Simplifying our life is always one of my priorities. I am always redoing this or that, changing where things go or making new rules and ways of doing things. No, I don’t have A.D.D., I call it tweaking and I am always tweaking.
I love it when I get an idea from a friend, in real life or in the blog world, that I can use here and make a difference. One of the areas of our home that I am always trying to work on, keep more organized, keep cleaner and uncluttered is the kitchen. We spend alot of time in the kitchen and compared to my kitchen in our last home, my kitchen now is small and with 10 people there is always alot of mess to clean, food to make and dishes to do. Dishes are my least favorite part!
In comes Nicole from Frontier Dreams with her always good ideas. Back in the summer she simplified her cupboards and gave me the inspiration to work on mine, albeit 4 months later : )
There is nothing worse that coming into the kitchen you last saw clean to cook a meal and finding a sink full of dishes (that I did not use). Our problems (as I’m sure is the case in many of your homes) is too many dishes. With so many cups, plates and silverware, my family can just use and use and pile them in the sink. It took some courage but I got out all the plates and cups out of the cupboard and left only one plate, cup, bowl and mug per person. That is it! I packed away, on a shelf in the garage, enough cups and plates to serve guests and got rid of the extras. I wish I would have taken a before picture (though embarrasing it would have been) but I was not in the blog sharing mind, but trust you me, it was hard to get anything in or out.
I then made some name bands for our cups, which are and have always been, at least since 1999, mason jars. I have always loved mason jars. In the year 2000, I got all the packaging out of my pantries and put everything I could into mason jars. I also took some cabinet doors off so I could see all my beautiful jars full of grains and food staples. Anyhoo…getting off the subject, mason jars are great because they are cheap and if one of my kids leaves milk or tea in their cup, I put a lid on it and put it in the fridge. Plus they are very trendy at the moment though we will keep using them far after they fall back out of favor.
Now, as soon as we are done eating, each child cleans his own dishware. It has made my kitchen so much nicer. Thanks Nicole!
In case anyone wants to make some of the name bands, it is super easy and here is how:
You need:
Clear elastic string for making bracelets. I guess you could use anything but I wanted something that would not get moldy and would stretch. You can find this at any craft store in the jewelry making department.
Alphabet beads. I think I paid about $4 for a big pack at Michaels and I did not have a coupon. I still have enough beads to make a bunch more.
Measure around the cup and add 2 inches for tying the ends. String on the beads and tie the end (make sure it will be snug around the neck of your cup) and apply a drop of glue to the ends or they will come apart. I used hot glue.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)
I need to do this for my family…
Oh, I love this idea! I think this might keep my girls from bickering over glasses.
Love the name tags! Yep, we have been using mason jars since way-back-when, also. And even though I did a dishes-purge a couple of years ago, I think they are slowly creeping back in and I need to do another. Thanks for the inspiration!
Nicole!!! I more than love it. I feel so free and I love the space. You are my sista in Oregon!! I will be sending you warm thoughts soon but for now I am jealous of your weather haha. THank you for the inspiration.
Meadow, Mine either : ) so now if I catch them, they are basically red handed. Perhaps if we get hit with some flu bug this year it will be less without everyone sharing a communal glass lol.
Annette, Don't think about it anymore, just do it. If you just pack away the excess instead of giving it away there is no fear because you can always unpack it and put it all back in the cupboard but I think you might like the simpleness of it. Oh and I know about stuff getting broken : ) Not fun but with the mason jars, it does not hurt as much. Just don't give them any vintage ones 😉
Jessica, We were doing a full sink (both sides) 4 times a day. Since I did this, the sink only gets half full and it is a breeze to get it all washed and put away. If you try it, let me know how you like it.
Squeaaaal!!!!!!How does it feel having less dishes?! I still love it. Your cabinet looks so much like mine with your aqua pyrex and canning jars <3 Were we separated at birth, perhaps????
Love the idea, alas my littlest ones have no respect for glasses belonging to anyone else….
What a beautiful job you did! I keep thinking (threatening? promising? LOL!) to do something similar. With eight of us and no dishwasher, there are just too many dishes to keep up with. And not only does it seem that the more we have, the more we use, but also, the more we have, the more careless they are. We just bought six new glasses at Ikea and two are broken already!Thanks for the inspiration. I really need to think about this.
This is wonderful. I keep… um, threatening? promising? wanting?… to do something like this. With 8 of us and no dishwasher, not only do the dishes add up by the end of the day, but I find that the more we have, the more careless we are. I just bought 6 new glasses at Ikea and they've already broken 2! I really need to think about this.
I love the name bands! And we use mason jars too. I think they're so beautful. When the kids are really little I use tiny glass cups and then they graduate to little pint jars. :)I have the same issue in our kitchen. People just use and use and use the dishes until they're gone and then think about perhaps washing (1!) so they can have something clean! Sheesh!