The kitchen was mostly done with the last photos I posted of it >> here. I went through our small junk drawer keeping only the chip clips and toothpicks. (No pictures of that because the drawers in this kitchen drive me crazy. Long story short: kitchen has water damage needing redone since the day we moved in; meanwhile, we avoid the bottom cabinets, deal with the state of the drawers and who knows what bad things we've been breathing in during this time. Needless to say: glad to be moving.)
Two articles I found and really liked about minimalism in the kitchen:
How to Setup a Minimalist Kitchen Part 1 - things to avoid
How to Setup a Minimalist Kitchen Part 2 - the essentials and the nice-to-haves
One key to minimalism: items with versatility. We bought several Voss waters over the holidays as "welcome" gifts for our family. They left them behind and I kept them because I like how they look lined up in our window sill. We do not have a rolling pin, and these work wonderfully as such. They also, obviously, are good as reusable water bottles, and could hold single stem flowers arranged on the table. Now I feel better letting go of the extra (and mostly unused) plastic water bottles as well as the few small vases.
This has nothing to do with minimalism, but I'm thankful to my mom and sister for introducing Daniel and I to this nifty dish drying mat. We originally had a white plastic dish drainer which very quickly became discolored and difficult to clean. The metal dish drainer looks sleeker and the drying mat is great at soaking up water and easily washable. Even if we have a dishwasher wherever we move, I'll be keeping this in our kitchen for those light dish days and non-dishwasher-safe dishes.
And, the inspiration: John Mayer's kitchen...
...and the Johnson's zero waste pantry...
