So after a few years of wanting to read Bea Johnson’s Zero Waste Home I finally got my hands on it and can honestly admit that I underestimated it. Otherwise I would’ve bought it straight away. I read it in a sweep. Or you know.. several multi-hour sweeps before bedtime. Wow. It was just wow. I consider ZWH my new bible. Marie Kondo be damned.
I COULD NOT WAIT to start getting rid of stuff! The downsizing started from my kitchen and took ages (many wine induced hours on a Saturday) as I used this opportunity to do a thorough clean throughout the drawers. Let’s start with the cutlery drawer.
In there I now have:
- 6 forks and 6 knives (+ one sharp knife for my occasional seitan)
- 4 tablespoons and 7 teaspoons
- 2 pairs of quality chopsticks that I have brought back from travels
- 1 wooden chopstick that I use as a stirrer or pie skewer
- 2 wooden spread knives, also from travels
- my reed straws from an Estonian startup https://xn--pillirookrs-nfb.ee/ (they’re so great!)
- can opener (vital for vegans or until I get more comfortable not buying tins)
- corkscrew (because wine…)
- steel measuring cups
- wine bottle stopper
- bottle opener with Homer Simpson’s voice
- steel tea infuser
- and an old glass ashtray that I knicked from my favourite club when I was 17 which now holds some matches, wooden clothes pins for securing open food packages and rubber bands
Next I sorted out the utensils. My jar now holds:
- 1 big and 1 small spatula
- 1 ladle
- 1 masher
- a pair of tongs
- a steel whisk (I’ve tried silicone ones but I have a cat… so you can do the math)
- a peeler
- and an old family cake spatula
Moving on to kitchenware. For baking:
- 1 round glass pie dish
- 1 square oven bake dish
- 2 ramekins
- a rolling pin
- 1 big and 1 small glass mixing bowl
- and a bread tin which I share custody with my mum
- 1 steel drainer
- 1 sieve
- citrus press
- mortar and pestle
- measuring jug
- steel grater
In my tableware cupboard I have:
- 2 big plates
- 2 soup bowls
- 3 small plates
- 4 glasses (my wine glasses have all broke so now I just go white trash and use my regular drinking glasses)
- 2 smaller mugs for guests
- 1 big coffee mug that my mum made for me in pottery class and that has my name on it *love*
- a few serving bowls and dishes
I also have 3 saucepans and 3 knives in each size, 2 wooden chopping boards and 1 frying pan with a lid. Two or three kitchen towels as that’s all you need. I couldn’t live without my two small appliances – a high speed glass blender and food processor.
I shop more and more bulk to avoid all sorts of packaging and I didn’t want to have to buy new containers for my loose dry foods so I am using all I already had at home. Mum’s basement is a great place to start as it holds mountains of glass jars.
She’s also given me some medicine bottles which have come in handy for storing herbs and spices. I also take these with me when I go bulk shopping so I can fill them up on the spot. I’ve even used them to transfer milk and loose tea with me when I’m out and about.
And I found some clay flower pots that I use for everyday needs like flaxseed meal, turmeric and pink salt.
It needs mentioning how happy I am with my dishwashing tools! I have 5 brushes (seems extensive at first, I know) :
- 1 bamboo brush with a handle with changeable brush heads
- 1 bamboo vegetable brush that I also use to scrub off labels from jars
- 1 bamboo circular brush for tough to reach dishes
- 1 steel handled bottle brush
- 1 straw brush that came with my reed straws
I am also now completely chemical free when it comes to cleaning, yay! I’ll write more about that in another post.
So what didn’t survive my clean out?
- extra chopsticks
- a carrot peeler (I utilise my wide potato peeler)
- an extra tea infuser
- a pizza slicer (I always forget that I have it and end up using a knife so bye-bye)
- a silicone crust brush (cat)
- garlic crusher (absolutely hate cleaning it, so much faster with a knife)
- silicone whisk
- a mystery spatula
- an extra ladle
- a cocktail shaker (as much as I’d like to think of myself as a 50s housewife I do not mix cocktails anymore)
- an apron (who uses an apron besides Bree Van De Kamp?)
- a fabric hoover bag (I now have a hoover with a HEPA filter so I don’t need bags anymore)
- plastic skewers
- extra oven dish
- Martini glasses (still not a housewife)
- beer glasses
- jars for dry goods (I cannot believe I paid to have them flown over when I moved from England…)
- and some other knick-knacks
I took my minimising one step further and tackled the EVERYTHING DRAWER (yikes!).
Before –
After –
I left one pencil and one pen (when this runs out I’m gonna invest in a refillable ink one), some vinyl tape, a paperclip (I use these instead of staples) and a reflector which is compulsory to wear in Estonia in winter.