do is more interesting than lists of where I put what.  

Let's face it, we all know the basics – get rid of excess stuff, find a place for each item you keep and put everything its in place.  But in real life does that actually work?  

One online organizing group which I am on, often has a post saying to make sure everyone in the house puts their dirty dishes in the dishwasher to make it easier.  This presumes that one has a dishwasher (not everyone does) and that it is used.  We have a dishwasher.  The first one came with the house when we bought it from the last owners.  Husband insisted I should use it, so I did.  My mom always said that the dishwasher does not clean as well as a person – she was right, it could not even get the newsprint ink off the dishes and such from when it was packed to come to the house.  

The dishwasher died a few years on.  Husband convinced me to buy a new one and we used it – I spent a lot of time rewashing dishes.  That dishwasher died in steps – first the interlock died (the device that lets the dishwasher know it is locked and it is okay to wash the dishes) I would lean a chair on the door of the dishwasher to keep it locked and in position for a number of years.  One morning I came downstairs and the dishwasher was full of water – the pump had died.  I bailed it out and dried it.  I turned it into a drying rack for hand washed dishes – not good as I had to keep drying it out from the dripping that went on.  It is now used to store some large items which do not fit into cabinets.

Husband pushed me to buy a new dishwasher.  I went looking.  After a year or so I found one liked, I was ready to buy it.  Then I read the reviews of dishwashers.  It was not rated well and it seems that the newer dishwashers work differently and often dishes need to be washed again.  So I did not and do not plan to buy a new dishwasher.  For two people who normally only eat 1 to 2 meals a day at home – do I really need one?   Even now - when we are eating 3 meals at day at home due to Covid and staying at home – it takes rather less than 10 minutes to wash the dishes, pots, etc after each meal.  

So, if I had my husband put his dirty dishes (a plate, maybe a bowl, and silverware three times a day and a glass also at night – we leave our glasses on the table during the day and reused them) in the dishwasher – I would have to wash the dishwasher also.  I clear the table after we eat and wash the dishes, etc – no big deal.  

Everyone and their problems in organizing are different.  Fixed rules do not apply other than the general idea of trying to have less stuff and putting it where it belongs – both of which vary person to person.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

What problems do you have?  Do you consider your problems in getting organized and decluttered to be large or small?  What suggestions can you offer others about what you have done. 

WHAT SHOULD YOU GET RID OF AND WHAT SHOULD YOU KEEP?

Pardon me - I didn’t post yesterday.  As I think I mentioned the most important annual Jewish holiday was yesterday and when it was over last night it slipped my memory what day of the week it was.  So here I am, a day late and a post short. 

As I was talking about last week, much of what one needs to know about organizing we know.  It is finding the time and pushing ourselves to do it that is the problem - at least for me.  Basically one has to sort through what one has and get rid of what is not being used and will not be used and then set up what is left in an organized manner so that one can find what one is looking for quickly. 

What to get rid of?  A good question.  Some of it is rather obvious - empty boxes of cereal for example.  They are garbage. Almost empty box?  Depends on how much is left - if you can eat it all while continuing to work - eat it and toss the box; if it is enough for a meal or two - use it up at meals and toss the empty box.  In this case I mean for the cereal box to stand for anything which gets used up, but the empty container is still around.  This week and last week I made a chicken stew that my husband loves for dinner.  Problem is that the garbage pickup is on Monday and Thursday and I was making the stew on Monday last week and Tuesday this week and both times had to hold it all both times until Wednesday night when I put it out for Thursday pick up.  The bones, skin and such have to be thrown out, but if I toss them in the kitchen garbage and they don’t go out right away, it will smell terrible.  I can take the kitchen bag out to the can outside, but it really upsets me to put the bag(s) out only about 1/3 full.  So, I put the chicken garbage into one of those plastic shopping bags that one gets at groceries stores, put same in the bowl I had used to hold the cooked chicken overnight (cooked the chicken one day, made the stew the next) before taking it off the bones and left it in the fridge.  When it was time for the garbage to go out I added the shopping bag of chicken icky stuff to it and out it went.  I then washed the bowl the bag had been in.  I actually have left over stew from both nights.  It can’t be frozen as it has potatoes in it and they never freeze well.  I have the stews in two canning jars in the fridge (one from last week and one from this).  I will hold them until the end of the next week - if husband has not eaten it by then (he really LOVES this stew) then it will go out that Sunday night in the garbage - it will not be allowed to sit beyond when it will be safe to eat.

