100 Days of Goodbyes: OMFG, MY KITCHEN!
Feb. 10th, 2013 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
parasitegirlNever say never.
I went and bought three things to put things in. It was worth it.
You all know I cook. I cook every day. At the least it's my morning breakfast and on a busy day I am making three meals and doing some extra cooking task. Part of why I fell in love with my apartment is that it has a bright, spacious kitchen.
I need my kitchen to be wonderful because I’m there a lot. It has to be highly functional. I have to have tools, food, cleaning items and more to be easily on-hand.
I’ve learned from studying Rodent-Girl (my name for the part of me I'm learning about as I declutter) that I don’t function well in places with a lot of opaque containers. Rodent-Girl uses opaque containers and nooks to stash random crap and promptly forgets about it, to the point where she buys more crap to replace the crap that she didn’t realize she had….this includes beans, bulgur wheat, and other food items.
I spent a few hours looking around my kitchen figuring out where I use objects
I thought about what objects find myself putting away, time after time, because where I leave them isn't where I store them. I thought about what ugly, rarely-used (but needed) things are in plain sight and what often-used items are stashed in drawers and containers that are a hassle to return them to…and realized that I needed to reverse that dynamic.
My cuisinart hand held blender/wisker/food processor combo is probably my most used kitchen tool and the one I’ve never found a way to store. It needs to be within arm’s reach of the two very small surfaces I have available AND the base requires an outlet. When looking around my kitchen I had a eureka moment about HOW to do that....and that’s why I went to Ikea, around noon, on a three-day weekend.
I >KNEW< that Ikea on a weekend around lunch time would be a bad idea. Families line up to just enter the restaurant area in queues that remind me of Disneyland…AND it’s undergoing some major revamping of half the “marketplace” floor right now.
I figured I’d go there organized and use the chaos to focus me on NOT DAWDLING AND BUYING EXTRA CRAP. I had a plan of attack that involved looking up the sizes, prices, and names before I went. The fact that I take the train to Ikea (only 20 minutes) also always helps rein in my purchases. I gotta be able to carry what I buy. I didn’t need much: three stainless steel thing-holders with drainage, new cutting boards and a spatula, three cork trivets to Ikea hack (details later) and two cork boards for the studio.
I gave myself permission to buy unplanned for items in the as-is section if there were nice frames, discounted curtains I could use for the studio, or if the lamp-shape with poppies was there, because my current lamp shade is too dark for my craft room.
OMFG IT WAS HELL!
But it was worth it…and I have the lampshade.
I came home and tackled my kitchen FOR REALZ...taking many an opaque plastic container out to the trash.
I am about to go make dinner in my wonderful kitchen…
But first let me show you something I never EVER thought I would be able to or would want to show you….pictures of my kitchen WITH the storage spaces OPEN! The only thing not in this picture is the woven-plastic rug/mat I have in front of the sink/prep area. It's hanging to dry. Whenever it gets too grotty I just put it in the bath-area (not the tub but the floor drain area) and use the shower nozzle on it until the water runs clean and then put it out to dry.
I am FUCKING amazed that decluttering has allowed me to do this.
This is midway through the process. I was using my step stool as a table for my laptop so I could listen to stuff.
My front entrance with crap that needs to go on certain trash days and my teaching-supply bag for the week. In moving things around I was finally able to give my backpack of emergency supplies an accessible place in the kitchen, it used to take up the front entry. My primary "Oh, Shit!" bag with extra meds, glasses, papers, cel charger is hanging right by the door.
My fold-out table; for the first time ever the shelves below are empty of everything except one container with a flower pot in it. I still might find a use for that container so I'm not ready to throw it out...I figure after the major declutter I can use that area to store non-perishable trash items waiting for trash day. I still need to keep those items in plain sight for now so I remember to toss them.
I always need to move things like bills off the table for it to be of use I need to keep bills where I can remember to pay them on time...and that's why my Ikea trip involved cork trivets. I saw this easy Ikea hack for small fabric-covered cork boards and thought "I need a small cork board, I want it to look nice, and I have FUCKLOADS of fabric."
I don't think I have ever posted a picture from this angle of my kitchen before. This area had been a world where things crawled into containers to be forgotten. It's now a far more transparent area. There's a lot of stuff. It's all stuff I use. On the bottom you can see my emergency backpack! That area was full before decluttering.
By the end of this adventure I will find a good place to keep my vacuum cleaner...
I can't believe I can show this picture!
Or this one!...it features two of the steel containers I got at Ikea.
My Cuisinart handheld blender and attachments! TWO---TWO MORE CONTAINERS! A-HA-HA-HAAAAA
(I already owned one before the Ikea trip, that's how I figured out it would work.)
The blender stick is plugged in while in there ready to use...I ended up removing a bulky outlet that was built into those shelves and finding a different way to plug in the appliances near-by...and threading the Cuisinart cord through the back of the shelves thought the now-empty outlet so I can use it and yet the cord is easily tucked away when not in use.
YAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!
I AM FUCKING PROUD OF MYSELF!
I went and bought three things to put things in. It was worth it.
You all know I cook. I cook every day. At the least it's my morning breakfast and on a busy day I am making three meals and doing some extra cooking task. Part of why I fell in love with my apartment is that it has a bright, spacious kitchen.
I need my kitchen to be wonderful because I’m there a lot. It has to be highly functional. I have to have tools, food, cleaning items and more to be easily on-hand.
