Busiest Moms in the World Clutter Challenge — Day 8
And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon
Today’s clutter-busting task should be quick unless you’re a true packrat and have so many dishes they crowd your dining room. This challenge focuses on dishes and flatware: sorting, removing damaged pieces, and deciding what to keep, donate, or store.
My mother and I both love dishes. I’m not saying I collected them because of upbringing — I simply enjoy them. I love Fiesta colors, the clean look of white dinnerware, and, thanks to my mother-in-law, I inherited two sets of Christmas dishes. I once had Halloween stoneware but donated it last year because storage space was limited.
I use a traditional white set for most holiday meals. Oddly, I don’t have enough matching place settings to use the full Christmas sets, so I’ll pass those on to my boys and free up space by storing less-used items in the attic.
How many sets of dishes do you own? Are there mismatched pieces you could donate?
Flatware isn’t my passion, but it’s essential. I keep an everyday set and another reserved for guests because those pieces are less likely to wander off. Spoons and forks mysteriously migrate to the backyard, toy boxes, and drawer bottoms.
Tip: If you use disposable plates after events, remember to reclaim your metal forks or give guests disposable utensils. Teenagers, young adults and even spouses are common culprits when it comes to missing flatware — check toy boxes and desks too.
How many forks does one family really need? It feels like never enough.
Tip: When buying new flatware, consider stores that offer open stock so you can replace individual pieces when needed.
Now, let’s get to the challenge:
Set a timer for 5–10 minutes and remove damaged flatware and chipped or broken dishes. A small chip in stoneware may be acceptable depending on your standards, but this quick session should help you get rid of items you no longer want.
If you’re holding on to far more dishes than you use, decide how many place settings you need for everyday use and how many you want to store for special occasions. Keep in mind your available storage and how often you actually use each set. Most people toss heavily damaged items or flatware ruined in the disposal, but sometimes we all need a nudge to let things go.
I might not have decided to store my Christmas dishes if I wasn’t writing this challenge — I would have kept walking past the cabinet, wishing for space to store everyday items. If I had a larger home or a grand china cabinet, I might make a different choice, but I work with what I have and I’m content.
p.s. If your dinnerware and flatware are already part of a larger clutter problem, use this time to tackle another quick 100 pick-up instead.