Unclutterer

1. Posted by Amanda - 01/13/2009

   It’s a good list. Most of us have too many gadgets that we don’t really need. I know I do.
   I have a liquid measuring cup that is a pint glass marked off in oz., cups, millilitres, etc. and I keep that in the cupboard with the glasses. If you had something similar you could free up even more space in “the drawer”. Gah, less stuff is good, but only ONE drawer, the insanity of it all.

2. Posted by RW - 01/14/2009

   Thanks for the inspiration to clean my kitchen drawers! Although I didn’t reduce to the level suggested, I did find enough “doubles” to outfit at least one needy kitchen.

   I echo the vote for a fine gauge microplane as a necessity. I use mine constantly–for nutmeg, citrus zest, garlic, fresh parmesan/romano.

   Also, definitely a corkscrew. Not being a wine drinker, I was once without one, and it was rather embarrassing when someone brought over a bottle of wine for dinner! I’ll never make that mistake again.

3. Posted by Laura - 01/14/2009

   I am amazed to read that in this day and age, there are still kitchens with one or two drawers.

   Twenty years ago, my husband and I bought a $450,000 condo on NYC’s upper East Side, brand spankin’ new, 29th floor, and ONE KITCHEN DRAWER! Seriously, the kitchen was smaller than my master bathroom is now (I live just outside of Los Angeles).

   We were newly married, and every single relative on my husband’s side — he is Greek — gave us some kind of kitchen utensil or serving dish or cooking pan. Honestly, I just cried. We kept stuff in our oven, on top of the fridge, in our closet, under the bathroom sink … then came baby 13 months later. It was such a relief to move to Denver and buy a 2,000 square foot home for $150K, with the best kitchen EVER!!! I was so excited to have a disposal, and even had enough room to dedicate one drawer just to paper grocery bags.

   Now I am motivated to clean out my utensil drawer so it will close properly. We own a sandwich shop, so I rarely cook anymore. Someone should get some use of these items.

4. Posted by Another Deb - 01/14/2009

   I own several measuring cups and spoons, but tend to keep the spare sets in specific food containers. A tablespoon is always in the coffee can, because I use it daily. The 1/4 cup measure is in the plastic bin with the sugar, the 1/2 cup measure is with the flour. Convenient and saves space for me.

   On the Design Public blog, there was a great solution for odd utinsils. Store them in the vintage cookie jar. I love that idea! Another idea would be to keep items in a large specialty cooking container, such as the turkey roaster or the Tupperware containers you need infrequently. I have the “good” silverware in a Tupperware rectangular cake cover, upside down, base serving as lid.

   I have a vertical rack for pots that I made from some shelving grid. It also holds the BBQ tools and a strainer. A magnetic knife rack from Ikea keeps knives, a metal trivet and shears in easy reach by the stove. No one sees that clutter because it is out of sight to all but the cook, between fridge and pantry. One cabinet has a small wine rack, which I put some tall cans into and use for taper candles, skewers, etc.

   A friend once lived in a home for a few years before he realized that there was a drawer under the oven!

5. Posted by Aja West - 01/14/2009

   This is going to sound rude, but I really, really don’t mean it that way. I’ve been a big fan for a long time.

   You guys used to post amazing, original content all the time. I have seen very little besides book advertisements / reviews and tidbit sized tips that seem like rewrapped versions of old articles.

   Did everyone give up?

6. Posted by Erin Doland - 01/14/2009

   @Aja — Wait, let me see if I understand this correctly …

   You are complaining that the content you get for FREE. At no cost to you. That you put NO time and effort into creating, isn’t exactly what YOU want EVERY single day?

   Additionally, since you don’t like the content, you assume that WE have given up? That all of the words you’re reading EVERY DAY FOR FREE are somehow magically placed on this website by gnomes? That we’re sitting around eating bon-bons and laughing about how we’re pulling one over on our readers by publishing FAKE content every day??

   Huh. And you want me to not be insulted by your insults?

   First of all … do you know how long it took me to read those books to write those reviews? It took me 10 hours to read the books, then another 4 hours to write the reviews. 14 hours to produce what you call “book advertisements / reviews.” I guess it’s a good thing I’ve given up …

   The post that is up right now on productivity systems took me three weeks to research and write. I had to read six books for it, about 40 newspaper articles, collect together what I found to be the best resources, and write the article. Once again, it’s a good thing I’ve given up …

   Okay, the “Fix My HTML” article is a bit of an advertisement … you know why?? Because Dancing Mammoth actually PAYS for us to have health insurance. Since you aren’t giving us money to get quality medical care, and they are, we thought we’d plug their fun, cute, program. And, it actually gets rid of clutter in bad HTML. It deserved to go on this site.

   Yes, I’m being defensive. However, I felt that I needed to defend us after you insulted us in a very public forum. My staff and I work our asses off to bring you this site at no expense to you. I’m sorry that you feel we’ve given up, but I strongly disagree with you.

   Now, with a less defensive tone, if you have a _positive suggestion_ for content you would like to see on this site, feel welcome to e-mail us through the contact page with those ideas. We actually like to receive helpful suggestions for improvements instead of public criticisms. The contact page is a private forum where you can connect with us in a more fruitful way.

7. Posted by allen - 01/14/2009

   @Erin: I like the content, for what it’s worth? Your reviews are thoughtful, and informative.

   To the article:

   I have a similar problem with my kitchen. the last owners (long story about their many mistakes) redesigned the kitchen and now it has but ONE drawer. It took me two days of searching all the local stores, but i found a drawer insert that was two layers, so i could store all the silverware in there. I have to hang my pizza cutter, bottle opener, &c from the wall with HOOKS. I never thougth those little holes in the handles were useful, until i moved into my current place!

