Thank you for watching!! The hair...a little darker than I planned but I know it will lighten up, its pretty close to my natural color so hoping it will be EASY to maintain ;) Looking for more kitchen inspo? You can find our kitchen decluttering playlist here: ru-vid.com/group/PLZ-AWUEixtg0Mcjtnx5S6haeAka3WKMRy
Haha! I was wondering if you would mention your hair. Natural color. Wow! I got my darling daughter to trim my hair last night. She probably, not professionally, took off about 3 inches. It feels healthier. Sorry to my hair dresser, who will have to do a little fixing. Color, just letting the gray come for now. I’m not brave enough. You look good!
I love your new hair colour! Would never have guessed you weren't a blond or close to it. I've been working on my own kitchen today. Thanks for the inspiration! Self-proclaimed President of Tom's Fan Club.
This was such a good reminder to me of keeping the inventory low in the kitchen. That was the room I started on when I found your channel last May. It made me so happy to see space that I went thru the rest of the house. The only room I have not purged thoroughly is my sewing room but I will be getting a “Sewing She Shed” next year and then will have the space for my sewing Tools and fabric. My sister who is a die hard minimalist told me when I started my journey that since I loved and used the items in the room it was fine to keep if I was purging in the rest of the house. 😀
I started watching your videos about 3 or 4 months ago. My husband and I purchased my childhood home almost a year ago. The house was empty for 15 years and my mom was a clutter bug, then dementia happened...she became a hoarder. Cleaning out this house has been an emotional roller coaster! We have cleaned out 5 full size large dumpsters and there is still “stuff”! You have truly given me an emotional perspective that I didn’t have before. Dare I say, your videos have helped save my marriage...lol I wish I could post a pic of the before and after. Still a loooing way to go, but so much easier than before 😊💪🏻
Love the new stools that Tom is so jealous about 😀 your kitchen is beautiful. I agree. When the kitchen is clean it makes such a huge differences in my productivity! One or none is the best logic. Thank you for your wonderful videos! God bless you on your journey with your sweet family 💕 love from Washington state
I told my husband that ,”the minimal mom says keeping the mail out of the kitchen would make the kitchen more peaceful”. My husband said,” I don’t know how that would work ? I said, “well we just need to find another spot for the mail “. He said , “do you mean mail or male” ? I am still laughing . Thanks very much. We both had a good laugh and the mail is off the counter !
LOVE YOUR HAIR!!!!! Also I have done the same in my kitchen. I got rid of all but the pans I use regularly. We have one place setting per person as well BUT snack dishes are abundant (sort of) so those build up quicker next to the sink. Also if someone doesn't want to wash something they reach for my storage jars🤦♀️ About to remove the lunch stuff and make my storage jars harder to reach. So tired of ALWAYS having dishes😜
I LOVE this idea... I have wanted to do the "1 place setting" thing for years but Hubby has a fit and with my kids being older, the "You wash your own dishes" rule would in order... that way I wouldn't get slammed with a sink full of dishes..... Hubby is a great cook but he can total a kitchen just boiling water!!!
Love the dark hair!! I just did mine brown after being a blonde for so long ! Thanks again for a great video! So insightful! I’m a work in progress, but I’m making progress!
I like the blue stools but miss your blonde hair. Love your minimal kitchen! I've already decluttered mine once but feel like I'm not done and need to go through it again. Thanks for the inspiration!
Just looking at the kitchen alone, the red really popped! However, you can see the kitchen from the den. If you consider the color pallet from the den, the blue stools rock!
I am considering having color coded dishes… Each member of the family is assigned a color. This way someone can’t come in and use the THE LAST CLEAN BOWL. They have to wash THEIR bowl (or plate or whatever)!
I have decided to go natural with my hair also. Besides all the chemicals, I just don't need to go to the hair stylist every 5 weeks! Quarantine hair would have been much easier for me if my hair wasn't colored. Five more weeks until the hair dresser (3 months total)! Hats are my friend!
