Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.
In keeping with my post from Tuesday last week ~ Apply-the-365-approach-to-other-areas-of-your-life ~ this week’s mini missions will all be taking place in the kitchen. I have found, over the last three years of my slow declutter, that I have returned to the kitchen over and over again. Simplifying and healthifying my choices has freed up a lot of space and made food preparation much easier and efficient.
Monday – Declutter any kitchen tool you don’t like using. Chances are you have already found an alternative for this tool, in my experience that substitute is usually a knife. Â It is no less than astounding how many gadgets there are out there that one good knife can replace.
Tuesday – Declutter a small appliance that’s primary use is to produce unhealthy food. The deep fryer would be my first choice had I not decluttered it fifteen years ago. Other suggestions would be an ice-cream maker, donut maker, popcorn maker, chocolate fondu set…
Wednesday – Declutter any item you haven’t used in six months. This could be a tool, dishes, some other not very useful to you item or  even an ingredient. You could do a use it up declutter on that ingredient. These items are usually found underneath useful things in drawers and in the mirky depths behind everything else in the cupboards.
Thursday – In the inimitable words from Peter Walsh ~ “If you bought it over the phone after 8:00pm , chances are you don’t need it.” Declutter it.
Friday – Some gadgets are just not worth the effort. Declutter those you don’t use because they are too complicated to assemble, to difficult to clean or that you can’t use because some parts are missing.
Saturday – Start a use it up declutter challenge on items and ingredients in your pantry that just aren’t good for you. In future be more moderate as to how much or what you stock and use. White sugar, white flours, pasta that isn’t wholemeal, cookies, potato crisps, fizzy drinks, sugar laden cereals…
Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.
Good luck and happy decluttering
Eco Tip for the Day
When washing your hands don’t turn the tap on too hard, quarter speed may be all that is necessary to wet and rinse.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
I like the use it up idea – we share a very small kitchen between 4 of us and needless to say its a bit full, but for the sake of money, space and not wasting things I’ve started trying to use items up at the moment – for example we have about 4 boxes of flavoured fruit teas (that I know of!), two lots of green tea and maybe another 3-4 boxes of black tea. As the fruit tea is only good until April I’ve started drinking it more often so it doesn’t go to waste. I also think we have everything we need to make another batch of gingerbread cookies so when I get a free afternoon I’ll have to get baking!
I love how 365 always seems to be on the same page as me! Definitely one of the best blogs I’ve ever found, and certainly my favourite at the moment – I’m always checking to see if there is a new post 🙂
Hi Jane, my kitchen just went from feeding four back to three again. The one that left was a vegetarian who took all his specialty foods with him. Boy did that free up some room in my pantry and freezer.
My, that is a lot of tea. I have never been a lover of flavoured tea so for the most part we only have the common variety. I do however have two other types right now which I have been slowly using up on my daughter’s partner.
I trust those cookies will be eaten in moderation. 😉 Glad you are enjoying 365, we do try hard to keep interesting.
Jane – I had my (biological) father visiting over the weekend with my two half brothers aged 8 and 12 (compare that to my 39) that he is raising as a solo-dad. He has recently discovered he can save money by baking the boys a batch of biscuits instead of buying them but commented that he doesn’t always feel like starting baking after dinner especially if they need help with homework etc. So I introduced him to baking while tea is cooking, double batches and freeze the other batch in small lots to defrost the night before and best of all, that baking is an excellent way of teaching kids fractions.
@Moni – I’ve never thought of freezing a batch, but that might be a good idea as I never have time to bake – university and my part-time job eat up most of my time though I do love to try out new things in the kitchen!
@Colleen- Last time we made them they were such as hit they disappeared within a couple of days though we made heaps! Even my dad didn’t complain about them, which is unusual given that he normally refuses to try even a bite of anything I cook. 🙂
Kenwood Chef, 12 hole muffin pan and Prince Charles and Lady Diana souvenir teatowel given to former neighbour to use in his new flat. My baking did not improve with addition of a gadget 😀
Hi Jane, my kitchen just went from feeding four back to three again. The one that left was a vegetarian who took all his specialty foods with him. Boy did that free up some room in my pantry and freezer.