   Pizza cutters are much better at cutting pizza, quicker, and have lots of other uses. Also, i really like pizza? Also, Pastry brushes can’t really be replaced. That’s not saying everyone needs one, but they are whicked fast & effiecient at applying things like butter to the top of my buns before serving them.

   I would vote a cake/pie server can just be replaced by a small-ish spatula, that could then be used for other things, like brownies. Also, most can-openers these days have bottle openers built in, or the wine opener does, so haveing a seperate ones seems silly, if we’re only talking about space? Instead of a seperate meat thermoeter, i would suggest one of the electronic do-hickeys: They are timers, they can alert you when the food as reached the tempurature (so quicker cooking, becuase the cord goes from the food in the oven, out of the stove, so you’re not opening the stove). One of these: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....tterer-20/ , to be clear on what i meant.

   Better suggestion for replacement of funnel: take a paper plate, fold it into quarters, and cut the tip off: the paper plate is stronger, and won’t let fluids soak through, so can be used for fluids as well (at least, if you have the wax-coated ones?). I use the flat of my chef’s knife to crush garlic my ownself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoYYX_SpV7I but i am a little more… energetic in my crushing? Also, i haven’t tried the salt.

   I use one of those cup things on my counter to hold the whisk, spatulas, spoontulas, wooden spoons, slotted spoons, &c. I use a wall knife-rack (the magnetic kind), that is mounted below my wall-mounted spce rack, next to my wall mounted hooks for the pizza cutter, can opener, grater.

   I liked the idea stated above of using an old cookie canister for some odds & ends. i’m going to keep eyes open for one now, for my measuring cups. (I have seen those silicon folding measuring spoons, cups, and even a liquid folding silicon measuring cup! same with a funnel!)

   Keep up the good work, Erin, thanks.

8. Posted by Ruth - 01/14/2009

   Erin, so what if your site is free? Everything is free nowadays. The cost to us is the adverts, which are easily blocked, apart from when they’re (not very adeptly) disguised as content.

   I know that no-one would want to support from their own pocket a site that gets as much traffic as this one must, so obviously (at least some) advertising is necessary. However, it would be nice if for every advert post there was at least one real one.

9. Posted by WineWench - 01/14/2009

   You go, Erin!!!! I think you guys ROCK!! This is one blog that I read every single day — granted, sometimes the issue is not something I’m interested in, so I just skim over it. But, I love reading your posts and I get so much useful info from your readers with their comments.

   And, I love the minimalist kitchen article — I’m trying to “skinny” down my kitchen possessions so this is a great jumping off point.

   Keep up the good work!!

10. Posted by Erin Doland - 01/14/2009

    @Ruth — Every post is real. We don’t accept any money from advertisers to review their products. A positive review of a product is not an advertisement. It means that we have tried/read/tested a product and think that our readers can benefit from it.

11. Posted by Craig - 01/14/2009

    Knives.

    Do away with most of your gadgets and doodahs and replace them with the best set of chef’s knives that you can afford – then learn to use them properly.

    I was lucky in that my first job after school was as a kitchen porter in a Michelin Star kitchen under an exacting German Chef. He taught me how to do just about every food [meat & veg, not pastry] prep task in the kithen with just three knives.

    As a result you won’t find slicers, dicers, juicers, choppers, liquidizers, graters or garlic crushers or any of those mechanical or electrical doohickeys in my kitchen.

    It drives my wife mad…

12. Posted by allen - 01/14/2009

    @Craig: i fail to see how one good grater is going to be replaced by knives? & of course you are not counting things like measuring cups…

13. Posted by Craig - 01/15/2009

    Hi Allen,

    If you can chop very fine you don’t need to grate But you are right, a grater is useful.

    Measuring cups are for lab rats. I find measuring by the handful, pinch and slurp work fine except when making complex cakes. You don’t see chef’s in restaurants using measuring cups do you?

14. Posted by allen - 01/15/2009

    @craig: i don’t see chef’s in restaurants, Period.

    Also, i think there’s a fine-sight difference betwixt a trained, profesional chef measuring flour, and me measuring flour, woulnd’t you say? Don’t get me wrong, if i’m making a marinade, i’ll eye-ball it, but of course you’ll forgive me if i choose to weigh my flour for my cakes, or use a measuring cup for my sugar.

    I think we both agree that too many people keep too many things that they don’t use in their kitchen, will never use, have no intention of using, but think they MIGHT, or might want to SHOW OFF.

15. Posted by Michele - 01/15/2009

    As a hobby baker I really enjoy some of my speciality gadgets, even if I don’t use them often. But for someone who just cooks for the sake of filling their family’s stomachs, a decluttering is probably a good idea.

16. Posted by allen - 01/15/2009

    @Michele: obviously, the more space you have, the more space you have for hobbies. This kind of list is really of importance for those of us with limited space. You make a good point, however, that we must all make space for the things we love in our life: Why else are we living?

    Of course, the key is balance.

17. Posted by Josh Baugher - 01/19/2009

    The useful kitchen/pantry organization post trifecta:

    this

    +

    ruhlman.com: The Freezer Pantry

    http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlma.....r-pan.html

    +

    What to Ditch in the Kitchen – Bitten Blog – NYTimes.com

    http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.co.....e-kitchen/

18. Posted by Jayne - 06/02/2009

    I actually only use the same few tools in the kitchen daily. Even my husband would rather use a fork on the grill than all those tools in a grilling set. Those are hard to store…so huge!

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