Agree w/most of what u say😉... ur methods have helped me learn to let unnecessary things go & declutter... tho, when my son said "mommy, my teacher said I have to help u w/the dishes"- I laughed & said, "baby, mommy doesn't do dishes, the dishwasher does!"😂 ...(I would never get rid of dishes so that I have to start washing them🤷♀️: growing up, we didn't have a dishwasher & I would not want to revisit that time)🤣
Banana tip Dawn - If you store them in the fridge they last longer the skin may turn black but the banana itself will be good 🍌 I doubt however that bananas last that long in your house.......
My only concern about the 1 pan thing wouldn’t be washing the dishes it’s cooking multiple dishes at once. How does that work? Sometimes depending on the meal I am making I am using 2 pans at once
I really like the blue stools Dawn but what about painting the island white. It would tie it all together simply and show up the lovely blue of the stools and look fresher and brighter. I love listening to your positivity and sweet humour. Thanks for sharing.
I’m in the process of clearing my counters, but where do you keep your bread (bagels, buns, etc)? I recently bought a really cute breadbox to keep it all in, but if I could find another place for it, I would love completely clear counters!
Loved this video!! So helpful!! Question: I can during the summer and fall and feel like I need extra bowls and strainers, but of course want to pair down. What do you suggest for that?
I think you need to consider all of the steps involved in cooking and how to do that efficiently when you're de-cluttering. It's easy to reduce everything to 1, but you've clearly not thought it through. For instance, 1 chopping board is not enough - are you going to cut meat and then cut your veg on the same board? What if you want to get others helping with chopping food before cooking now you can't do that because you only have 1 board.
Love the hair! It really makes your eyes pop. This video was super helpful. I need the donation centers in my area to reopen before I can do anymore simplifying. My garage is full of things to get rid of! It’s crazy how things accumulate around the house.
Well my husband doesn’t use my serving utensils 🥄 to scratch (at least he hasn’t so far) but he’s used my kitchen towel as a fly swatter. Gross...I know, lol!!
We bought 2 complete sets of dishes years ago because we have a huge family (all grown with 26 grandchildren) and a few times a year everyone comes over. Then we'd realized, we use paper plates/products for big gatherings!
We are on hurricane season as well as facing a re-quarantine (in Houston). We have to have some food stored. We also live in a very small apartment. So our extra canned goods are in an underbed bin. I rotate regularly. We also store our batteries, flashlights, hand sanitizer etc in another underbed bin.
Idea for you. Give us ten reasons why our space might still be looking cluttered even after decluttering big time. Thanks! Come back to Texas when you can!
For me I hadn't stored everything as neatly as I could and it still looked cluttered. I started using more containers and labelled them and it now looks tidy and uncluttered
I loved those red stools! Blue is nice but yellow would pop! ......those red stools inspired a bright orange outdoor bench and a orange front door. Sometimes that pop color is perfect. I have initiated the quarantine box.
I do the dishes after every meal anyway, so I'm totally on board with having less! I recently gave away so, so, so many single use items and I feel better in my clutter-free kitchen. LOVE the new hair color, it really makes your eyes pop. :)
I was doing so well with keeping grocery inventory low and then I did a bit of panic quarantine stock up. Now I feel overwhelmed with the amount of canned goods that we have. Hopefully I'll work them into some recipes without wasting anything. #zerofoodwaste.
Oh boy! I too was LOVING my almost sparce kitchen pantry, as we have a very tiny space for kitchen and even weirder pantry( had to custom built it into a corner bc there wasn't one at all when we moved in and VERY little cabinet space. So I've always had to be creative about food storage especially canned goods & a round spice rack in there that never really worked well, bc its a triangle shape panty! LOL. I got by just fine having few items in said food pantry, UNTIL, last March when i pandemic shopped! Now, I've not been able to fit it all in, and have to take everything out & then put back in each time i want something from the back( TIME CONSUMING!) I think I've learned my lesson, no more PANIC shopping. ( I actually donated a good portion of many duplicate canned foods. Trying to get back to my simplified pantry! One more reason to not keep an enormous amount of non perishable foods in ur kitchen is the mistake of buying the same things u already have, bc u couldn't SEE or remember if u already have them. ( point #2- wasted$$!) Lesson learned!
