How many of each do you own?

[ChristusG]

I'm trying to declutter......more. I've already done a once-over of the house and got rid of things. Now I'm going back over it and "fine tuning" it. I'm tired of there being 6 saucers, 8 sippy cups, and 20 eating utensils in the sink waiting to be washed. Seriously, do we need that many?

 

About how many of the following do you own?

 

Towels....washcloths....eating utensils.....childrens plates or bowls....dinner plates.....sippy cups.....beach towels.....hand towels.....bath towels....stuff like that. I'm thinking we have too many but I hate to get rid of them. We have two children that use sippy cups and we honestly own about 15 cups. The kids asked for favorites for their birthday, we picked a few up at the zoo, picked a few up at Chuck E Cheese, and so on. How in the world to we go about keeping this stuff out of our house???

[lisamarie]

Too many.;)

 

I have 3 kids ages 6, 5, and 2. I have weeded down the sippy cups to 3 per older kid (for travel mostly) and 5 for my 2 yr old who uses them for the most part. For kid plates, I have 8 of the cheap picnic-type plates from Walmart that stack down small. Dinner glasses we have 12. Service for 12 for silverware and dishes. I have 2 sizes of bowls--small ones and huge ones. I just bought new dishes after Christmas and saved the bowls from our old set because we like them.

 

For towels I have 2 towels per kid and 12 wash clothes for them. DH and I have 4 each for bath, about 8 hand and 8 wash clothes. Beach towels I have 8 maybe? I figure 1 per person with a couple extras. For sheets I have 2 sets per bed.

 

I would box up what you think is excessive, and if you find after 1-2 months that you don't need the stuff, get rid of it. Or keep it and use it to replace what gets broken/lost/disgustingly used.

[Mommyof4ks]

We don't do sippies anymore, but my kids each have a bowl for breakfast and a plate each for lunch and dinner. At the end of the day the dishwasher gets run anyway, so they are ready for tomorrow. We have one beach towel for each person, about 30 regular towels (we only use one once before washing), 6 hand towels (two for each ring so one is on the ring while the other is washing), lots of eat utensils because the kids keep accidentally throwing them away :glare:, and 2 sets of sheets for each bed. It is much easier to get rid of extras when the kids get a bit older (mine are 5-10). It was nice when they got away from sippy cups, those seem to take up a lot of space.

[MamaMamaMama!!]

I'm trying to declutter......more. I've already done a once-over of the house and got rid of things. Now I'm going back over it and "fine tuning" it. I'm tired of there being 6 saucers, 8 sippy cups, and 20 eating utensils in the sink waiting to be washed. Seriously, do we need that many?

 

About how many of the following do you own?

 

Towels....washcloths....eating utensils.....childrens plates or bowls....dinner plates.....sippy cups.....beach towels.....hand towels.....bath towels....stuff like that. I'm thinking we have too many but I hate to get rid of them. We have two children that use sippy cups and we honestly own about 15 cups. The kids asked for favorites for their birthday, we picked a few up at the zoo, picked a few up at Chuck E Cheese, and so on. How in the world to we go about keeping this stuff out of our house???

 

You can see my kids ages in my siggy..

 

Towels.. about a dozen or so. They get washed often we never run out.

washclothes.. we use cloth wipes so I use them for washcloths. About 5 dozen.

Utensiles.. Alot! LOL

childrens plates bowls. One each. We use grown up stuff mostly.

Sippy's...4 per toddler/baby.

Beach towels.. one each

Handtowels. we use cloth wipes for that too. One time use and toss in a pail. No spreading germs that way.

Cups.. we use glass mostly so no plastic! Maybe one or two we get from some where but when they look gross or get on my nerves I toss them. I have 2 dozen small cheap glasses for kids.

[Tap]

Towels-8 bath size. We have the same towels in both bathrooms and just wash them a bit more than we used to when we had 8 towels in both.

For the little kids bathroom, they use their beach towels, 6 for 2 girls. I find they are cheaper or the same price as our bath towels, cute and friendly, and thinner so they dry faster. They wear out after about 3 years, but that is fine because the kids usually want different characters by then. Kitchen towels=12 and 12 washcloths. I use the same for cleaning so that is all I have.

 

washcloths, 8 in my bath, 12 in the kids. We hang a hand towel or two but the kids often use washcloths to dry their hands.

 

eating utensils-service for 12, 3 sets of kids-only one kid uses them (I think I may let them go soon :0).

 

children's plates or bowls-none

 

dinner plates-service for 8 (down from 12 previously)

sippy cups-8 without stoppers, 2 with. DD still likes to use the plastic cups without the lids.

beach towels (see bath towels)

hand towels-4 for each bath

.

[LaissezFaire]

My kids each own one cup. I have a set of Stainless Steel cups I ordered that are by Eco Coccoon. I love having one cup per kid! They always rinse it and set it on a low shelf when they are done.

