Last week was week one in the 4-week Kitchen Challenge that I'm calling Week By Week Kitchen Organizing. In week one you tackled the fridge. For week two, how about we de-clutter your glassware? Surely that’s a small enough project that you can knock it out in less than thirty minutes!
I know cups, glasses and mugs seem to magically multiply until one day you’re putting them away and realize there’s no room for your favorite tumbler.
First, empty out the cabinet(s) where you keep your drink ware and I bet you’ll be surprised at how many cups and glasses you own. Next, sort by type, then go through each type, discarding the ones that are chipped, cracked, faded, or just plain old and no longer important to you. Remember, your storage space is limited, so be ruthless!
Once you’ve reduced the number of cups, mugs and glassware you have, put them away according to what you use most often. If you’re a coffee or tea drinker, put your mugs on the lowest shelf and less-used items up high. If you’re a wine or martini drinker, consider adding an inexpensive stemware rack on the underside of your upper cabinets to free up interior cabinet space. Put a bit of thought into the placement of drinkware and they’ll be easier to find and put away later.
Week Two Maintenance Success Tip: Stay aware. As time goes on, pay attention to how full your glassware cabinet is when everything is clean and put away. Is there any space left or is it full top to bottom? Also, when putting away clean glassware, keep it grouped by family instead of just sticking it anywhere in the cabinet. The few seconds it takes to group items with their families will help the cabinet stay organized and will look much nicer too. (Especially if your cabinets have glass fronts!)
Finally, limit the number of re-usable fast food, convenience store and other cheap plastic cups you own. If you have kids or you actually use those kind of cups, keep a few, but be reasonable.
Stay tuned next week when we’ll pare down the pantry!
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