One down side of having a decluttered kitchen, when my husband helps put dishes away, instead of putting everything where it goes he crams it all into one cabinet and drawer (because it all can fit and his mind cannot comprehend having empty spaces in cabinets 😂)
Amanda Lashley But does he know where stuff goes, like in which drawer or cabinet??? My husband puts stuff in ALL the wrong places and I fix it after he “helps”. 😅
@@AtoZenLife Mine knows exactly to put his dirty dishes in the left side of the kitchen sink. I know because he puts them everywhere else: the countertop, the kitchen table, the living room, his desk, the bedroom, and the right side of the kitchen sink, never the left side.
My husband used to put dishes and utensils away wherever he could find a space for them. We work opposite schedules and he was never home in the mornings, so he couldn't see the added stress and how not having dishes in their place added to the difficulty of getting out the door on time. Then my husband started cooking. When he had to find everything he needed on a regular basis, he started putting dishes in their proper place.
My sweet mother-in-law cooked huge, delicious meals in a kitchen with a regular top freezer refrigerator, a large electric stove with storage for her original Wearever aluminum cookware from the 1940’s, and ONE cabinet that held the sink and enough counter on each side for a small dish drainer on one and a Mr. Coffee on the other. There was an overhead cabinet on each side of the base one. The kitchen table and four chairs finished out the room. I think it was FDR that said “Do what you can with what you have where you are.” She did, exceptionally well. You are following great advice!
I see this is current but thinking about curbing food shopping re stay at home suggestion means many more cans in my cupboard. I agree less is best.... but not right now.
Agreed, I have no interest in grocery shopping weekly. I have minimalized our meals, but have the supplies to make them multiple times as to not venture out unnecessarily. To each their own I guess.
Less dishes/clothing/stuff means washing less, but more frequently, but most importantly, you save time/stress doing the SHUFFLE. Avoid the stuff shuffle-minimize!
Our paper station is on a side table/buffet in our "dining room" (2bed apt living). It has a drawer where we keep pens, sharpies, mail opener and stamps. Recycle wastebasket and shredder underneath. Helps keep paper from piling everywhere but it did take some practice. Maybe you have a small sliver of counter that could become your paper station? Or hang some slanted file boxes on the wall. Like Dawns dishcloths, designate a space and it must fit there. :)
I have a rack right when you walk in to drop stuff. I go through it frequently and sort to shred, recycle or keep. The keeps go in my desk. I keep a couple of pens there and a sharpie inside an upper cabinet in the kitchen. Easy once you have a routine going.
I try very hard to sort mail as soon as it comes in, but sometimes I have things I need to deal with later or don't know what to do with. I like her idea (on another video) of having a bin for each of those out of sight. The problem with hiding mail that's important is that for me "out of sight, out of mind", I have to have some things in plain sight, or I won't remember to take care of them, so the important things can't be too hidden. I have a closet in my kitchen for the vacuum, and some miscellaneous items. I mounted a cloth hanging file (Amazon), so I can put certain papers there, and I have it labeled. It's just not a good spot for bills, or I will forget about them.
Marla Edington You can have a different spot for “to-do” from things you may need later. The things that need to be done stay in the little rack by my front door but since I get rid of the junk mail right away, it never gets too crazy. I go through it at least once a month and always find some of the things can go.
xsweetcrisx my to-do items end up in a pile on my counter top. I need to change that! I like the idea of having a bin by the door. I do go through the mail when I first come home (as long as I was the one to get the mail) so I throw out the obvious junk right away.
I have used the "one place setting' idea for several years and love it. I actually took the kids to goodwill and let them pick a set of flatware they like, and they have to reuse that too. Works great!