 

Adults drink out of mason jars of various sizes.

 

We probably have two towels per person. We have a lot of girls and we need one for hair and one for body. So probably 16 towels total.

 

I have a lot of washcloths but many are for kitchen because we don't use sponges or paper towels.

 

Eating Utensils, I have a big stainless Steel canister on the table loaded with them. Probably enough for everyone to eat three meals with utensils without washing.

 

Dinner plates, I have service for 10. I also have some spares in a cupboard.

We have one sippy cup but it only comes out when the little one is sick and needs to drink liquids lying down.

 

The only children's plates we have are some cafeteria looking trays that I use for when they have a picnic lunch outside. Other than that, all of us including babies or toddlers eat off of the fiestaware. We have no children's bowls, they use the small fiestaware bowls.

 

We all have a Kleen Kanteen for travel.

[AnitaMcC]

About how many of the following do you own?

 

Towels....washcloths....eating utensils.....childrens plates or bowls....dinner plates.....sippy cups.....beach towels.....hand towels.....bath towels....stuff like that.

 

I have 8 people living in my house so what I have will sound like way too much-LOL.

 

Towels and such, I have no idea as I never counted them. I guess I have about 40 bath/beach towels and 40 hand towels, 30 washclothes. 2 sets of bedding for each.

 

For dishes... I have a three sets of 4 person settings (dinner plates, desert plates, bowls, mugs/plates), about 6 plastic kid plates. No sippy cups anymore, but we have about 8 kid water bottles with caps. I have a ton of mugs and 4 travel mugs. About 12 iced tea glasses (had more but they get broken), 15 plastic kid size cups. About 10 plastic cereal bowls.

 

Utensils I have lots!!! Probably enough for 25 settings. But we go through them a lot... especially spoons. I just had to replenish the utensils as I bet half ends up in trash (or in the back yard and we will need a metal detector to find them) -LOL.

 

This does not count my 12 serving China set nor the 8 serving China set my mom gave me recently (my "inheritance" given to me early) that she got from my dad 50 years ago that he bought when he was on shoreleave in Germany.

 

I couldn't do with less than I have, but that is because we often have 1-2 more people staying here over the weekends. But some of the stuff I don't plan to replace now that the kids are getting older and two are hopefully moving out (my nephews age 30 and almost 21) soon. There for awhile we had 11 people living here, one moved out about 8 months ago, and another moved out a month ago.

Edited June 28, 2010 by AnitaMcC

[rwjx2khsmj]

About how many of the following do you own?

 

I'm thinking we have too many but I hate to get rid of them. How in the world to we go about keeping this stuff out of our house???

 

 

Why do you hate to get rid of things that you don't really need and don't particularly want?

 

If you are afraid that you will need them in the future then put them in a box and place them somewhere so they are readily available when you do need them. If, after a month or so, you haven't gone to get them from the box, it's probably a safe bet that you can survive without them. I do the same if I'm concerned that I'll give away my child's favorite (fill in the blank). If I box it and no one asks for it in a period of time (usually a month or so) I donate it.

 

As for keeping stuff out of the house, I try not to carry the things I don't want to keep home with me. If it gets to the house I try to recycle immediately. I keep a box for donations going at all times. When one box fills I drop it off and start the next box.

[IsabelC]

Why not try leaving the ones you think you'll need in their usual places, and packing the rest up into a box. Keep the box out of the way in your basement, attic, garage or wherever you store infrequently used stuff. Then mark a date a few months away on your calendar or organizer. If you haven't needed to get into the box by that date, the stuff goes without being opened up again.

[scmama]

In my house we go through utensils like crazy....are my kids the only one's who think spoons are for digging in the yard?? I'm always picking up utensils from the walmart $1 bin. LOL!

For towels, we have about 12, beach towels are one per person=5 total.

As for wash clothes, I buy those cheap packages at walmart, those ones that are 10 or 12 for $5. I go through a lot of those. But I need to buy some more hand towels.

The oldest child uses glasses and adult plates. The littlest ones (3 and 8) still use those plastic ones. Small ones for lunch and sandwhiches, and plastic bowls for cereal. The littlest has one fav that we still hold on too. Our pieces serve 8, so enough to feed us and a few dinner guest.

Bedding also is 2 sets per bed.

PS....So glad I don't have anymore sippy cups. But when I did, I kept 3 per child. One for in the house, one for outside, and one for travel.

 

As for getting rid of it...box up what you feel you have too many of. Put them away, out of sight out of mind. If you can live without those pieces for 6 months, then you should donate them or have a garage sale. Then you won't have to worry about feeling bad about it, cause you have spent 6 months without these items already!! :)

[sbgrace]

We have enough bath towels (washclothes) to make a full washer load plus an extra set for each person. That way I run a load when we're coming up on the last towel and I'm not running partial loads. If I were the type to combine all my laundry I would have less towels--just enough to take me to my typical laundry day plus a set.

