I've been selling some bits and pieces, and I decided to extend the minor clear out to actually just chucking out some stuff.
I had a few piles of stuff that I had planned to try giving away, but I decided that I really really, really just needed to get rid of it. I've been so condiitoned about waste, that it felt wrong, but it really helped.
While on a bit of a roll, I resolved to go through my kitchen cupboards and drawers and get rid of all the stuff in there that, if I'm honest, I (probably) won't use. In the, extremely unlikely, event that I ever do need any of it, well, I'll just have to rebuy.
I'm also still looking for my expensive cooking thermometer, which I bought on impulse months ago and put in that hopeless place known where things hide, usually referred to as somewhere safe.
I inwardly committed to averaging one cupboard or drawer a day. I realised this meant it would take me a couple of months just to do the kitchen, so I 'll have to revise that, but I didn't want to crush the green shoot of resolve.
I started today. I'd had to do some kitchen emptying anyway (more on another pot, maybe), so I thought I mght as wel get started. I targetted the Tabour unit at the end of a run, because I could imagine me wedging the thermomenter in there somewhere.
It's all clean and reorganised. I threw out some mint tea with a BBE date of 2009, as it didn't smell particularly minty any more. I had a tin of a huge range of mint teas (buttermint, double mint, mint and fennel, mint and eucalyptus, peppermint, and more), and the air was alive with mint when I opened it. The other herbal teas were ones I did actually like (just not very often). and they were all vacuum sealed, so I just reorganised them.
I also found a range of tea samples, which get sent to me when I buy my normal tea, and I decided that I'd commit to trying them all over the next week or so. I can't try any today because I also reorganised a bag of cheese and onion crisps, into my tum, and now anything I eat taste vile. On the plus side, it made me spit out a Teaser bar, and put me off trying anything else.
When that was done, I cleaned the condiments cupboard. I chucking out various flavoured oils and vinegars that had been open for years. I was sad about some of them, and if they had been unopened, I would probably have kept some of them. The resulting space enabled me to get some of the unopened ones out of the pantry, so they at least have a chance of being used. I was then able to get some unopened (but still past the best before date) out of the pantry.
The upper shelf had things like dried milk powder, Stevia, Truvia, Camp Coffee, Horlicks, and various syrups on. and everything is now checked and tidy. I just need to print off shelf edge labels.
I haven't found my thermometer, which surprised me as I though it would be in the tambour unit near the blowtorch, but it's not.
It's 2 of the very busy food cupboards though, so I'm ahead of schedule. I'd like to get the rest of the food bearing cupboards done next, and then start on the emotionally tougher job of equiment cupboards.
I know its just stuff. And I will try and be ruthless. More ruthless. Less ruthmore.
We'll see.
