The Empty Cupboard

There is an empty cupboard in my kitchen. Part of me feels compelled to put something in it, as though I am somehow disrespecting the shelf space by keeping it bare. However, a larger part of me really enjoys seeing the emptiness. It’s kind of like a little room to breathe.

My kitchen, though well equipped, reflects my minimalist aspirations. This is part of the ‘new me’ as my old kitchen overflowed with cookware, serving dishes, Tupperware containers, and more. There is something quite freeing in only owning the basics (spice collection aside – we all have our weaknesses). I find I keep on top of the cleaning much more easily. This is more out of necessity than some newfound cleaning drive. For example, I only own one Tupperwear container at the moment. And, I am experimenting with a cutlery drawer that looks like this:

I realize that this is not practical for families. However, I have a history of being one of those annoying people who somehow manage to use eighteen spoons and twelve forks over the course of the day. This new system of only keeping one set of cutlery in the drawer forces me to be more cognisant of that. The rest of the cutlery set is tucked away for when I have company over. Not having a dishwasher further motivates me to create messes only as needed. I’m hoping that moving forward, I can keep the kitchen chaos under control.

 What are your strategies for taming chaos in the kitchen?