I’ve learned from studying Rodent-Girl (my name for the part of me I'm learning about as I declutter) that I don’t function well in places with a lot of opaque containers. Rodent-Girl uses opaque containers and nooks to stash random crap and promptly forgets about it, to the point where she buys more crap to replace the crap that she didn’t realize she had….this includes beans, bulgur wheat, and other food items.
I spent a few hours looking around my kitchen figuring out where I use objects
I thought about what objects find myself putting away, time after time, because where I leave them isn't where I store them. I thought about what ugly, rarely-used (but needed) things are in plain sight and what often-used items are stashed in drawers and containers that are a hassle to return them to…and realized that I needed to reverse that dynamic.
My cuisinart hand held blender/wisker/food processor combo is probably my most used kitchen tool and the one I’ve never found a way to store. It needs to be within arm’s reach of the two very small surfaces I have available AND the base requires an outlet. When looking around my kitchen I had a eureka moment about HOW to do that....and that’s why I went to Ikea, around noon, on a three-day weekend.
I >KNEW< that Ikea on a weekend around lunch time would be a bad idea. Families line up to just enter the restaurant area in queues that remind me of Disneyland…AND it’s undergoing some major revamping of half the “marketplace” floor right now.
I figured I’d go there organized and use the chaos to focus me on NOT DAWDLING AND BUYING EXTRA CRAP. I had a plan of attack that involved looking up the sizes, prices, and names before I went. The fact that I take the train to Ikea (only 20 minutes) also always helps rein in my purchases. I gotta be able to carry what I buy. I didn’t need much: three stainless steel thing-holders with drainage, new cutting boards and a spatula, three cork trivets to Ikea hack (details later) and two cork boards for the studio.
I gave myself permission to buy unplanned for items in the as-is section if there were nice frames, discounted curtains I could use for the studio, or if the lamp-shape with poppies was there, because my current lamp shade is too dark for my craft room.
OMFG IT WAS HELL!
But it was worth it…and I have the lampshade.
I came home and tackled my kitchen FOR REALZ...taking many an opaque plastic container out to the trash.
I am about to go make dinner in my wonderful kitchen…
But first let me show you something I never EVER thought I would be able to or would want to show you….pictures of my kitchen WITH the storage spaces OPEN! The only thing not in this picture is the woven-plastic rug/mat I have in front of the sink/prep area. It's hanging to dry. Whenever it gets too grotty I just put it in the bath-area (not the tub but the floor drain area) and use the shower nozzle on it until the water runs clean and then put it out to dry.
I am FUCKING amazed that decluttering has allowed me to do this.
This is midway through the process. I was using my step stool as a table for my laptop so I could listen to stuff.
My front entrance with crap that needs to go on certain trash days and my teaching-supply bag for the week. In moving things around I was finally able to give my backpack of emergency supplies an accessible place in the kitchen, it used to take up the front entry. My primary "Oh, Shit!" bag with extra meds, glasses, papers, cel charger is hanging right by the door.
My fold-out table; for the first time ever the shelves below are empty of everything except one container with a flower pot in it. I still might find a use for that container so I'm not ready to throw it out...I figure after the major declutter I can use that area to store non-perishable trash items waiting for trash day. I still need to keep those items in plain sight for now so I remember to toss them.
I always need to move things like bills off the table for it to be of use I need to keep bills where I can remember to pay them on time...and that's why my Ikea trip involved cork trivets. I saw this easy Ikea hack for small fabric-covered cork boards and thought "I need a small cork board, I want it to look nice, and I have FUCKLOADS of fabric."
I don't think I have ever posted a picture from this angle of my kitchen before. This area had been a world where things crawled into containers to be forgotten. It's now a far more transparent area. There's a lot of stuff. It's all stuff I use. On the bottom you can see my emergency backpack! That area was full before decluttering.
By the end of this adventure I will find a good place to keep my vacuum cleaner...
I can't believe I can show this picture!
Or this one!...it features two of the steel containers I got at Ikea.
My Cuisinart handheld blender and attachments! TWO---TWO MORE CONTAINERS! A-HA-HA-HAAAAA
(I already owned one before the Ikea trip, that's how I figured out it would work.)
The blender stick is plugged in while in there ready to use...I ended up removing a bulky outlet that was built into those shelves and finding a different way to plug in the appliances near-by...and threading the Cuisinart cord through the back of the shelves thought the now-empty outlet so I can use it and yet the cord is easily tucked away when not in use.
YAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!
I AM FUCKING PROUD OF MYSELF!
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no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 11:48 am (UTC)Toss one of the many kitchen towels I have on hand onto that step stool and it quickly becomes a thing to put things on. Not a prep surface but a place for grocery bags of food/ place to put the kettle when I need both burners/ place to put my drying rack when I need more counter...
(edited to add) That's the primary function of that step stool: serving as a moveable, temporary shelf. I don't keep much in the upper cabinets that require the stool...so it does double duty.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 12:05 pm (UTC)It's really a kitchen/dining room/washing room. You probably can't imagine the amount apartments that only have a hook-up/drain system for the washing machine outside on the balcony. I didn't even notice how common it was until my last apartment hunt (this is my third apartment in Japan) when my apartment agent was narrowing down places to show me. I insisted on only looking at places that had the area to instal my washing machine INDOORS...along with my need for flooring instead of tatami mats in my sleeping area (allergies).
no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 12:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 07:25 pm (UTC)This is from the girl who literally puts her ducks in a row, so it is a high compliment.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 10:41 pm (UTC)Plus, my three tub ducks are literally in a row.
I look forward to sending off the Monsters toward the end of February
no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 12:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 12:37 pm (UTC)I have a terrible problem with the putting away of things also. It's why I have a floordrobe. If I put it away I forget I have it!