What's on your kitchen table?

[annecros]

I looked at my "kitchen table" today - in my frame of reference in the South, that would be the breakfast nook sort of place closest to the kitchen and an everyday sort of place to eat - and said "Wow!"

I have a large rubbbermaid tote containing an injured chicken that clucks every time I walk by. I have mail. Two day old unopened mail. I have containers of live crickets and meal worms. Two cookbooks and a cooling rack.

I was thinking, wouldn't that table (that is the catch all utility place) and it's contents say a lot about a person?

What's on your "kitchen table?"

I now understand why we eat on the couch in the family room so often.

[Lilija]

Oh, this is a good one. Today was a busy day, weekends are usually rather chaotic, so good timing. We have a butcher block/pub table in our kitchen, with a stainles steel top. It's awesomely multifunctional.

Like you, I currently have wildlife on my table. We just adopted a baby girl rat, so she's in her solo cage on the table right now. Along with a vase of flowers, a napkin holder holding unopened bills but no napkins, a softside cooler, a buncha sales circulars, a few cookbooks, and half a pan of mocha brownies. We eat there every night, though. We have an extra chair in the kitchen, so all the random odds and ends (besides the rat, and the brownies, probably) get swept onto the chair real fast.

[Anna N]

Most days when there are just the two of us we eat on a large, tile-topped coffee table. Currently it holds:

A labelling machine.

The phone which should be in its cradle.

An empty glass.

3 cookbooks.

2 cooking magazines.

A pocket calculator.

3 notebooks.

The TV remote.

After my morning coffee my first job each day is to clear it off. It will fill up again as the day passes. At meal times one of us sweeps everything up and dumps it on my desk.

In contrast my dining room table is generally clear of everything except a decorative bowl and a plant!

[SuzySushi]

We don't have a "kitchen table" but we do have an L-shaped koa wood counter with four leather bar stools. The counter is currently graced by four serving trays depicting vintage Hawaii-themed art done by Eugene Savage as menu covers for the Matson line in the 1930s. Island Feast

It also holds a Japanese doll in a glass case (standing on one tray -- no room for it anywhere else); a large glass bowl holding an overripe banana and an unripe papaya (on another tray); a set of about 70 colored markers, a bottle of SPF 70 sunblock and a spray bottle of Solarcaine along with the remote control for the living room air conditioner (on the third tray); a kitchen scale, a pencil with a broken point, and a stuffed toy dog (on the fourth tray); a spray can of Rustoleum on the counter behind the Japanese doll; and a grape-patterned melamine trivet, topped by a bottle of glucose tablets and a Hello Kitty water bottle at the end of the counter.

That is why we eat at our computer desks or in bed.

Edited June 15, 2009 by SuzySushi (log)

[David A. Goldfarb]

We don't eat at the kitchen table, but it seems to become a repository for accumulated mail, and there is this glass pineapple-shaped dish that someone gave us, which we use for keys, pencils, and things we put in our pockets when we leave the apartment. There's some instant coffee, which my wife uses when I don't get up early enough to make the coffee. We had friends for dinner yesterday, so we straightened it up and moved a glass dish that usually holds fresh fruit from the dining area to the kitchen table, and I think I like it there, so it will probably stay.

The dining table, where we do eat, has two water glasses on it at the moment.

[pax]

Having loads of rubbish on the kitchen table is one of my personal crazy-makers.

After many discussions and debates and agreements and pacts, my husband is still completely incapable of NOT piling huge amounts of crap on the kitchen table.

I keep a laundry basket free, and at dinner time every night, I sweep all his shite off the table, into the basic, and dump it on his desk. Not gently, I might add. With malice aforethought.

This works better for me than actually balancing his plate on the piles,which I tried for a while, because occasionally they'd slide off and the plates would break.

So what's on the table? Pretty place mats, an absolutely gorgeous flowering African violet, a salt shaker and a pepper mill, and a basket of cloth napkins.

[christine007]

Well, pumpkin colored placemats, same color candles in a very pretty candle holder, and my son's school papers, (school's out now, so what's my excuse?)

We rarely eat here. not sure why.

[rooftop1000]

I could have sworn I just tidied the table up last week....We dont eat here

2 sleaves of plastic cups

A ceramic Bud Commerative Stein

Phone Book

2 cookbooks

the bowl for my ice cream maker

12 pack of soda

2 crystal pilsner glasses

2 potatoes

phone chargers

tracey

[HungryC]

wow, y'all are making me feel positively tidy (thanks!) i have two placemats, a portmeirion bowl full of new potatoes (just as pretty as fruit, don't you think?), a DC guidebook, movie ticket stubs, and an Amedei dark chocolate hazelnut bar.