 

I've got one extra bedding set per bed (for vomiting etc.). I've never needed more than one extra set per bed so I don't keep more than that.

 

We use cheap kitchen type washcloths for napkins, in place of hand towels or paper towels for drying hands, cleaning, etc. We go through a lot of them daily and I wash those on their own so I've got enough of them to fill up a full load along with dishtowels.

 

I guess I see it as most effective to have whatever makes up a load for cleaning purposes. In terms of specific dishes like sippy cups I would have what we typically used in a day and enough extra for anything weird that might happen (say and extra sippy cup per kiddo in case the first is dropped in the garbage or something). For regular dishes I have the sets I purchased. While we don't ever use all of them for our family I do deplete the supply with guests. I don't see extra forks as clutter essentially! But if you've got more than enough to use for family and guests you've certainly got too many.

Edited June 28, 2010 by sbgrace

[TammyinTN]

I'm trying to declutter......more. I've already done a once-over of the house and got rid of things. Now I'm going back over it and "fine tuning" it. I'm tired of there being 6 saucers, 8 sippy cups, and 20 eating utensils in the sink waiting to be washed. Seriously, do we need that many?

 

About how many of the following do you own?

 

Towels....washcloths....eating utensils.....childrens plates or bowls....dinner plates.....sippy cups.....beach towels.....hand towels.....bath towels....stuff like that. I'm thinking we have too many but I hate to get rid of them. We have two children that use sippy cups and we honestly own about 15 cups. The kids asked for favorites for their birthday, we picked a few up at the zoo, picked a few up at Chuck E Cheese, and so on. How in the world to we go about keeping this stuff out of our house???

 

Towels--we have 2 sets per bathroom. I change these every other day. It's nice to replace them with clean ones.

Washclothes - 4 for each bathroom.

Eating utensils--1 have a service for 16 people, but only have enough in the drawer for 8.

Dishes--again 8 piece place setting in use the rest stored.

Glasses and cups--I have 8 tea cups and 8 fun glasses for the kids.

Beach towels--everyone has their own. In our case 3.

Sheets--2 sets so when I change them weekly the new clean set goes right on while the others are in the wash.

I toss plastic cups when they enter the house. I did however always keep tupperware cups w/ lids when the kids were small. They each had one in their favorite color.

We have a dish washer so nothing sits in the sink. We load it up during the day and turn it on when we go to bed, unload and put away first thing in the morning.

[2squared]

About how many of the following do you own?

 

Towels....washcloths....eating utensils.....childrens plates or bowls....dinner plates.....sippy cups.....beach towels.....hand towels.....bath towels....stuff like that.

 

I'll answer since I have less of everything than almost everyone on this thread! For our 6 person family:

 

Bath Towels - 6

Handtowels - 2/bathroom

Kitchen handtowels - 4

Washcloths - 4

Eating Utensils - 10 of each (spoon, fork, butter knife)

Childrens plates & bowls - 3 of each (cup, bowl, plate) in 3 different colors (#4 doesn't have her own color yet)

Dinner plates - 10

Sippy cups - 2 (but I wouldn't have any if my youngest was over 2yo and/or we weren't expecting again)

Water bottles - 1 per kid

Beach towels - 5

Sheet sets - 1/bed

 

I wash laundry every day. The towels go from bathroom to washer to dryer to bathroom in less than 4 hours. No need for any extras.

 

I run the dishwasher 3x per day. It's super duper small. I cook from scratch. We have a larger family. I only have enough dishes to fill it up. Any more would be unnecessary.

 

I love decluttering. I did a test when we moved into this house. I kept one item per person in our family and boxed up all the others. If I truly found a need for more, I took it out of the box. If not, I was released from the clutter. That's how I figured out we only need 1 bathtowel/person. :001_smile:

[abbeyej]

eating utensils..... 8 of each piece.

 

childrens plates or bowls.... None. I only used those for kids age 2 and under.

 

dinner plates..... 12 small (salad) and 12 large (dinner) plates

 

sippy cups.... Again, none. I shy away from plastic when possible, and only use sippy cups for kids under three. I find heavier glasses are less likely to spill than plastic anyway, and they're much easier to store. Plates and kid glasses have been in a bottom cabinet since my youngest was three, so the kids can set the table for me and put away most of the dishes (though I put away sharp knives and adult glasses that go on a higher shelf 'til my oldest was 7 or 8).

 

beach towels..... 4 (one per person)

 

hand towels..... 3 (one per bathroom, plus one to rotate -- 4 might be better)

 

bath towels.... 6 (I'd rather have 8)

 

washcloths.... maybe 5 or 6, not sure

 

I also have cloth napkins, maybe 24, and probably 8 kitchen towels.

 

ETA: I see others included water bottles. We have two 27oz Klean Kanteens (in neoprene sleeves) and two 18oz bottles for the family. These get used very regularly and I'm glad to have them!

Edited June 28, 2010 by abbeyej