Only three people live in our house and yet we have a lot of dishes. Owning more dishes means more to wash and put away. Is a 12-piece place setting really necessary? What about all the entertaining platters and bowls? With a little work, and my step-by-step guide, you can downsize or better yet, rightsize dishes to serve the needs of your family on a day to day basis.
Collections
I’m embarrassed to admit we own three different types of dishes (everyday, china and Christmas). My husband loves our china so we use it often. But we reduced each set and agreed we won’t keep the wedding or Christmas china forever. Neither of us wants our possessions to be a burden to our son.
Dishes are a relatively easy place to start. The kitchen is the heartbeat of the home so keeping it clutter-free and organized saves time and money. With clean countertops and organized cabinets, it’s also much easier to cook dinner and resist the urge to order takeout.
Step-by-Step Guide to Downsize Dishes
I hope you’ll learn from my mistakes and not buy any more souvenir coffee mugs. You can use this step-by-step guide to declutter and reduce dishes in your home.
- Consider how many people live in your house full-time
- Keep in mind that you can borrow dishes and entertaining pieces to host holiday dinners
- Take one category at a time (Coffee mugs, glasses, plates, etc)
- Remove the entire category from the cabinet
- Place all of it on the counter
- Recycle broken or chipped items immediately
- Donate pieces you don’t love or do not use very often
- Reduce kids’ cutlery and cups to their favorites
- Evaluate specialty silverware (Grapefruit spoons, I’m looking at you)
- Reduce every category
- Stand back and assess the cabinet space
- Use stickie notes to re-plan each shelf and drawer
- Take your time
- Enjoy the empty cabinets and clean the shelves
- Don’t return everything to the same space unless it makes sense
- Consider the following:
- What’s the best location for drinking glasses? Near the fridge?
- How many types of glasses do you need?
- Store heavy dinner plates on lower shelves or in drawers.
- Get rid of elements of place settings you do not use such as teacups and saucers
- Respect the boundaries of cabinets and shelves
- Avoid using shelves that are out of reach
If you’re not ready to completely get rid of items, try boxing up the extras and experiment with less for 6 months. You will find it much easier to clean and maintain a downsized-kitchen.
Perfect Number
I’d love to tell you the perfect number of dishes for your family but that’s a personal decision. But I can tell you that it’s less than you think.
I’m challenging you to think differently, live differently, and own less. You can remove clutter and create organization in your home, starting today
Are you ready to make a change?
Great post! I got rid of my wedding china and sterling silver when I moved into this home 7 years ago and have not missed the space it took up and the extra care it took to maintain. Mugs, which often arrive in our house as gifts, have one shelf on which they live. The shelf is full so when a new mug arrives, either it is immediately donated or it replaces one that is on the shelf.
I love hearing that you don’t miss your china. I won’t either. And I love the one in and one out rule on mugs. Nicely done!
This makes me want to rethink my party plates. We would use them instead of paper products and have developed a large amount for our larger parties. Since Covid though we have only done parties there are 15 or fewer people (only immediate family members) so do I really need them taking up my china cabinet — no! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Hi Sabrina – You are so welcome. I am delighted to give you some food for thought. Good Luck!
I have more than three, so there you go! (hope you feel better). One is my every day, one is Christmas, one is my wedding china, and one is a glass set called “Candlewick” I inherited. The one I use the least is my wedding china. The other three are used every year.
That said, I have a few pieces that I inherited that are not complete sets. I’m ready to get rid of them, but my husband thinks we should keep them. I’ve decided to not make an issue out of it as long as I have the space. When it comes time to downsize, I’ll suggest we pass them on.
Great advice. We’ve been doing some downsizing and I’ve been considering letting go of my wedding china. I have a set of my Mom’s china that I like much better and I certainly don’t need two sets of good dishes.
I agree with you, how much do we need. I would suggest planning to meet your everyday needs. When parties arise you can borrow, rent, have people bring their own dishes. I have suggested that family members buy the same wine glasses and then when someone needs a lot of them they can borrow from another family member and the glasses all match.