[Kim Shook]

No kitchen table , but the dining room table currently has the binders with all my tried recipes (the ones that are on my website) spread out on it. I am in the middle of reorganizing and recatagorizing them - for example, I had 9 billion 'meat' recipes, so I'm braking them down into 'beef/veal', 'lamb', 'pork', etc. Oh, and a set of green glass candlesticks with purple candles ! We mostly eat on trays in the family room, a habit I keep trying to break, because there is always some project or other on the table!

[andiesenji]

I don't have a kitchen table per se, just an island in the center that has an overhang at one end where one can perch on a bar stool.

There was a time when it was kept very neat and empty of the detritus that accumulates, seemingly out of nowhere, on any reasonably horizontal surface. However, I no longer have someone to pick up after me so it is often unusable for its regular purpose, being covered with stacks of cookbooks, various pieces of cookware awaiting return to their proper spot, baskets of stuff from the garden, trays of stuff from the pantry that were pulled out in contemplation of inclusion in a meal, only to be rejected and awaiting return to their proper place.

Of course, if something I use all the time goes missing, I have only to sort through the stuff on the island and generally find it there, which is easier than a hunt throughout the house.

Permanent residents are; a salt box containing my "regular" kosher salt, an "electric" pepper mill, a "spooner" that holds a bunch of teaspoons (not measuring spoons), a bottle of EVOO, a vinegar cruet, a fruit knife and a bowl of fruit, a small cheese board and a seltzer bottle.

And there is the basket of eggs for use that day, removed from the fridge first thing in the morning so they will be at room temp when I am ready to use them.

Earlier this morning I did clear off a corner and gathered the things I will need for starting a batch of Salt-rising bread - which I intend to document with photos and such in a new thread, after I am well into the process.

Edited June 15, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[Lisa Shock]

We just have a tiny round, glass topped table that can seat 2 comfortably. It has seated 4 on occasion, but they can't eat from large plates so it's a rare occasion like the in-laws insisting...

I feel so tidy! We have 2 black placemats (to help prevent scratching the table), a salt cellar, a Halloween skeleton cup filled with Japanese candy, and a metal Halloween haunted house. Occasionally, a bowl of produce will be placed there if we don't have enough room in the fridge -or it needs to ripen.

I have a Halloween theme in the kitchen year-round. My towels have a woven spider-web pattern, my hot pads have pirate skeletons on them, and I have some skull shaped baking pans of various sizes on the walls.

[Tri2Cook]

What's on your "kitchen table?"

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Whatever pants/shorts I happen to be wearing while I sit on the couch and eat. Actually that's not all, I usually throw a pillow on my lap to set the plate on.

[maggiethecat]

We have a table that seat 12 easily, and we're two diners. (Well, it can get to be three , depending on how insistent our willowthecat gets about helping with the crossword puzzle, the sewing project, the bill paying.) The dining table is its own environment; it multitasks.

Right now: a towel folded across one end (I couldn't be bothered taking out the ironing board) the Sunday Puzzle, five packages of seeds, "Quantum of Solace" in its Netflix envelope, two placemats, a stem of "Abraham Darby" in a bud vase, bills, magnifying glass (his) a paper cutter (origami aide)and a coffee mug. It'll get spiffed up by dinnertime. (I shelved the cookbooks yesterday.)

[Marmish]

Our kitchen table collects crap out of thin air. Currently on the table:

the rest of the groceries I bought today, the rest are put away or being cooked

serving dishes for tomorrow's lunch ('m hosting a work committee)

four glasses to go to the basement from the liquor cabinet reorganization

a pig Christmas ornament, also headed to the basement from the liquor cabinet

assorted mail

the quilt squares I took shopping the other day to match fabric

the camera case

a basket that is supposed to hold all the crap that gets left on the table - HA

part of the newspaper

a vase destined for the basement

the manual for my new stove that was delivered today

cookbook

notebook

pen

usually my car keys, cell phone and bag, but not today

Dinner should be in 20 minutes. Um, yeah.