Decluttering is great. I kept a ton of gadgets, I use them. I leave coffee maker, toaster and air fryer out, and a big bin of spatulas etc by the stove and bowl of fruit and veggies. That’s as minimal as I’m willing to go. It’s saves excessive movements and time
Oh my goodness, I LOVE your hair!!! The color looks so good and makes your eye color pop! The video was a good one too. Spent today attempting to declutter my bedroom. I showed my husband your video about simplifying your bedroom. And he has made several comments about wanting it to feel like a hotel room.
Just a random video idea because I know it would help me haha: Maybe you could possibly go through amazon and find items you have that you recommend for organization and how you use them so we can get them and do it as well! I struggle so much with actually finding the organizing baskets and stuff like that
Thank you for the motivation! I finally did it! I spent 3 hours this afternoon decluttering my kitchen and it feels soooo good! Everything to donate has to live in a box in the basement until donation centers are open again, but so happy it's done!
I love how you said "supper" instead of "dinner". When I was growing up in the south NOBODY ever called the last meal of the day dinner,,,,.our three meals were breakfast, dinner, and supper, in that order. Even to this day, when someone around me talks about dinner, I think they're talking about the noon meal. Great video !
I grew up saying supper too. But the noon meal was called lunch. Then I met friends who called the noon meal "dinner." I said, "But dinner is what you eat formally on Easter or Christmas." We are from MO. It is all just so interesting!
@@Julie-ok5frWe live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. You're right, it's interesting that people in different parts of the country say things so differently !
After this one, I went back to your first kitchen decluttering I had ever watched and ended up watching quite a few. I liked the differences between the first episode and this one. It was a great encouragement to go back to the beginning of this little minimal race I am running and remember all the reasons why I began. I was motivated to go back to my own kitchen and see what worked and what needed another kick start.
Absolutely love the idea of keeping extra dishes in the basement in a bin! I'm going to do this when we move. (everything is in boxes currently). What a great idea!!!
Dawn, I love your blue cabinets--it's such a happy, pretty room! I look forward to when you hang your wallpaper in the other room, too! That'll be so fun! I hope you end up loving it!
Your original kitchen videos were such an inspiration, we certainly are living the benefits from your wisdom here! The fruit on our counter is my nemesis- perhaps I can simplify more to fit it in a cabinet 😊 thank you as always for sharing your life and wisdom with us! Love the hair too!!
It is amazing how much minimizing blesses your life and your families as well!!! We have cut our possessions in half and are LOVING our new life! Your kitchen is beautiful and functional... so inspiring! Thanks for sharing, Dawn!! 💜
Do you have the link for your favorite knife set? I've been needing a new set for forever, but they are usually such an investment. Also, love the hair color!
It all looks GREAT!! You originally inspired me to have cleared off counters, etc :) We only have a coffee maker, electric tea kettle, silverware caddy, and a paper towel holder out. Do you use paper towels and if so, where do you keep them?
I just wanted to let you know that I love your new hair color. Thanks for this video. Now I wanted to reevaluate my kitchen to have less and more room to breathe.
Love your color...but..if you think it is too dark a clairol rep once told me to put clarifying shampoo on dry hair..wait a few minutes rinse out...it will help lighten it..took me a few times but it worked...
If you have a baking sheet that you sometimes use for baking something else, you can use that to cook the bacon in the oven. Anything with a rim that keeps the fat from dripping will do.
Same. I was just thinking about one of the most basic meals I make - spaghetti, sauce, and then a veggie. Most of the time I use three pots for that! (pasta, sauce, steam veggies) Additionally, I try to meal prep as much as possible so I've usually got two sheet pans on the oven, veggies in the microwave, and a pot and two large frying pans going at the same time!
I think the main suggestion is to only have what you need and use in the kitchen. If you use 4 pots at the same time because that's what your family needs, great! Maybe there's one pan or pot that can go, or maybe the paring-down can happen elsewhere in the kitchen. It's very freeing!
I need to do this again! My husband built my dream kitchen for me but I literally have so much stuff now and I rarely use things. I want to also get my pantry cleaned again. When all of this covid stuff started I just started stockpiling and really it was out of fear and now I need to donate.