My, that is a lot of tea. I have never been a lover of flavoured tea so for the most part we only have the common variety. I do however have two other types right now which I have been slowly using up on my daughter’s partner.
I trust those cookies will be eaten in moderation. 😉 Glad you are enjoying 365, we do try hard to keep interesting.
I would love to have your Kenwood Chef Lynda. Mine died from sitting in storage for too long while we were living in the US. My son had a good laugh about that because I so often complained about the weak little mixer I had over there and constantly said the one thing I would be glad to see again was my Kenwood. When blue smoke started billowing out of it after running for five minutes I was devastated. It was going to cost $80 just to find out what was wrong with it and God only knows how much to fix it. I sold off all its parts for a tidy sum on eBay ~ quite in demand they are because they cost so much new ~ and bought a cheaper mixer that is at least better than the US one. For diet reasons I don’t bake all that much anymore anyway so I really doesn’t matter.
Ah, this is where I reaped the benefits of living with someone who’s good with a soldering iron. I inherited the Kenwood and, on first trip out, it started to emit smoke. Common fault, easily diagnosed and repaired if you have 30 years of electrical knowledge, a soldering iron and the right part 😀
I wish I had one of those. A person with knowhow about these things I mean.
Thank you for giving us mini-missions for the kitchen. We need that here. Now to get Mom on board. We have things in drawers we haven’t used since they were purchased. Oh, please, may we get rid of them now?!
Deb J – you have my blessing!
Good luck Deb J. Catch your mom during an agreeable moment and ask would be my advice. 😉
I was a little ahead of you this week. I tackled my kitchen cabinet and found a bag of graham marsala I have not touched in close to 3 years, out it went.
I usually stock Garam Masala too, while these days I tend to use packages curry starters ~ all natural flavours, no colourings or preservatives of course ~ so I probably don’t need mine either. Perhaps I will use it up on a nice Madras chicken curry this week.
This is a very timely post for me as I was just planning the week ahead and the things to focus on and had decided on the kitchen. I cleaned out the pantry a few weeks ago and am loving being able to see all my supplies and having areas of empty shelf in there as well. I now feel motivated to tackle the cabinets. I also have in my mind a post that Cindy wrote some time ago where she talked about decluttering things that were part of a set. My food prcessor has all kinds of strange-looking attachments that have never been used in 25 years so I think it is time to let those go. The kitchen is definitely a high aspiration area for me so I need to set more realistic expectations.
Hi Christine, I agree, only keep the parts to the processor that you actually use. Try freecycle to rid yourself of them. You never know there may be someone out there who is struggling to replace the parts they have worn out but that you have and don’t want. And as for the high aspiration in the kitchen area, it is best to be realistic as you say. By all means throw in the odd new recipe that requires the items you are thinking of getting rid of but if they don’t float your boat best to just get ruthless.
My husband and I went through our college text books this weekend. Two boxes will go to the thrift store, and I can sell 4 to Amazon in exchange for a giftcard. I wish we’d done this years ago when the books had more value. I had hoped that we’d be able to declutter one of the small bookshelves holding the textbooks, but we didn’t manage to clear out enough for that.
I’ll continue to work on using up food that sits around in the pantry. I can think of at least one kitchen item to declutter – it was so nice when my springform pan was on loan to a friend, but after a few months she remembered to return it. Maybe I can just give it to her, but she is also decluttering and probably would prefer to just borrow that kinda thing rather than own. 😛
Well done with the books Rebecca J. Keep returning to that bookshelf on a regular basis and you may just keep finding one more that you can happily live without.
Funny that your kitchen item is a spring form pan. I borrowed one of those from my neighbour who, on returning it and the nutcracker I also borrowed, said that she probably wouldn’t have missed them had I not given them back.
Rebecca J – a friend of mine recently suggested that we form a sort of “neighbour goods” arrangement between our circle of friends where we write a list of what kitchen gizmo’s we have and we borrow off each other, rather than buying our own.
That aside – I recently watched a friend using her spring form pan to make a pizza rather than buy a pizza stone, she also has lined it with two layers of baking paper and made quiche and even pies rather than buy a quiche dish or pie tin. Oh and she makes little pies in muffin trays.
