Kitchen Organization Tip: Incubate and Date

I recently reorganized my utensil drawer in my kitchen. I love kitchen gadgets and it seems mine had multiplied while I wasn’t looking. Three pair of tongs. Twelve extra knives. An extra ice cream scoop. A nut cracker? (I have no clue the last time I needed a nut cracker.)

Instead of trying to justify why I needed to keep all these nifty gadgets, I loaded them into an extra bin to incubate for a month. I kept the bin in my basement. If I was in my kitchen and suddenly needed a nut cracker, a quick trip down the stairs and I was back in business. I’d take the nut cracker out of the bin and back into the utensil drawer. Essentially, I had a month to figure out if I really needed any of these gadgets or not. Guess what? I didn’t make a single trip to the incubator. (Not even for the nutcracker as shocking as that may seen.) So, everything in the incubator is going straight to charity.

Give the incubator a try next time you’re on the fence about items you encounter in an organizing project. Just be sure to set a date and then, when the date comes, anything left in the incubator, goes!

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Susanne Farrar

Great idea! Will start one with contents to go to cat shelter thrift store. Thank you!

Aby

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Reply to Susanne Farrar

You’re welcome. Thanks for your comment, Susanne!

Lill Dexter

I have used the incubator method a number of times and it really helps. Although sometimes with kitchen utensils, there are some I only use for large gatherings or the holidays.

My alternative solution for those items, is I have totes, stored in the garage on one shelf. I’ve limited myself to 3 totes (my husband dubbed them the “Party Totes”). One has my chafing stands and steam table pans, large vegetable trays, deviled egg plates and chip bowls. The second has paper plates, bowls, napkins, plastic silverware (I never seem to have the exact number of plastic forks for a party), cups, serving spoons and tongs. The third has plastic serving bowls, baskets for chips, plastic table cloths, weights for holding down tablecloths outside, and large barrel-sized trash bags for my pop-up trash cans to hold recycling and trash during the party.

I’m no longer struggling to find room for the over-sized items in my kitchen, and my husband knows where to look for things when we are preparing for a party. And when we are preparing for a party, we know to pull down those totes to check for the plastic cups, plastic silverware, party napkins, extra serving spoons, etc. before heading to the store. After the Christmas holidays, we sit down and do an annual inventory of the boxes while we are putting away Christmas decorations and the party items that have been out for the big parties, and re-evaluate if we used them over the past year and if they are still serviceable.