Yes I bought a bit extra too. I remember some RU-vidrs saying a full pantry is kind of like saving for a rainy day. I guess with job losses and food bank use rising, sometimes it's nice to have a little extra. Never know when life may happen, natural disasters, job loss, illness. But yeah only if you are going to eat it and it's not going to cause you extra stress and anxiety having a bit extra on hand. That's one area I have become a little bit maximalist in. Especially after they started furloughing people at my husband's work place. Couldn't bear to not be able to feed our 3 kids it's heartbreaking to see so many struggling at this time. A bit extra food in the pantry has given us a little bit of peace.
Dawn, I in no way want to hurt your feelings but I loved your blonde hair and also like it shoulder length. You are still young and will have enough time to do the things older women do. I can't say why I don't care for the dark hair because since I was a young teenager I have had almost black hair. Blonde didn't look good on me. My Mama was a true blonde with blue eyes. I know you can't please everyone. I also know how many people won't tell you the truth. Maybe in time I will get use to your dark hair. After all it's your hair not mine. Right
Dawn, I love you and your family. Please don't take my comment as though I was criticizing your hair or trying to hurt your feelings. I just truly loved your cute little blonde hair & blue eyed self. Please forgive me if my comments hurt you in anyway.
@Heather OToole , Thank you for your sweet comment. I didn't want Dawn to think I was one of those with hurtful or hate commenting. Your a sweetheart also.
My trouble is that I have gotten a lot of items from family members that have passed and I don’t want to part with them even though I do not use them often or at all.
I hope you read my comment..I'm new to your chanel and I'm a father of 4 kids..how do you simplify kids sports?? I'm having a hard time making a decision of letting my boys join taekwondo..it's almost 200$ a month for 2 kids..I don't approve but wife wants to still keep the boys in martial arts. how do you deal with that..any advice. Or any videos soon related to the topic.. Thanks
Ohhhhhh this so goes against the special forces motto. One is none, two is 1. In survival or warfare, there always have to be redundancy. And those one use gadgets, Alton Brown calls them unitaskers. And I agree, if it can’t do multiple things then we don’t need them.
My husband says this all the time. And I tend to agree, while three or four might be extreme, sometimes 2 is just enough! We don't have an exorbitant amount of plates or bowls, but two place settings per person works for me. Although, I'm with Dawn on the clear counters. Still working on it!
That is an interesting way to think of it! I have minimized our kitchen (need to do more!) But have been stuck on lots of pots/pans because we use them all. Food for thought!
My question is how does having each of your children wash their own dishes work logistically? Do they just do a good job taking turns? Or do they all descend on the sink at one time? One problem I have is I don't do well remembering all the things I need to remind my kids to do HA! The one place setting thing sounds like a dream come true, but I don't want to have to manage all my kids (I have 5) washing times or whatever. Also does your husband washes his own place setting?... 🤣 thanks!!
I'm finally convinced to clear my appliances off of the counter because of dusting and wipe down time. 😊 I have found the 3qtish sauce pan, dutch oven or a deep saute pan and 10-12" skillet setup to be the best setup too.
Hi Dawn -- sorry if you've already covered this, but two things caught my eye, that I have been looking for but can't find -- 1) the double sided measuring spoons; and 2) the scrub brush for the sink. Would you remember where you got yours from? Thanks in advance and love your videos! :)
Have you shown us your mail center? I'd like to see your calendar/command central again. Im doing better with mail but my notebook of to do lists and other "office" papers I need to handle still end up in the kitchen. This is where I pay bills, send cards, etc. WOULD LOVE HELP with this! I enjoy your channel so much and have l I very "getting to know" you and your family. I also have a twin sister, but sadly she lives in another state.
I am NOT a minimalist in the kitchen, but love my dishes and cookware. I enjoy cooking, baking, and keep all my kitchen tools clean. I really don't mind doing dishes. That said, I really want and need to minimize my office paper clutter! I'd much rather be playing with my "toys" in the kitchen. I'm going to search your site for office organization. Thank you, dear. 👍