Every time you use this photo, I want to go out and buy square dishes! 😉
And don’t feel bad about having three sets of dishes. The home in which I grew up was otherwise VERY organized and pared down, but we kept kosher and had two sets of everyday dishes, two sets of “good” dishes, two sets for Passover, and a set of wedding china from one of my parents’ first marriages. They’re all still in that basement, while I have four place settings of 20+ year-old FiestaWare. I’m a singleton, and it’s enough. Everyone needs a reality check when it comes to things like tableware.
I’m with you on the grapefruit spoons, but you’ll have to tear juice glasses from my cold, dead hands. With certain health conditions (like diabetes), it’s very helpful to have small glasses, and to generally have glasses and dishes of certain sizes to make eyeballing serving sizes easier.
We have one set of dishes and silverware, but we have a lot of them. That’s because we DO entertain a lot, or at least we did pre-COVID. We have space for them. However, some of the overflow silverware is stored away until I need it, so that our silverware drawer is manageable. Periodically, I’ve gone through the mugs, glasses, bowls etc… and donated or given away ones we’re not using. As long as we have the space and the pieces are used, I’m fine with keeping them.
When my mom passed away, I had the option to keep her good china and silver. While they were beautiful, I decided to pass them up. We didn’t have the space and they were too fancy for our style. I was happy that my brother and sister-in-law kept them so they remain in the family.
We kept our wedding china for special occasions, but it was a small set so not enough place settings for even a medium-sized group. Once we became empty-nesters, we got rid of all the mismatched kitchen dishes and started using the wedding china every day. It has since been replaced with brand new dishes, a slightly larger set than we had before.
I love this. If you’re keeping the china, use it. We do the same with larger groups but my husband said that when we downsize from this house, that will be the time to pass on the china or perhaps keep just a place setting of 4. I like his plan.
Yes, we have one set of good dishes and one set for every day. And a couple of extra white plates for just in case. We have a shelf full of mugs but seem to go through them in a day and a half (there’s five of us and we all use them). I discretely get rid of mugs as I discover a crack and I don’t replace them. Mugs come into the house disguised as gifts.
The wine and liquor glasses are another story. They do need editing. I have gotten rid of 20 sherry glasses (I don’t drink sherry so that was easy). lol
Nicely done Cathy! You seem to know what you use and what you don’t. Cracked or broken items are definitely easy to downsize and it’s good to experiment with not replacing appliances or any items in the kitchen. I find way to work around nearly everything except perhaps my French Press. I like to see if “not having” an item will force me to do things differently and sometimes it works out even better. Happy decluttering! Enjoy a mug of tea after. Not sherry. 🙂
Avoid using shelves that are out of reach. Empty spaces are calming.
Yes, I am adopting this phrase “empty spaces are calming”, I wish I was able to teach my wife this concept!
Nice article.
Thanks Brian! I appreciate your kind comment. Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll be back for future articles! I also say “empty spaces give your eyes a place to rest.” Hope that helps too!
My family is getting ready to move into some two trailer while we build our house. Your step-by-step guide will really help me with more then just the kitchen.
Jacob – I am so glad to hear that it was helpful in many spaces! Good luck with the move and building.
My family is getting ready to move into some two trailer while we build our house. Your step-by-step guide will really help me with more then just the kitchen.
I very often help others to organize their kitchen cupboards and one of the first thing I do is to adjust the adjustable shelves by putting them as low as possible to facilitate access (they usually are assembled with the two shelves at the same distance, with the top one higher than what many people can easily reach). To do this we empty the cabinet and put everything on the table & counters. The interesting thing that happens then is when seeing things slowly getting put back onto the shelves, many will say stop! I like my shelves with less stuff on them. Then lots of dishes, glasses, mugs and so on get easily donated! And for my space, we only kept our good china and we use it everyday – even for little kids.
Love this tip!
Everyone has great comments! I will apply this to my children’s toys. Two under 5.
Thank you!
so glad you are applying this to another space too!
Loving your words of wisdom, regarding clutter. We all seem to ger comfy with excess. I am in the “less is best” movement now in life & trying to think responsibly now, finally at 56 yrs of graciuosly acquiring things:)
Thank you, sincerely;)
Hi Tonya – You are so welcome! It is never too late and I’m so glad to have you hear reading my articles and adopting a Less is Best mentality. You can do it! Let me know if I can be of any assistance or offer advice.