What’s in my Zero Waste kitchen?

What’s in my Zero Waste kitchen?

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.

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