Where is my…?

I find planning a week’s meals really helpful.   It makes things so much easier when I’m taking the girls swimming after school and I only have 20 minutes to put a meal together when we get home.   Also, it stops last minute dashes to the shops for emergency supplies (and are you like me and always come out of the shop with much more than was on your list in the first place?).

I’ve blogged before about my meal planning organisers from Organised Mum.   The pad hangs on a nail in the kitchen, and whenever I run out of something mid-week, it’s always there to quickly jot down on the shopping list part.

Now I’m sure I bought a few to stash away when they had a sale, or to save on postage.   However, can I find them?   Not anywhere.   But what I have discovered has made me think that I need a sort out.   Here is just a selection.

I have a massive pile of party ware.   There is a potted history of all the themes we’ve had at parties over the 6 years of eldest Craftyguidelet’s life so far.   Each year we buy more than we need as plates come in tens, cups in 25s and spoons in 100s.   Youngest will start having parties next year.   Will it matter that the cups and plates don’t match?

I have a very old frozen dessert maker.   I think the bowl was thrown out years ago, and it was useless anyway.   Is it worth keeping?

I have lots of saved biscuit and sweet tins.   I also have at least 5 bought cake tins.   I can dream of having that amount of cake, but I think the reality is that one or two tins could be enough.

I’ve got some fat trapper liners for the grill.   They need to be used on a grill which you use with the door open.   I haven’t had one of those for at least 5 years, if not more.

I have a couple of cans of oven cleaner, but my oven is self cleaning.

I’ve got a perfectly respectable amount of mugs and tea cups.   Do I really need all the corporate/Easter egg/novelty ones?

This is just the tip of the iceberg.   I could go on but I’ve probably lost most of my readers already.   Thanks for sticking by me if you’ve got this far!   I am an expert in squeezing things into cupboards.   As long as I can get stuff in, I’ve been blinkered to the problem.   My kitchen is organised but I think it needs a good sort out and an action plan.

1. Do I need/use it?   The donated wine glasses that I used for candles that didn’t sell could go to the charity shop.

2. Could it be stored somewhere else?   Time to store all the rice together so it gets used up rather than just reaching for the microwavable sachets all the time.

3. I need to make a list of what I do have so I know that I’ve got 3 deep 8″ cake pans and don’t need to buy any more.   Or is it 5…?

4. Before buying a new packet of something, do I really need it yet?   On average we use 7 dishwasher tablets a week.   Am I going to get through 20 this week or can I wait?

5. Are all the things I use regularly to hand?   Equally, are all the things the Craftyguidelets use at their height?

6. Do more cleaning!

7. Use up all the bits and pieces I have.   I also need to educate husband that he needs to stick to the shopping list I give him and not to buy the new cleaning products he spots on his way round that do the same job as all the ones we have already.

8. Think twice before adding the latest Lakeland gadget to my stash.   Sushi seemed a great idea a few years ago.   Number of times I’ve used the kit?   Zero.

9. Use the gadgets I’ve got.   The family love the homemade burgers I make in the burger press (Lakeland purchase!) but I hardly ever make them.

10. If I buy something for a reason, use it.   Time and time again I have a great idea to make butternut squash soup.   The squash gets stored in the cupboard for months before I get round to it.   My eldest was even weaned on a butternut squash I’d bought before she was born!   Therefore it was at least 6-7 months old when it was pureed.

Now will someone tell me where my meal planners are pretty quickly or I’m going to miss the cut off for my shopping order tonight!