WEEK 13. KITCHEN KAPERS

Do Too Many Utensils
Spoil the Broth?

In many cultures, thirteen is bad luck. I hope this week brings the opposite. Good luck to everyone.

Last week I gave up on sorting books and went on to what Marie Kondo calls komono, 'miscellaneous things'. I can't pile all these objects up because in my house, and most non-Asian houses, they must number in the thousands. So I will focus on one subcategory at a time.

I'm not a realtor but I recognize that even kitchens have prime locations and only the most used and useful items should be taking up prime space. Other items can be placed on the 'other  side of the tracks' to be brought out when necessary or even discarded if they no longer spark joy.

Or in my case, put in garage cupboards to wait for the final ride to the charity thrift shop. Right now in the garage cupboards I have gelatin molds. Nobody eats gelatin desserts or salads, but their products can look pretty so I keep them in case I want to make a beautiful, shimmering, ruby red Holiday side dish.

To make sure useful objects relegated to the garage are not forgotten, I have a list of them on the inside of a kitchen cupboard door. My list now reads: six large and sixteen individual copper molds, two ceramic casseroles with lids, crème brulee torch and four ramekins, cookie making stuff, a Santa Claus mold, four flat sea shells for baking (remember those), thirty-six tartlet pans, snail shells and holders for escargots, and two tin pie plates. 

None of those items, except the crème brulee torch, has been used in years. Ms. Kondo would insist I get rid of them. BUT I have the room and I do like to cook, so I will keep them a little longer. “Don't do as I do, do as Marie says.”

On our kitchen counters I have five decorative crocks stuffed with important kitchen utensils. I laid them all out, and planned to keep one of each and put the others, where else but the garage. My husband, who also likes to cook, came along and I asked if there were any he used and wanted to keep on the counter. Out of twenty-three utensils, three went to the garage. Hmmm.

Before I went on to the pots and pans and dishes, I decided to work on the pantry, which consists of two lower corner cupboards, which I call round-abouts, since they have of two tier lazy susans. The one by the sink and work counter holds pastas, rice, soups, baking supplies. That cupboard mainly just needed cleaning and rearranging. All the products will be used.

he other cupboard is across the kitchen and contains coffee supplies, snack items (cookies, crackers, and nuts), a backlog of jams, and pie fillings which I buy on sale and then forget about. I also found two cans of cranberry sauce, I guess from last Thanksgiving, and since I have a bag of frozen cranberries in the freezer, also from last TG, I need to pay more attention to 'inventory'. According to the use by dates, these items will still be good to use this year. I hope my friends who are coming for TG dinner will not read this blog.

Several years ago when I was reorganizing the kitchen, I put labels on the dishware shelves. As time went by things were put in different places and the labels no longer made sense, so that was something I redid to reflect what was actually on each shelf now.  If only people would pay attention to the labels when they put things away.

In addition to serving bowls and platters, I have 'everyday' plates of dark blue which I just read make food look unappetizing. So I guess they should help us lose weight. LOL. 

 I moved our 'good' wedding china, plain white Haviland with swirled edges that I bought so they would look good on different colored cloths, from the dining room buffet to the kitchen cupboards so I will use them more often. At one time I collected 'vintage' plates with different floral designs. (Remember my 'vintage' Christmas books from a previous blog?)  I stopped searching for different plates when I had twelve. They are now in the family room cupboard that I cleared out of magazines. I am working up the moral courage to discard them. But I still like them.

That's my downfall I like everything. I need to become more discriminating.  I wonder what Marie Kondo would say to someone who says she likes everything.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner filled with friends, family, and good food. And maybe a less few objects this year! 

WEEK 12. SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME

Thanksgiving covers from last week's blog
about magazines.

At one time I collected vintage Christmas books, such as The Twelve Days of Christmas by Miles & John Hadfield, published in 1961with beautiful illustrations. I bought it in Mona Mia's Antiques at 1200 Decatur Street in New Orleans in 1990 for five dollars. I know because I use the receipt as a bookmark. I stopped collecting Christmas books when I realized I had too many to display properly during the festive season. But how can I discard these books that still give me pleasure?

I also have more than 125 cookbooks. This does not count books about food, like the memoir, French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris by Harriet Welty Rochefort. Just holding any of these books not only makes me happy, but makes me want to open it up and start reading. Not the best thing to do while trying to simplify your life.

