Consolidating Serviceware

[Shalmanese]

One thing I've slowly managed to teach myself over the years has been the fewer types of serviceware I own, the happier I am. All growing up & through college, I lived with a random mish mash of plates, bowls, cutlery & glasses, either donated, bought or borrowed & not returned. It wasn't until I moved into my most recent place that I got to finally design the arrangement of the kitchen into something I was happy with. In the process of moving, I made the decision that there would only ever be one model of any type of serviceware and it's made the organization of my kitchen innumerably easier.

Every plate, bowl & glass has it's predefined place. There's never the problem of big bowls going on top of small bowls, plates piled in not quite an aligned fashion, shuffling aside one piece so you can reach another. And because everything has it's own place, the storage of everything is radically more compact, fitting into a single standard width cupboard.

I was lucky enough to pick up a service for 18 in fine bone china for a complete steal at an estate sale a few years ago and these have become my everyday plates. There's a large plate, a shallow soup saucer & a smaller plate. For glasses, we have 1 dozen Ikea Mjod glasses, 6 of which are out at any one time. As each glass breaks, we replace it with a new one at roughly the rate of 1 every 3 months. The small bowls are also from Ikea, the big bowls are from Daiso.

I also have a few decorative pieces which I've got stashed away in other parts of my kitchen. Some black triangular plates, some long rectangular plates, a big serving platter etc. But I would estimate 99% of my eating comes from these 5 types of plates.

What I'm looking for now is a way to consolidate the rest of my serviceware in a way that maximizes both convenience & versatility. Currently, my cutlery is still a random assortment as I've not yet found a model that both feels great in your hands and is also affordable.

Another area I have no idea how to tame is storage for cooked items. I started out with a set of round pyrex bowls with the blue plastic lids but, like the lost sock conundrum, I seem to only have left lids that don't fit bowls & bowls that don't fit lids. The pyrex is also not stackable and comes in too many different sizes so I have an full cupboard just dedicated to pyrex.

Also, prep bowls is another area that I would like to completely revamp. Currently, I have a set of large, cheap metal mixing bowls which I use to store large amounts of chopped stuff & I tend to use either ramekins or the small Ikea bowls but this isn't very space efficient for my prep area. I'd love to have either one or two different type of prep bowls that could accomodate the majority of those tasks.

In short, I'd love to hear tips from other people about effectively consolidating serviceware to minimize the amount of futzing around in the kitchen.

[Darienne]

Two small ideas:

Storage: throw out everything which doesn't match and buy a set of good main stream brand plastic containers with lid. Make sure they are stackable. Then buy ONLY that kind as you need or break them. Worked for us.

Prep: we have two sets of small bowls. A stainless steel set which have all the benefits of metal and a really cheap...got them at a garage sale...of the ugliest lime green plastic bowls. They can go into the microwave, are easy to use as a tare, etc. The two sets work well together.

As for your other concerns, well, I am looking for answers too. We have a useful cutlery set...probably our fifth over the years. However, I keep the second last one in another drawer because I use it. I find the newest ones, while lovely, etc, etc, just too heavy for my smaller arthritic hands.

[Richard Kilgore]

Storage containers: someone here several years ago suggested this, and while I can't remember who, this has worked for me for over five years now. Restaurant supply houses carry inexpensive clear plastic deli containers of 4 - 5 sizes that all use the same size lid and are stackable.

[Anna N]

My late brother-in-law's home in Denmark is the model I strive to emulate in this regard. He and his wife had a single set of chinaware in plain white all of it perfectly stacked. You never needed to move one set of dishes to reach another! They had just enough of everything to serve 8 which gave them the right amount when there were just the two of them and wanted to make sure the dishwasher was used efficiently. It seemed to me that there was nothing superfluous in their kitchen and yet one never felt anything was missing. Their glassware was simple and practical too and replaced one glass at a time if needed. I am so very far from this in my kitchen but it's the ideal I keep in my head for "some day".

[nakji]

I've moved so often in the last ten years I have the same sort of goals for my kitchenware as you. One thing I've done to minimize glassware - and this might be too extreme for you, if you drink a lot of wine - is use regular, small tumblers for wine service. I got mine at Muji, and they double as juice glasses and yogurt pots as needed. I saw this sort of thing at a restaurant once - lost in the mists of my memory now, and thought, "Why not?" None of the wine I have access to merits special treatment. And my husband doesn't break these at the rate he does regular wine glasses.

Since I mainly cook Asian food, I have a small assortment of mini bowls that serve as pickle plates, dumpling-dip bowls, shabu-shabu bowls - I collect one or two of these wherever I go. They're remarkably flexible.

[OliverB]

for my mess in place I use little glass ramekins or what they're called, got them at the hardware store. The larger one holds about a cup of liquid w/o flowing over.

For storage I use the cheap plastic containers with the blue lid, though they tend to turn into a pile at times, especially if our little one gets into them to "cook". I really like the idea of those restaurant supply store containers with all the same lid, I'll have to get me some of those!

[KarenDW]

I like to use the cheap plastic storage containers w/ the blue lids for prep bowls:

- they usually have graduated measures marked on them

- the square shape makes efficient use of counter space

- they have lids, so for extensive mess-in-place the items can be stacked (i.e., in recipe groupings)

As for actual storage... as someone who reheats in the microwave... I prefer the glass containers w/ a "lockable" plastic lid. Then I don't have to worry about what's happening to my container when I am reheating last night's tomato sauce for today's omelette.

But, my clients seem to prefer the cheapest white plastic w/ blue lid containers, if only because they fit into the freezer nicely.

