Decluttering Day One: Glasses Cupboard and Plasticware

So I decided to start with the cupboard where we keep glassware. I recently (in the last 5 months) bought a new set of glasses since our former grouping had been broken one by one over time. Since getting the new glasses, we've not been able to comfortably fit all of our cups and glasses in the cupboard. Duh! Time to pare down!

I decided to part with the entire upper shelf of stemware. I only use it once a year, and have something else I can use instead. I only kept the new matching tall classes and the coordinating small glasses, and enough mugs for our family if we all have hot cocoa together.

In late spring I decided to get color coordinated cups, bowls, and plates for the kids, thinking that this would be a fun and helpful way to organize. It is, but the problem is that each item came in packs of four. So, for the five kids that I got the new stuff for I ended up with 20 cups, 20 bowls, and 20 plates. Too much! I actually have had an entire large Rubbermaid container to keep these in. And, of course, only the top items get used again and again. Ha! So, I have decided to only keep one cup, bowl, and plate per color. The rest are going bye-bye.

Other decluttering steps I took tonite:

Visual clutter in the kitchen. I took down a loooooooong alphabet chart and number line that I made a couple of years ago. I also took down about 90% of the stuff that I had tacked onto a cork board next to my calendar. It's just amazing how much stuff gets into our regular landscape and then we don't even notice it any more! Now I just have my calendar and a couple of actually important items on the board.

I'm pretty pooped out by now, so I think this is all I will do for tonite. However, I'm on a roll, and my daughter loves to help with stuff like this, so you'll be hearing from me about this again!

What are YOU going to go declutter today??