In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the author recognizes that books are one of three hardest things to let go. She describes asking a client to “Please start by removing every book from your shelves and putting them all on the floor.” The client argues that it'd be easier if they were kept on the shelf so the titles could be read. But Marie insists each book must be held so the owner can decide if there is a spark of joy.

She devotes ten pages to books, explaining why they are difficult to discard but why they can be discarded. In my case, I hope I can discard some but I know it will be hard. Yvonne, a good friend, once gave me a beautiful, purple tote bag featuring a quotation from Thomas Jefferson that she said described me, “I cannot live without books.” Using e-readers, I-pads, computers, and phones to read books is very efficient and easy. And as I stated on Day 1, I first read Marie Kondo's book on my phone, but eventually had to buy a paper copy. I think most bookaphiles (bibliophiles) love to hold a real book in their hands. You can smell the paper and ink on them. You can flip back if you forgot someone's name, or need to know what town are they in now. You also can turn to the back cover to answer the question, who on earth wrote this? All much easier with paper than electronically. But real books do take up room.

A friend who retired to a much smaller apartment in a retirement community, showed off her only bookcase. I felt like crying for her, although she seemed pleased with the fact that she would have room for less than thirty books. For me, that's one shelf.

I do have paperback mysteries and other fiction that I should be able to discard easily. But I'm not always sure I've already read the book and I'd hate to discard something I haven't read yet. Because my memory (for minor details!) is not too great, I've started to write in each book where and when I bought it and how much I paid for it or who gave it to me. Then when I read it, I also add the date I finish reading it. If you need help, I recommend it. It refreshes your memory. I do it in pencil so if I do give the book away, I can erase this information.

For this project I can't possibly detail all that I'll have to go through.  I'll just focus on my collection of mysteries and start by piling them all together as the author suggests.

Well, I tried.  I am a failure. Each time I pick up a book, if I don't feel a spark of joy, I feel a very strong desire to sit down and start reading it as the only way to determine if I can discard it.  I can't work on this project right now.

If you are reading this, I'm sorry if I let you down as to this section of the project. Books are going to have to wait until I have gone through every other category. The next one, after papers and books, is komono which in Japanese refers to miscellaneous items. Marie Kondo points out too many people live surrounded by things they don't need, 'just because.' She lists the groups under this heading on page 106. Kitchen goods/food supplies is down at number nine on her list of ten. But since Thanksgiving is next week and I only have time to do one item, I will work on that one to get ready for the biggest food holiday of the year. Since I do enjoy cooking, it will be interesting to see what I discard. I have opened up some cupboards by discarding many magazines last week. The picture that accompanies this post are of food magazine covers that featured Thanksgiving turkeys. I kept all of them.  

WEEK 11. MAGAZINE JUNKIE

I am a magazine junkie. My undergraduate major in journalism school was magazines—other options at the time were newspapers, TV, or advertising. I still love these periodicals. They are useful, easy to flip through, and have beautiful pictures. A picture of food (or beautiful sunset) on Facebook or your cell phone can't compete with a richly colored double page spread in a physical paper product.

Although I'm supposed to be ready to tidy up my books—after postponing that category for papers—I decided it would be best to clear out my saved magazines. I thought if I cleared out some room by discarding them, it would open up more space for the books I wanted to keep. My magazine library focuses on three major subjects: food/entertaining, decorating, and travel. These subjects and these publications still bring joy even though most of them are hidden away in cupboards that I only open when I'm cleaning.

My really secret vice—well not so secret anymore—is that I have the first twelve years of Traditional Home magazine. And I have moved them from large suburban home to post children condo to retirement home, and from Illinois to Wisconsin to California. But I did promise my husband that our cross country move would be the last time I moved them. I also have lots of old Gourmet issues and now that it's defunct, who knows, my collection may be valuable. [See previous blog comment about paper maps. I sometimes live in a dream world.]

I discarded very few magazines, but I did a great job of reorganizing them so I could fit other things in the family room cupboards. I did discard twenty copies of the New Yorker from 2003. I was never going to sit down and read the interesting and well written but very, very long articles. I was saving them to while away a rainy afternoon, but it never rains in southern California. The cartoons were still funny, but after a few laughs they had to go.

