Unexpected Kitchen Items You Should Toss

Most of us are guilty of being mini-hoarders, especially when it comes to the kitchen! Do you have a drawer full of plastic spoons and home delivery containers? Or are you still holding on to your once-favourite coffee mug, the one which has a broken handle but you can’t bear to throw away? How about all those baking dishes that were bought during a burst of culinary inspiration, but have never been used since?

If this sounds even a little bit like you, then it’s time you declutter your kitchen. To make your job easier, we’ve compiled a list of items you should say goodbye to!

Plastic Takeout Containers

If Swiggy takeout is your meal of choice, there’s bound to be a small army of plastic containers, spoons, forks and sporks taking over your kitchen. Even if you feel that these might come in useful someday, trust us when we say that they will not!

Knife Blocks

Knife blocks look fancy when they are in the store, but how many of these knives do you actually use? Chances are that you juggle between one or two multipurpose knives, and the rest of your set of fifteen have never been used.

Old Sponges

Did you know that old utensil scourers harbour more germs than anything else in your house? A single unclean sponge could contain millions of bacteria. As a rule, you must wring out your sponge completely after each use and dry it completely. Throw out your entire set of reusable sponges and kitchen wipes every week.

Mismatched Cutlery

One of life’s greatest mysteries is how you always end up losing one out of a much-loved pair of socks—or a few of the spoons from your favourite set of cutlery! These orphan spoons, forks and knives end up gathering dust in your kitchen drawers. Time to say goodbye to them, don’t you think?

Chipped Cups

There’s a reason why cups and mugs are tagged ‘breakable’—it’s because they are not designed to last forever! If your cup is missing a handle, or your bowl is chipped in one corner, give it away. Or, even better, upcycle it into a vase by filling it with fresh cut flowers!

Broken Appliances

Refrigerator not cooling? Microwave on its last leg? You deserve better! Swap out all the aged and broken appliances in your kitchen, and check out all the latest smart, eco-friendly gadgetry that’s available these days. You’ll save on your electricity bills, too!

Duplicate Items

You might have lost your potato peeler and bought a new one, only to have the old one show up almost immediately. But you don’t really need two of the same! So go through all the kitchen drawers, and declutter by giving the extra one away.

Read also: Upcycled Home Décor Ideas

Seasoning Packets and Ketchup Sachets

Takeout is always packed with freebies that you might not always use, like ketchup or mayo sachets, and packets of oregano or chilli flakes. And while you might think that they’ll come in useful at a later time, these packets are actually just adding up to clutter! Keep just the ones that you need and give the rest away.

Reusable Shopping Bags

While we are huge advocates of reusing items, shopping bags and totes are meant to be in the boot of your car— where they will actually be used—and not piled up in a corner of your kitchen! If they seem to be contributing to kitchen clutter, then sort them out and give away the ones you don’t need.

Read Also: Celebrating Sustainability: An Eye on the Future

Plastic Water Bottles

Plastic is not eco-friendly, so you shouldn’t be having many of these in your kitchen anyway. But if your collection of reusable plastic water bottles and juice sippers is getting out of control, then it’s definitely time to downsize!

Recipe Books

There was a time when every kitchen used to have its own prized collection of cookbooks, with glossy photographs, mouth-watering recipes and how-tos. But with the growing popularity of Insta reels and YouTube videos amongst today’s home cooks, these recipe books are completely neglected.

Expired Supplies

Take a look through your pantry, and toss out anything that’s past its best-buy date. Do this every month so that you know your supplies are always fresh.

Tips to Declutter Your Kitchen

Once you have tossed all the items you don’t need, the next step is to get your kitchen in order. This is easy enough if you follow the following tips:

• Open up each cabinet and drawer, and remove any duplicate items, broken items or anything that’s expired.
• If there are any gadgets that you haven’t used in the past three years, you’re probably never going to use them.
• Mismatched sets of anything, whether its crockery, cutlery or containers, are hardly useful anymore.
• Downsize tableware. If you don’t entertain often, perhaps you don’t need a dinner set for 15! Give it away to someone who will use it.
• Test and evaluate appliances. If they don’t work optimally well, or are taking up too much power, swap them for a newer model.
• Many utensils can do double duty. If you can multitask with pots and pans, do so!

Kitchens that are designed to maximise space utility and function are remarkably easy to organise and keep clutter-free. Everything is it its own place, and you’ll never have to search around for that elusive pan ever again!

Looking to design the kitchen of your dreams? HomeLane is just a call away!