I have discovered the amazing amount of stuff I have in my kitchen because it is all now sitting in boxes in my living room.

Like many in the pandemic world, I decided to embark on a home improvement project. Unlike so many, however, I am not a regular viewer of all the home improvement shows, so I depend on my daughter Liz and her husband Peter to keep me “au courant.”

My chosen project was replacing the doors on my kitchen cabinets which necessitated the removal of everything that’s been hiding in my cabinets for some time. It was like an archeological dig.

Among these artifacts I found boxes of matches that I have picked up over the years at various restaurants (remember when restaurants used to give away matches?). A few of these restaurants have been closed for twenty years. Some of these matches may predate the invention of the electric light.

Then there is the glassware. I still have a few of the wine glasses that my grandmother bought me for my wedding, some random glasses that my kids used when they were kids, and lots of “branded” glasses and cups that my dear late husband John picked up at all his Chamber of Commerce events. The corporate giveaway drinkware must go.

And dishes. I have a set of white dishes for every day, but along the way I’ve collected various mismatched serving dishes that add to the clutter. Coordinate or begone, I say!

Oh, don’t forget the salt and pepper shakers. There’s the set of Irish Belleek shakers I bought in Bermuda on our honeymoon.

Then there’s the set from our trip to the Greenbriar in West Virginia. Another set is from my sister-in-law Susan from her trip to San Francisco, in the shape of a cable car. Then there are the teddy bear shakers my mother-in-law painted for us in her ceramics class in Arizona. I’ve also saved a pair from the set of dishes that my daughter bought for us while she was still in college. I know, I know, who needs so many sets of salt and pepper shakers, especially when we use salt and pepper grinders on the table now. But they are all dear memories of happy times. I can’t let them go, can I?

And let’s not get into the amount of random bakeware that has been stuffed into my cabinets over the years. I once apparently purchased a tin to bake muffin tops. I have held onto a springform pan though I haven’t made a cheesecake in years.

Also, there are lots of baking dishes that can hold anything from brownies to scalloped potatoes. Then there are the piles of ramekins, purchased during the time when Liz and Peter were making their delicious crème brûlée for every holiday meal.

I even unearthed the tiny ramekins that we used for melted butter the year we had lobster tails for Christmas. I thought they were gone forever. Turns out they were deep in the back of one of the cupboards.

At any rate, tomorrow the new doors will be hung, and my kitchen will have its update. Then the real work will begin for me as I sort through the piles of boxes and decide which artifacts will earn their way into my new cabinets and drawers. Wish me luck!