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simple in my kitchen
February 20, 2010
How many dishes does a family of five really need? Not that much.
This month we decided to simplify our lives but reducing our kitchen ware to just the dishes we need; one bowl, large plate, small plate, spoon, fork... (you get the idea) per person. This allows us to hand wash our dishes and not get behind doing so and to downsize the amount of cupboard space we need to store dinner ware. All the rest were moved to the "hospitality-only" cupboard or boxed up for a spring yard sale.
(Would love to say more on this topic but I'm trying really, really hard to stick to my 3 sentence rule for the rest of February.)
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Annie on Feb. 20, 2010, 7:27 p.m.
Very interesting...I spent my morning purging our house of the little things that are unnecessary. It totally has me thinking, how much stuff do we truly need? Do you know what I mean? Now, with that said, it is tough for a creative to not have stuff for creating, but I am trying not to have too much of the "other" stuff.
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Emile on Feb. 20, 2010, 7:50 p.m.
What a great idea!
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Leticia on Feb. 21, 2010, 1:24 a.m.
I'm doing the same thing all around the house. I have a hard time getting to the thing I need with a bunch of stuff before it. We are waiting for a good warm weekend to put out a yard sale. I wasn't sure about getting rid of some dishes. I was worry of not having enough for when I get company, but now that I read your post it gave an idea. I will keep some of them for "hospitality-only" and put them in the very high, last shelf of my cupboard.
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Rana on Feb. 21, 2010, 2:57 a.m.
Great post. I've been purging our basement this month. Slowly but surely it is going away.
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Kendra on Feb. 21, 2010, 3:06 a.m.
I like the look of focus on Brienne's face as she rinses that dish. Makes me wonder: Is she cautious with the plate or more focused on what she's listening to? Either way, it's nice. :)
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Wendy on Feb. 21, 2010, 3:42 a.m.
That's a great idea! We just might have to give it a try!
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Denise on Feb. 21, 2010, 2:21 p.m.
how about you expand on this when you are back to longer posts. I'd love to hear more.
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kyndale on Feb. 21, 2010, 9:03 p.m.
Doing these types of purges is the key to simplicity and peace. How come it seems that I can't get ahead though?
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Candelion on Feb. 22, 2010, midnight
I should probably get rid of some dishes too, but I love them all :( However, I tend to collect Kombucha containers, because I reuse them and my recycler does not take glass... Any ideas on what to do with all the bottles would be great, otherwise they'll end up in the landfill if I throw them out.
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nicola@which name? on Feb. 22, 2010, 4:48 a.m.
i love simplifying. we are slooooowwwwlllyyy re-doing on kitchen. next step is to clear out the cupboards to clean them. much won't go back in. nicola http://whichname.blogspot.com
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Jenn on Feb. 23, 2010, 5:19 a.m.
we done this over a month ago, totally purged my kitchen. makes dish-washing so much easier!!
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daffodil_lane on Feb. 23, 2010, 4:11 p.m.
I suppose I have anti-simplified. I love dishes far too much! Not so much washing them, but collecting them... the cute vintage ones, the bright colorful Fiesta ones. Seriously, I have 4 different sets. I'll have to simplify somewhere else.
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renee on Feb. 24, 2010, 2:02 p.m.
collecting is one thing... using and washing them all is another thing all together. Collections are lovely, maintenance is not. My problem is when I have to maintain the collections.
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exhale. return to center. on Feb. 23, 2010, 9:41 p.m.
i have been thinking about doing this for a while now. (i read something similar in "family fun" a while back.)
thanks for getting me thinking about this again. i love the idea of less dishes, cups etc.
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jean on June 15, 2013, 6:13 p.m.
I think I'm missing something......but I cant find your recipe for your dish bar....sorry..
jean
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renee on June 15, 2013, 6:48 p.m.
I went snooping around a few posts also thinking I must have linked to it. I appears I haven't. Here it is:
How to Make Simple Soap
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jean on June 15, 2013, 7:43 p.m.
Thank you so much Renee.
I use a recipe similar to that but it contains coconut oil as well as lard, do you feel that the 100% lard or shortening gives more cleaning abilities? or longer lasting suds?
Thanks,
Jean
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renee on June 15, 2013, 9:38 p.m.
Jean,
I use this recipe because it's an adaptation of an "old-fashioned" lard soap recipe, back when soapmakers didn't use coconut oil. Also, it's just so easy and cheap. I haven't tested against a mixed oil soap for suds or otherwise. However, it does yield a sudsy bar.
This soap has worked really well for me for all purpose stain removal and cleaning.
See here for a side by side comparison of single oil soaps.
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KM on Feb. 20, 2010, 4:18 p.m.
Love this post-
have been thinking about something similar- maybe I'll be motivated to do something now- like the idea of a "hospitality cupboard" for extras!