My saved food magazines include Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Cooking Light, and Cook's Illustrated. Every year about this time, I bring out their November issues and put them on an easily accessible shelf so I can thumb through them for Thanksgiving ideas. When our children were young, I always hosted the family TG dinner and sometimes had twenty-one family and friends at a series of tables that extended from the dining room into the living room. Now I'm lucky to have six to help eat the turkey.

I also set out all the December or Holiday issues of the food magazines, and those of Traditional Home, New Mexico, and Phoenix Home and Garden. Not only do they inspire me with pictures of others' decorations, but these issues expand my own experience of the happy season.

have not been the best tidy-upper according to Marie Kondo's expectations. Some of us are not able to let go of everything and live a minimal life. But I do think my life and its objects are coming under better control.

One problem she does not address in her book, is seasonal gifts. I have started collecting presents I want to give family and friends for Christmas. They are now spilling out all over my office, which I had just cleaned of unhappy papers. Eventually, I will set aside a time to wrap and mail them but in the meantime, they are taking up space.

Next week I hope to start on books. I know I won't finish them in one attempt. And I'm afraid they are going to be like my magazines. It will be hard to find any that don't bring me joy.

WEEK 10. STILL GETTING PAPER CUTS

For continuation of the 'papers' category, I did bring all my clippings and articles of recipes, food, and entertaining into one place. It was a very big, spreading pile as I like to cook and entertain and don't like to throw anything out.  I went through thousands (I'm sure) of recipes and threw most of them out because they no longer bring me joy or are not worth the trouble of trying out.

For example, I threw out an ancient recipe from the New York Times for a Chocolate Pecan Viennese Torte. I made it a year after I was married. I guess I was still trying to impress my new husband. My note said it took five hours to make and was not worth it. Then why did I keep the recipe? Was it a reminder not to ever struggle for hours with a recipe that wasn't worth it? Well, it's gone now, but I did keep a few (hundreds?) that do bring me joy.

Magazine 'cookbooks' I kept

Many women's magazines back in the day when married women were identified by their husbands' names carried special food sections which were inserted like a separate little cookbook. I have most of those that Woman's Day published under the name The Collector's Cook Book, which I didn't discard. Some of the titles: Grown-up Lunch Boxes, How to Save Money by Using Your Freezer, and Cooking by the Minute.

Many other special sections had beautiful pictures of glistening, richly colored food. They reminded me of the glamorous fashion models who have teams of beauty experts to make sure not a hair or a freckle is out of place. The displayed food also had food stylists who made sure the presented food looks as desirable to the cook as the women's photos do to the clothes shopper.

The vast majority of the old recipes I discarded because I no longer have the time or interest to make labor intensive, multi ingredient foods, such as cakes from scratch, although I do like to decorate them. Many of the recipes called for ingredients no longer appropriate—lard, margarine, and monosodium glutamate. As I filled up a huge recycle box, I thought I should really start a blog about 'vintage' recipes and how women used to entertain. But that will be for someone younger if she can keep from laughing as she reads them.

Some of the recipes and
travel brochures I recycled

Another huge category I've been working on, is travel material. I travel a lot, as much and as often as I can. And I always pick up maps and brochures about interesting places because I think they will come in handy the next time I go. A large under counter cupboard in my family room was filled with them, from Portland, OR to Washington, DC. And I always forget about them whenever I'm planning a trip. So I filled another huge box for the recycling bin with all that material probably printed at a huge cost of tourist dollars. I did keep city and regional maps, because if you read last week's blog you know I have an illness that Ken Jennings also has, mapmania. I also feel joyful thinking about New Mexico and Santa Fe so I kept material about the Land of Enchantment. It is a state I love and would have moved there but it is too cold in winter.

I also kept anything that had the word Christmas in it. We once had a house with three decorated Christmas trees inside that reflected on three glass walls surrounding a courtyard with several lighted evergreens outside. Holiday decorations will be another hard category to tidy up.

The question I asked last week was answered when I lifted the yellow quilt covering the table in my office and discovered a lot more paper. More drafts of works in progress, all to be discarded. But also a large box of high school and college mementos. I can put those aside until I reach that category.

But now am I really ready to move on to BOOKS?