Staying with the kitchen, some items are harder to get rid of.  Husband will decide that he likes something - say a particular canned soup - and buy a lot of it.  Then something will happen and it will not be eaten.  Say, he decides it raises his blood sugar too much and he should only have it once in a while.  The items sit........and sit.........and sit..........and sit.......and sit.  Suddenly they are past their date and one cannot even donate them.  It really kills me to throw out 6 full cans of something because it passed its date a year or two before - but out they must go.  They are taking up needed room and if they are eaten by accident they may make someone ill.  I have to check on some eggs we have in the fridge - wait, I will check right now - an entire dozen dated for June 16, 2018.  Now what do I do?  Normally I would toss the eggs.  But here is a bit of info - when eggs pass their date and are sent back to the producer by the stores they are allowed to be repackaged and sent back out a certain number of times - gross right, but it is true.  Eggs can be tested to see if they are still good and I will have to find the instructions on how to check them.  Okay, per “The Joy of Cooking” if the eggs float in cold water they are no good.  I will test them tomorrow and then throw them out if they float.  We go through periods where we eat eggs or use them in cooking and will buy them - and then the period of eating them ends - see husband deciding he likes something and then deciding not to have it any more, above - I think he was making quiches with them and then stopped doing so - and they sit.  Usually it only part of a dozen, which is left.  In case you are thinking - what about breakfast?  We wake up so late that we have lunch for breakfast, dinner for lunch and then a late night snack for supper, so eggs tend to be more of a dinner food here.  I am going to test them.....  Well, they will going out Sunday night with the garbage for Monday, the 3 I picked at random all floated - but, on the other hand, I was wrong - there are only 10, not a full dozen.  We have a quart of milk in the fridge also.  I know that is fresh, we bought it for a meeting of our reenactment unit last Monday - husband had volunteered to bring snack - oh that reminds me of something else, we are going to return an unopened package of cookies - we bought 2 different kinds for the meeting and apparently it was a chocolate mint cookie crowd, not a chocolate chip crowd.  But no one opened the milk to use in their coffee.  So I have to figure out how to use up a the quart - I guess we will be having diet pudding for snack a few times.  We were lucky to find the quart - mostly it comes in half gallons and more around here, and the quart cost almost as much as the half gallon.

So - when one sorts through stuff one will find stuff to toss, stuff to check and decide if it should be tossed - now or soon after, stuff to return, and stuff to use up.  If only I had some chocolate syrup for the milk, but if I buy same, then I will have a started bottle of chocolate syrup and someday in the future will be deciding if it should be thrown out or not.  (Plus we just plain should not have the extra carbohydrates.)

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

You know that you know what to do.   Go through and toss the floating eggs and the long past date things (whether they are actually dated or not) - and the chicken stuff which has been stored until you can toss it.  Get rid of the empty boxes or finish up what it is in them and get rid of them.  Return items which are in good condition which can be returned.  Use up the items that can still be used - before they have to be tossed because they are floating eggs.   This applies in the rest of the house as well as in the kitchen - paints and makeup can go past their use time also, for example.  The dress you bought for Sally’s wedding a month ago and then bought a different one, that you wore instead - return it if you can or donate it - unless you know that you can wear it for Harry’s wedding next month.  And so on. 

KITCHEN CABINETS PART 2

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.

THANKSGIVING AND OTHER HOLIDAYS

A step aside from the kitchen, well, a little bit.  With (American) Thanksgiving coming this week I thought I would talk about holidays and organizing. While I am talking about Thanksgiving, it applies to all large family (or even company) dinners.

