Monday Musings - Clear my mind, clean my kitchen.

Last week I had decided the time had finally come to tackle the dreaded kitchen cupboards.  Now with our fabulous new attic storage I have no excuse not to have perfectly organised closets throughout the house.  And of all the rooms, the kitchen's cupboards were the worst.  Closely followed by our wardrobe, but that's another story which will require tea and lots of chocolate cake. 
So I rolled up my sleeves and dived in with relish (which really should have been in the fridge - again another story).  I thought that I would be able to complete it all and have time to spare during my days off.  I thought wrong!  It required all my days off, time after work, and the best part of the weekend.  My problem was, you see, that I am a kitchen utensil hoarder.
I admit it.  When it comes to anything useful, or "may be useful someday", unusual, or downright quirky for the kitchen I am a sucker for it.  The boxes of empty jars were absolutely essential for all that jamming and pickling I will do someday.   No no I simply must keep those dinky little peach juice bottles because they look so sweet with flowers in them - that's right I need all 30 of them!!!!  No I can't throw away that broken candle holder because I'm going to fix it - really.  And I don't actually know what that is for but I'm sure it will come in useful and I love it's cherry red colour.  I came to the conclusion that I really couldn't get rid of any of my kitchen stuff, what I really needed was a bigger kitchen.
Well that just wasn't going to happen.
I had to be brave.

Once I finally sorted my 4 piles (to keep, to store, to donate and to throw) I was able to see a little clearer.  And I discovered some wonderful items I didn't know we had.  The sweetest silver cake servers and some great serving spoons (just needing a little polish)
(I am completely aware that in this photo they resemble something terrifying from a Victorian era doctor's office - but I blame my photography skills or rather a lack of them); gorgeous salad bowls I found at markets and then completely forgot about, cheese cutters, I could go on....................................
I threw out what was broken, donated anything I hadn't used in the last 2 years (with the exception of a few precious finds mentioned above), and stored only the items that I'll never use but for certain reasons I have to keep, e.g. my mother-in-law's ugly gilt coffee service.

With my brand new attitude I rearranged the cupboards and now  have a perfectly organised kitchen with everything I need at hand.  I finished with a satisfied cup of tea from my favourite cup which had been missing for the last 3 months and proceeded to check my favourite blogs and emails. 

Hmmm this study needs organising......................