[Peter the eater]

Our kitchen table is a 42" diameter circle that docks into the corner. The surface is not as nice as it used to be, so there's always a tablecloth. It gets changed almost every day and therefore nothing much can accumulate. Right now it has:

- an old oak lazy susan

- a cognac flask with water and fairly fresh lily-of-the-valley

- a plastic tub full of colorful cutlery from Ikea

- a large tube with blueprints

- a spent 9 volt battery

[sparrowgrass]

A bottle of bleach, a thingie for mending a garden hose (a brass coupling and a couple of hose clamps), a salt shaker, a basket of eggs that I need to put in cartons, the cordless drill, and a pair of glasses that I have been hunting for 2 days.

Good thread!!

[C. sapidus]

I keep a laundry basket free, and at dinner time every night, I sweep all his shite off the table, into the basic, and dump it on his desk. Not gently, I might add. With malice aforethought.

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Don't think I haven't been tempted. But no, the price would be too high.

. . . a stem of "Abraham Darby" in a bud vase . . .

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Ahh, a beautiful flower, and I miss the smell -- we left Abe behind at the old house.

Our dining room table: a vase of flowers; a couple of potholders; a map; information about an upcoming Boy Scout camping trip; and a box of TableTopics cards. These have questions like "How is your family different from other families and does it bother you?", "Would you go to school if it were your choice?" and an eGullet-friendly question: "What would be on the menu for your ultimate birthday dinner?" These cards have triggered some fascinating family conversations.

Just before dinner, most of the shite on the dining room table gets transferred to a sideboard at the far end of the dining room.

[prasantrin]

Having loads of rubbish on the kitchen table is one of my personal crazy-makers.

←

A friend of mine used to go through periods when she wouldn't be able to eat. She'd take a few bites of something and then she'd feel like throwing up, so she'd stop eating. I told her it was probably stress-related, but she said she didn't feel stressed at all.

Months later, she finally figured it out. Her husband, who was self-employed and worked out of their home, had filled the kitchen table with clutter from his work. Growing up, the kitchen table provided a feeling of stability and comfort for her, and when she no longer had that symbol, it stressed her out. From then, her husband left at least part of the table clear so they could have their meals at the table, and she could finally eat again.

As for my kitchen table, an easier question to answer would be, "What's not on your kitchen table?"

[petite tête de chou]

A decorative set of salt and pepper shakers (not filled), sugar bowl (filled) and a small flower arrangement. I find clutter irritating. In fact, those shakers days are numbered. I've only kept them around for as long as I have because they were an odd gift from my husband.

[Kerry Beal]

Believe it or not - it's a lot less cluttered than it was this am before I got the bills paid. The kitchen table (and the floor around my chair) serves as my office. Note how much cleaner hubbies side of the table is than mine - of course when I came home from work his side had a bunch of dishes on it - the dish fairy seems to show up about the same time I get home.

[LizD518]

Small one-bedroom apartments don't have eat-in kitchens, but my "dining room" (HA!) table is currently holding a water bottle (refillable, for running), two placemats, an empty box from amazon and the cables that came in the box. The table is mostly the province of the cat though. SHe likes to sit on it and gaze out at the alley behind my building.

Most meals are taken at my desk, also part of the same living / dining / office combo that is my main room. Currently the desk holds my laptop, a cookbook, piles of magazines, bills, books and other assorted papers, my garmin forerunner watch, speakers for my computer, an individual bag of pretzels, ear phones, the necklace I wore to work yesterday, and the modem for my computer.

[Darienne]

My kitchen is a galley type so we can't have a eating table in it, but we eat at the table in the sun room. It has on it: salt, pepper, soy sauce, napkins, one hot pad...and every thing my DH leaves on it on his way by either to or from his workshop.

We also eat on the living room coffee table which has a small fake Navajo rug ...who can afford real?... and a fascinating collection of rocks, arrowheads, fossils, baskets, ceramic bits and bobs, magnets...which our dog hates... I just went to look at it and it would take too long to tell all. Suffice it to say, it is the repository for my other obsessions in life.

[CKatCook]

We usually eat on the couch in front the TV. So right now there is cat, a blanket on it.

[Badiane]

I am comforted to know that I am not the only one out there with a cluttered table.

Ours is about 7 feet long and 4 feet wide - and there are just the two of us :-)

Right now we have:

A two tiered cake plate filled with medication to return to the pharmacy for demolition.

A lovely oak lazy susan filled with old bills and mail.

A bunch of medication

Assorted other medical paraphernalia of various descriptions

This year's income tax forms - finally filled out but not yet mailed.

Assorted cooking magazines, library books, cook books and flyers

One half dead plant

Two bags of Brazil Nuts

Two bras

and a bag of new clothes that I bought yesterday

I think the table had developed a sag in the middle

Edited June 21, 2009 by Badiane (log)