I used to make Thanksgiving dinner for our families.  Since I am Jewish and my husband is Roman Catholic most family type holidays are different for our two families.  Thanksgiving being an American holiday which crosses religions and ethnic backgrounds was the only holiday for which both our families wanted us for dinner at the same time.  For years we waffled at what to do and generally ended up going out to dinner with his family.  Then one year his sister was married just before Thanksgiving.  Dinner with just his parents and grandmother seemed too small.  I suggested we make Thanksgiving dinner in our little apartment and invite both families.  He took some convincing that we could and that we could fit everyone in our apartment.   So for 25 years we did.  The year we moved from our apartment to our house - in October - we still had Thanksgiving dinner here in November - on the good china and cooked by us.  Depending on the year we had 10-14 people, ranging in age- at various times from 2 months old (my niece - when her brother first came he was 3 months old) to my grandfather in his mid 90's. 

In the apartment we would have to move stuff into the bathtub and close the curtain and into the trunks of our cars to make enough clear space for the dinner, especially when we were running a crafts business in the apartment (finished goods to the car trunks...). We would take my small electric clothes dryer put it in the corner of the living room and put a table cloth on it and use it for server for cheese and crackers and soda - so it was not in the way and we had the top to use.  The small washer had to be shoved in the corner of the kitchen to be out of the way.

My mom would make family dinners for holidays and I learned to organize the meal from her.  We cheated and had the turkey cooked by a local deli (and later their not so local related deli when the one near us closed).  My sister and her family were nice enough to pick it up for us on their way here - it was a hot pickup on Thanksgiving in midafternoon.  This left our efforts and oven available for other foods.

Due to our different background our families had different foods for Thanksgiving.  When people have been interviewed about what they have for Thanksgiving the answer is generally “turkey and all the trimmings”.  It was only when people were questioned about “trimmings” that it came out that each area of the country, each ethnic group, and each family has a different idea of trimmings.  His family, being Italian, had manicotti as a course before the turkey.  My family sometimes had dinner at kosher deli, as a relative we had Thanksgiving with was kosher, and my sisters and I would order corned beef sandwiches as mom made turkey sometimes for dinner and corned beef sandwiches were much rarer to us.  (The deli staff was shocked at the idea, but they were offering their full menu.)  To combine our families we went with traditional American.  I made Pennsylvania Dutch beef vegetable soup, mashed potatoes, Colonial Williamsburg’s recipe for sweet potatoes (no marshmallows of course), “pop open can” rolls, canned cranberry sauce, canned gravy (plus the gravy that we got with the turkey), boxed stuffing, canned pumpkin pie (the pumpkin was canned, the pie was baked by us), apple pie (crumb topping as I prefer same, also baked by me), brownies (from a mix) and vegetables.  As we went along I added venetians (rainbow cookies) and the vegetables varied including green bean- wax bean-carrot mix a couple of years, and one year I made succotash as my niece had a line in the Thanksgiving performance at school “Please pass the succotash” and I thought she should know what it was. 

I tried to split the shopping into 2 trips, one, the second week of the month and the other, the third week of the month.  (Of course there were still midnight Wednesday night runs to the 24 hour supermarket the first few years.) Cooking started in advance.  If I was making the venetians it started on Tuesday as it was a 2 day process, if not, on Wednesday when I made the soup - most of the day it was on the stove - and we baked the pies and brownies and set up the sweet potatoes to bake the next day.  I knew after awhile that on Thanksgiving the white potatoes went into boil first - they were baked later and by doing them first the stove was available and they could get cold as they would be heated in the oven later.  The rest followed.  I preplanned which pots and baking dishes, as well as which serving bowls and pieces  were to be used for each dish.  I kept each year’s meal in a spiral notebook with notes for the following years.  In the first few years I listed what each dish would be cooked in and served in, as the years passed I knew what I had used before and it became instinct.

