The Year of Less - Behind Closed Doors

 

Behind closed doors can lurk a multitude of sins.

 

This is my main store cupboard, full of Approved Food bargains, bulk purchases from just before Christmas and lots of other bits and pieces.  There were too many 'bits and pieces' in my opinion.  Too many empty jars, plastic tubs and things that have been sat there unused and unneeded for quite a while.

 

 

 

So it was time to fling open the doors,  get down on my hands and knees and have a proper sort out of what I had in there.

 

 

 

This is what I kept, the jars that I use over and over for my homemade tomato sauces, the Kilner jars that I use for pickled onions and chutneys and that's about it.  I do have two dozen smaller jam jars that are new and stored in their original boxes on top of the kitchen cupboards and they will come in handy if I want to make any jam to sell, did you know you can only sell jams and chutneys etc if they are in brand new jars now, what a ridiculous piece of legislation.  Glass is one of the easiest things to sterilise!!

 

And this is what I sorted to go into the recycling box, it's due to go out on Monday morning hence my decision to do this today.

 

 

 

From almost empty (okay there are a couple of empty wine bottles at the bottom I admit it...lol) to almost full in a few minutes.

 

 

 

I also jettisoned some plastic containers into the recycling box, we have had these Chinese takeaway containers since we lived in Cumbria and have hardly used any of them, I used to freeze things in lots of single or double portion sizes and they were ideal, now I tend to open freeze lots of things and then tip them into big boxes.  I do have some ice cream containers that I have kept for freezing soups etc.  The ice cube trays have been added to the car boot box, they might just make us a few pennies each.

 

 

 

(If you want a closer look at what is lurking in my cupboards you can click on the pitcures and they will appear slightly bigger!)

 

 

Then I went into the spare room and gathered together all the jars of food that have been stored in there since before Christmas and filled all the shelves back up.  Now all the food is in the kitchen (except for my coffee stash, that will be the next thing to go in here when we have made some room) where it belongs and I can actually make a start this week on what I was going to do this morning, sort out the spare room.

 

I have been reading the book that is on the top of my sidebar at the moment  'The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organise, and Simplify Your Life'.  It was a present from my lovely Mum last week, she also has a copy and thinks it's brilliant.  It really does inspire you to just get on and declutter.  So now that I'm feeling a lot better (still croaky, but it is possible to sort and not talk so that will help my voice!) I have decided that I am going to tackle the spare room with a vengeance, it is the source of most of what we don't seem to use that much, and if we aren't using it, we don't need it ! 

 

I was going to start on it this morning and the first thing I saw was the jars of food, so being sensible  and realising that it was the week to put out the recycling boxes I switched tracks slightly.  It's still a good feeling though to have just got rid of something after all it is our 'Year of Less'.

 

Do you get that lovely light feeling when you make a bit of space by getting rid of unnecessary items?

 

 

Sue xx