I cleaned my kitchen cabinets today.
It wasn’t exactly what I had planned to do with my afternoon, but after being assaulted by a container of cumin and saving a bottle of balsamic from an untimely demise, I thought it might be a good idea. Plus I am not entirely sure I have done this since we moved into our house 8 years ago.
This is what I found:
A dishtowel with a cow on it.
2 rubber gloves for the left hand.
A broken mug I might use to make a mosaic stepping stone.
My husband’s Elmer Fudd glass from 1973 that, although it can’t be used due to a crack, is still in existence because it might be worth something someday.
Leftover random paper plates of 7 unique sizes, shapes, and colors, depicting various holidays and celebratory occasions. With napkins to match. And then some.
5 “Take and Toss” sippy cups purchased and put into circulation 6 years ago.
3 kiddie snack containers also circa 2012 that I swore at that time I would call the company to complain how impossible the lids were to remove and after that I was going to throw them away.
A surprising number of items that expired in 2011. Hmmm, yes, I was a bit busy that year.
A teeny-tiny bottle of ketchup that was just so darn cute I couldn’t bear to open it up and use it 10 years ago. In my defense, I did throw away the teeny-tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce a few years back because it looked yucky.
Garlic powder stuck in one giant mass to the bottom of the container.
Ditto for the Tang.
TWO sets of food coloring?! Does anyone REALLY need TWO sets of food coloring?!
Empty spice containers that are clean.
Empty spice containers that are dirty.
Full spice containers with the lid wide open. Goodness.
Sprinkles circa 1999. I wonder what the life expectancy of a sprinkle is?
5 little bags of unidentified spices from the Co-op’s bulk section.
4 containers of ground ginger. I love ground ginger! You know, if I keep this up I could create a board game out of ground ginger containers.
Just a little bit of Mrs. Dash Onion. I could pour that into the Mrs. Dash Garlic. Done.
YIKES! What is THAT? Ugh.
Untold numbers of empty glass jars of various shapes and sizes.
Exactly 11 plastic lids with no matching plastic containers. How does that happen?
My head hurts.
Water bottles with no tops.
Tops with no water bottles.
Candy I put away for my daughter, hoping she would forget about it.
Candy I hid from myself.
Pasta made from black beans. Yes, that’s right and yes, it’s wrong.
4 boxes of cereal crumbs.
5 jars of lentils, 4 jars of dried beans, 3 jars of Texturized Vegetable Protein*, 2 packs of Sure-Jell, and a partridge in a pear tree. Sans the partridge.
*Note: The Texturized Vegetable Protein is from my vegetarian years, last century.
This is getting embarrassing.
An entire drawerful of recipe clippings, cooking magazines and cookbooks published by various organizations. And yet the only thing I ever do when I need a recipe is Google it.
Coffee filters for a coffee maker I no longer own.
Now, on to the junk drawer!
On second thought, no. Not going there. Not today. I just can’t.
I got rid of so much stuff I was able to remove a 3-drawer chest and a breadbox from my kitchen. Now I have room to put all my small appliances away when they aren’t being used. And my cabinets look so clean and organized!
Now, if I could only figure out how to keep them that way!