Not everything went well.  One early year we were making chestnut stuffing from scratch.  The chestnuts had to be cooked and then shelled and peeled.  Peeled?  We did not know that chestnuts had a skin to be peeled inside the shell.  It took hours and hours and then we just dumped them in with the skin.  At one point a drinking glass fell out of the closet and broke - not only did the glass need to be cleaned up, but the chestnuts which were out at that point had to be discarded!  I was near tears, but we muddled thorough and never made chestnut stuffing again - although I did think about it this year.  Another year towards the beginning I decided to bake a Colonial Williamsburg recipe bread.  I tried it in advanced and it came out great.  The day before Thanksgiving while I was making the soup and baking, I mixed up the bread mix and put it on the back burner of the stove to let it rise “in a warm place” as I had done previously.  This day the kitchen and stove were much warmer and the dough rose much more - much, much more.  It rose out of the bowl and onto and into the stove!  The bread ended up coming out great, but I had to stop and clean up a huge mess in mid baking/cooking.  I made rolls from scratch in a later year - again the trial run was fine, but this time I had done something wrong and they did not rise.  The corn muffins one year did not want to leave the muffin pans (and they would have been such cute little teddy bears too).  Believe it or not with all these baking problems I am a blue ribbon winning baker at the county fair.  I learned not to make anything with a cream sauce which had to be made at the last minute - too much to do in the rush of the day.       

We also had one year where my niece (then in high school) had gone to a dance near us the night before Thanksgiving and we picked her up for her parents and she stayed overnight for Thanksgiving so she helped with the baking, setup and cooking.  One year we were watching one of husband’s nieces, preschool age at the time, the day before Thanksgiving and I had her help me set the table. 

One thing I did to make it easier was to clean as I went, yes, everyone suggests this, but it works.  I had figured out back in my mom’s house when we had dinner with extended family that if we stopped leaving everything to wash after dinner was over and filled the dishwasher and ran it when full, there was much less to do after everyone else left.  In our apartment and after my house dishwasher died (and I have not replaced it yet) it meant to wash when I got a sink of stuff to wash and set it aside to air dry; when I had a dishwasher I would load it as I went and start it when full - unload it when dry to have it ready to reuse. 

Generally I did not get around to setting the table until late Wednesday night or on Thanksgiving day.  When we first started we used 2 folding tables the length of our apartment living room.  For a while when we were first in the house we had to assemble the top we made which clamped on to our kitchen table to hold everyone - eventually we got a dining room table that when open almost filled our dining room, but we could squeeze in at one end and one my sisters and a child or two children, could fit at the other end.  I have been gradually clearing away items which were sitting on the dining room table and putting them where they belonged (many in our tiny RV as they came in after the last trip to be emptied and never went back out.) 

Today (Wednesday) I cleared the dining room of items which needed to go the basement and we had not brought down and of additional, larger items which needed to go out to the RV.  The table is open and the table cloth, napkins and the table pad are waiting for the table to be set tomorrow for the two of us.  Tonight I baked a pumpkin pie (low sugar) and assembled the sweet potatoes (also made with low sugar) in a casserole for tomorrow.  I am trying new instructions for the turkey which involved some preparation tonight and it is done.

Each Thanksgiving night (or any other dinner I made/make) ALL of the dishes, pots, etc. (unless a pot really needed to soak) were washed that night - not necessarily put away or dried, but washed.  Pots were done last.  I would use extra towels to put items on to air dry as needed.  In our house I also took the tablecloth outside the house and shook it out of crumbs and it and the napkins were washed in the washer and drying in the dryer before I went to bed.  In the apartment it would be shaken out and all would be in the laundry bag for the next time I did laundry.   I would put everything away starting Friday and have it mostly done by Sunday (some items still being used for the leftovers).                      
Leftovers from the main course were put into plastic containers or zipper plastic bags immediately after the main course.  Family members, including children - especially children - are wonderful for helping with this, as well as clearing the table.  (Children love to help, they think they are being treated special as grownups.)  Leftovers from dessert and the soup were put away after the guests left.  (The leftover soup needed to cool before being put back into the refrigerator.)  The garbage went out Thanksgiving night.

We all have that collection of plastic containers that accumulate.  Some we bought, some came filled with something and were too good to throw away, some just appeared, but they do accumulate.  Since I used more of them after Thanksgiving dinner for leftovers than at any other time during the year, in the days after Thanksgiving I would look at what was left and after making sure I had a good size assortment, I would get rid of the spares which had come filled with food (ones not paid for) and passed along any excess other ones (the ones we paid for) that were not needed.  By using this time of year I knew I had plenty of plastic storage containers to use during the year and more would accumulate by the following Thanksgiving.   
   