[Special K]

One thing I've done to minimize glassware too . . . is use regular, small tumblers for wine service.

I use stemless wine glasses (got mine from Cost Plus World Market - got a set of 12 so I'm covered if any break, but none has yet, it's such a perfect design - cats can't knock them over) -- and the best part is, they stack! Like Nakji, I use them for other things as well.

I have sets of 12 of two different plates (both thrift shop finds - one plain blue, the other white with a blue pattern - they work well together). The only problem with stacking them all in the cabinet (which is quite wide) is that they are so heavy the middle shelves are starting to sag - I fully expect to come home one day and find that the shelves have snapped and all of my dishes are broken! If I had someplace else to stash half of them, I would, but that's not an option. I need to replace the shelves or find some way to reinforce them. I'm thinking of cutting pieces of board to fit in vertically, like load-bearing dividers, but that will make it awkward to get to some things (it's a corner cupboard).

Your cabinets are beautiful, Shalmanese! (We need a green-with-envy emoticon.)

As to your question, I have a set of graduated metal stacking mixing bowls with lids (Costco) a set of glass ones (another thrift shop find) and a bunch of the little silicone pinch bowls for prep, and various sizes of lidded plastic containers (which all stack neatly into one small area) for storage. Yes, I have to pull out the largest container and dig around for the smaller ones, but that's no big deal for me. I also have several small rectangular lidded glass bowls, which I like because I can see what's in 'em, and if it's something that's nuke-able they can go right into the microwave with no BPA worries.

As to cutlery, we got two sets as wedding presents (37 years ago!); one "every-day" which I never really liked (from my dear MIL, who meant well but had completely different taste in flatware), and one "special" which I love (nothing really fancy, just Onieda American Colonial stainless, but it's special to me 'cuz it's was from my Mom, who asked what we'd like ). When my sister got married, she got the same set from Mom, and started using it for every-day - and that's when I decided life is too short to use cutlery I don't like! So now I have just the special set, which, sadly, is no longer made (but I know about Replacements Ltd. so if I need more I know where to look - in fact I just put a few things on my Christmas wish list!). Which is a long-winded way of saying, keep looking, find something you love, get a "starter" set, start collecting, and get rid of everything else.

[Darienne]

Might we please have a picture of stacking wine glasses. This I cannot quite get my mind around. Thanks.

I do have one rather neat container, a small Rubbermaid Roughneck which fits into a bottom cupboard shelf and contains all the small plastic containers and their lids. This way I don't have to be too careful about putting them away in neat piles...well, I can't get DH to do it anyway...and they are quite accessible this way.

In the garage, I have a large Roughneck container with mismatched, singles, orphans, etc of plastic containers...some very nice, indeed,...and these go to other people's homes with no returns, please.

[Shalmanese]

One of my new rules is I refuse to deal with graduated sets of anything anymore. Other people might be organized enough to keep them in their perfect russian doll order at all times but I can't.

The flimsy glad containers are great from a shape perspective but I can't get over how cheap they feel to me when I'm handling them.

[nakji]

Might we please have a picture of stacking wine glasses. This I cannot quite get my mind around. Thanks.

Well, they don't have stems, so they just look like regular juice tumblers...which is what they are, I suppose, but I have tasked them to wine. I'll post a picture the next time I have some wine open.

For prep bowl, I have these great heavy frosted plastic square ramekins from Muji. They stack nicely and don't take a lot of room. Muji is great for designing things with exactly the right size and shape for what you need it to do. I bought out their kitchenwares section when I lived in Japan.

[paulraphael]

Storage: throw out everything which doesn't match and buy a set of good main stream brand plastic containers with lid. Make sure they are stackable. Then buy ONLY that kind as you need or break them. Worked for us.

A couple of years ago I saved myself from the insane assylum by doing this. I now use three sizes of those glad or ziplock containers (cheap, decent, and easy to replace) and two sizes of takeout containers (cheaper, equally decent, easier to replace).

In addition to storage, these \ all work as prep containers. For bigger quantities i use stainless mixing bowls, but the plastic containers do most of the work. Looking into kitchens at some of the best restaurants, a common denominator is the ubiquitous pint and quart takeout containers used for mise en place.

Footnote: I tried to give my old tupperware to the salvation army, and the volunteer out on the sidewalk said, "they won't accept this garbage."

[RobertCollins]

For storage and left-overs, we use Cambro containers. Mostly I use the round ones in one or 2 qt/liter size. I also have some of the square variety they make but only in two qt and up. They work, in 4 or 6 or 8 qt, for those make ahead things like the Chili for this Saturday's outing on the boat to watch the Xmas Ship.

In Seattle you can see or acquire easily at any Cash and Carry or, for I think the best pricing, Dicks Restaurant Supply on 1st South. A few weeks ago I saw the 1qt in a three pack at the business Costco in Lynnwood for super cheap.

[Shalmanese]

For storage and left-overs, we use Cambro containers. Mostly I use the round ones in one or 2 qt/liter size. I also have some of the square variety they make but only in two qt and up. They work, in 4 or 6 or 8 qt, for those make ahead things like the Chili for this Saturday's outing on the boat to watch the Xmas Ship.

In Seattle you can see or acquire easily at any Cash and Carry or, for I think the best pricing, Dicks Restaurant Supply on 1st South. A few weeks ago I saw the 1qt in a three pack at the business Costco in Lynnwood for super cheap.

I would switch to cambro instantly if they made any square containers smaller than 2 qt.

[Kouign Aman]

Salvation Army might not, but Goodwill knows there is a world of tupperware hunters out there, and goodlwill is happy to accept donations and the resulting sales.

Good luck w the 'stuff'.