Food is another kitchen “space-eater”. Now and then I tell myself I can’t go to the grocery store (except for perhaps milk and fresh veggies and fruits) until I’ve eaten more of what’s on hand. The cans of soup pushed to the back can get neglected when out of sight! I live in the upper Midwest and I never worry about running out of food during a blizzard!

We got married two years ago, and as we both love to cook, we got several relatively large appliances as gifts (food processor, blender, espresso machine – which the hubby likes and would use more if we didn’t have to store it on the top shelf!, KitchenAid mixer which I use at least weekly for making bread, etc.). We have to keep all appliances, alcohol, dishware, and food in our cabinets because there literally isn’t anywhere else to store any of it.

For the first year we had an extra set of shelves in the miniature dining room. After our son was born, I stripped those shelves and donated them plus anything on them I didn’t keep to Goodwill. Mostly that consisted of duplicates (extra dishes, ceramic mugs, etc.) that we weren’t using. Yet I still feel like we have too much stuff. We’ll be moving in about two months, and I’m actually really looking forward to it – a chance to par our kitchenware down even further!

However, we pay a ridiculously low rent, so I’m willing to put up with the kitchen clutter.

My problem isn’t so much hand-me-downs, as my mom going out and buying me stuff for my kitchen/dining room with no regard for the actual size of my kitchen/dining table. Example: I have a 33-inch round glass table. Why did I get the longest table runner she could find? (Especially since no one in my family has ever used table runners, ever, nor did I want to start using them. But that’s another story…)

I like to be uncluttered and organized. I’m also a packrat. Sometimes I have trouble with those two competing sides.

I’ve found the best way to keep the clutter down is to be as organized as possible. I do what you suggest, but not completely because I do keep a lot of things for sentimental reasons as well as because I like to collect. I do go through things periodically and collect stuff to give to charity. Just the other day I went through all my clothes and tried everything on to divide it between stuff to give away, stuff that needed mending, winter clothes to put away, etc. I lost 25 lbs. last year so I have some stuff that needs to be taken in and some stuff that just needed discarding. It felt very good. I still have many closets full of junk to go through!

I would like to buy more containers to store things and shelves for display, but my husband doesn’t like to spend money on things for the house (he’d rather spend money on travel), so I have to buy them a little bit at a time…

I have gotten rid of a ton of this stuff over the years, to Goodwill (‘oh, it got broken in the move!’) The most recent was a glass pie plate, perfectly good, nothing the matter with it, that I had trouble deciding what to do with since it was a perfectly good pie plate. Finally, my sister pointed out to me that a) I have never made a pie b) if my mother was so into making pies herself she would not ave given it to me c) if I ever really want a pie, I can buy one at the store for $2-3 and d) when I do buy a pie from the store, it will COME ON A PLATE! I chucked it in the Goodwill box then and there

I am a “just say no” to unwanted stuff type, even though it’s not easy… Or accept it with the disclaimer that it may be passed along to someone else who might need it.

Lisa, I know exactly how you feel – and having lost my parents some time ago, over the years I’ve had to deal with “what do I do with this item that was my mom’s/dad’s/grandmother’s?” many times.

Essentially, I boiled it down to the most important items they left me — ones that most represented them — or that I got from them at some point. The others I gave away. I did keep things that were theirs but that integrated well into my apartment.

So, for example, from my father I kept his Navy peacoat and his pocket knife. I kept two small wooden boxes that I use to hold small items I use regularly. I have some jewelry of my mother’s and my grandmother’s (and one necklace I didn’t like the style of I had made into something I would like).

I don’t regret giving items away over the years at all. I think one of the things that helped was that when I was getting rid of some of my mother’s things, for example, I donated them to a resale store that was affiliated with a cause she believed in. Not only would someone be able to give the items a new life, the proceeds would help a cause, too.

However, I have decluttered the unused gadgets that seem so appealing and decided to apply the same technique I used on my jewelry: if I haven’t used in a year, move it along.