Recently I was discussing on an online group that Thanksgiving is the unique American holiday that is celebrated across all lines.  Someone posted back that it is only those with a deity who have someone to give thanks to.  I pointed out that thanks may be given to mother earth, providence, the universe, one’s family, one’s friends, one’s luck, one’s self, etc.  A Happy Thanksgiving to those here in the USA.  Please remember that what is for sale on “Black Friday”, “Small Business Saturday”, “Cyber Monday” or any other day is just stuff and most of us have too much of it.  Remember more stuff for you or those you gift it to, is more stuff to organize and deal with and the sales are not really as great as they seem.

KITCHEN CABINETS -START

I said that this week  I would tell you what I have in my kitchen to use - or at least start.  Obviously the amount and assortment of plates, etc. that you need will vary by what you use them for, how many of you there are, and what you need.  I wanted to tell you what we have, why we have it and where I keep it and how I organize it to help you decide what you might need.

In the wall cabinet over my dishwasher I have a set of everyday dishes for 8.  Why 8?  This was the standard set for dishes when we were married.  We also never thought that we would stay a family of 2.  We have dinner dishes, bowls for soup or cereal, small plates (for cake or side dish), cups, and saucers.  Do we need them all, not really, but we do not want to break up the set and if we break some - oh, that’s right.  I actually have 15 bowls, 2 of which have small chips.  I broke a bowl  - okay, I have broken several bowls, but the others were replaced.  When I went to replace the latest broken and the 2 chipped bowls I found out that the company had completely changed the shape of the bowls and complained.  They sent me 8 bowls in the new shape - free.  I am used to the old shape and will need to break a few more before I switch to the new ones.  So the old ones are with my dishes and the new ones are in the other wall cabinet with my glasses.  (Since I use ceramic dishes the chipped bowls are good for use around the house where an electric connection has to be made, say with an extension cord, that would be sitting on carpet and could be a fire hazard.  I use the chipped bowls to hold the connections and help to prevent a possible fire.

I do not keep the set together - a stack of dinner plates, a stack of small plates, a stack of bowls... I used to.  I realized that it was inefficient to keep it all like that.  I am on the short side and can only reach the bottom 2 shelves of my wall cabinets (and only the front of the 2nd shelf ).  So I decided that it was silly to keep things together just because “one does”. I put what I use most often where I can reach it without a step and the rest above where I need a step to reach it.

So on the bottom shelf of the cabinet I have 2 dinner size dishes from the set in a stack with 4 other dinner size dishes.  2 of these others are “Corelle”.  I use these for working on as well as in the microwave.  (My ceramics can go in the microwave or the oven, but I prefer not to put them in the microwave.)  I also use these for cutting up food on.  The other 2 are heavy weight plastic plates.  They were inexpensive and are used under food in the refrigerator - such as for meats which might leak.

Next to the dinner size plates I have 6 of the 8 small plates, mixed with 2 of the saucers and 2 “Corelle” small plates.  We do not actually use the cups and these saucers are used under gravy servers and such.  The “Corelle” plates are used for the same purposes as the larger ones.  Why 6 of the 8?  That is what fits in the space with the other 4 plates. 

Between the two stacks of plates I keep the bottles of our medications.  They stay dry and are convenient for filling our weekly pill boxes on Saturday nights. 

I have a wire rack which sits over all of the above so I can put more items on this same shelf - remember I can’t reach too far above it without climbing up.  On the wire rack I have 4 stacks of bowls - the 7 soup bowls to my dishes, 3 of the 7 (broke one of these also) small bowls that match my dishes, 2 small serving bowls (same company as my dishes, different pattern), and 2 “Corelle” small serving (or large soup) bowls.  I think what most of these bowls are used for is obvious.  The “Corelle” bowls are used for the microwave as are the plates.

Boy, all that on one shelf.  This is probably about 90% of the dishes we use for dinner.  I can reach what I need and put it away easily.  Storage this way is easy for me.

Between the wire rack and cabinet wall, standing up is a trivet and our small collection of rarely used takeout menus.           

Do you store your dishes as sets or as you need to use them?


“Corelle” is a trademark name of items made by Corning Glass.  I am not endorsing in any way the plates, merely mentioning that I use these unique plates/bowls in this manner.