Thank you for the encouragement, Colleen.
Moni, I wouldn’t have guessed those uses for the pan! I think I’ll go the other way and figure out how to use other stuff to improvise for the springform pan on the occasions when it would be handy.
Rebeccah J – I’m all for getting rid of un-used stuff – but my friend is the whizz kid of innovating and substituting. If you looked in her kitchen cupboards you’d wonder where everything is, I believe she grew up living on the road and it comes from there. I even recall once upon a time the spring cake tin had a tea towel draped over the sides and it had muffins in it for guests. Its probably going a bit far but its how she comfortably functions, she reckons she wouldn’t know what to do with lots of specialised dishes. It got me thinking about how many implements I have that could have dual purpose.
Oh and the mini pies – are divine! She also does mini-quiches in the muffin trays too, plus all sorts of other goodies.
We got a new kitchen knife set last year thru our supermarket as they had a spend so much money and get a sticker, collect the stickers and get a free knife from a set, collect the whole set campaign. Good knives. As we had to buy groceries anyway and Adrian didn’t like our previous set, it was a good move. What was the master plan for the old set of knives? Well my son was making noise about leaving home this year so I figured he could have them. Well he is still making noises about leaving home but I still have the old knives on my magnetic block. What has been holding me up? Two things. I didn’t have the instant answer on how to safely package/store the knives so that they could be safely boxed and kept with the rest of my collection of household items. Have googled that now, so will do tonight.
Hit submit too quick – and the other reason was that Adrian often likes to help prep dinner but we both call dibs on the santoku knife from the new set of knives. As I’m not silly and don’t want a sulky kitchen hand I’d end up using a knife off to the old set as it is a similar weight/length for me – though not as nice to use. Anyway, yesterday I was at the supermarket and they’d put out some left over stock from last year’s promotion and I got another santoku knife for $8, so full steam ahead on getting rid of a set of knives.
I like your idea of getting another knife like that favorite one and now being able to get rid of the old knives.
Deb J – yes, isn’t it surprising how often it is the simple things that get in the way of progress? I just spoke to Adrian about packaging up the knives and he has another solution for me to consider. One of his cousins who has a beautiful kitchen doesn’t have a knife block, he has a drawer where the knives sit on this anti-slip mat stuff in the drawer, out of sight. Of course it is a special knife drawer, shallower than usual etc but the whole kitchen is the Lamborgini of kitchens – but what Adrian was thinking was that we have two drawers with moulded cutlery trays in them, its just how the house was when we moved in, but we’d easily manage with just one drawer for cutlery and we can buy the anti-slip mat stuff from the hardware store, so we could eliminate the knife block off the bench too if we stored the knives in a drawer instead.
Does anyone else use a knife drawer?
No Moni, I don’t have a knife drawer. I would however love to one day have a kitchen build to suit my desires and a knife drawer and spice drawers would probably part of the design.
Yes, my husband and I use a drawer. He was a chef when I met him 34 years ago and he has always been very protective of his knives. About 2 years ago we finally updated his favorite one and they now sell velvet lined guards that slide over the blade so we use those along with the non slip pads in the drawer. I like having the knives accessible, but out of sight.
We have a knife drawer. It doesn’t have the special mat but instead has dividers. We have never used a knife block. Mom and I both want as clear a countertop/bench as possible so we always look for solutions to getting things put away. The only thing on the bench top is the toaster and a wire basket holding fresh fruit. I’m a real proponent of the Container Store and Ikea for all of their organizing stuff. I don’t want much stuff but what I have I want to be put away and easy to get out. Love Ikea’s variety of drawers in their kitchen cabinets.
No knife drawer Moni. I have a magnetic rack on the wall from Ikea that holds all the knives. The knife block used up too much bench space. I don’t have cutlery in drawers either. A cutlery set purchased with its own hanging rack is my preference. Me and sharp knives are not a good combination!
I have a knife drawer. I just like to keep them away from other utensils so it is safer when I know they are the only things in it rather than digging for knives amongst other things.
And that should have also read “the rest of his collection of household items”.
I can sympathise Moni because as you well know I have been holding household stuff for my daughter for a long time too. It doesn’t really make economical sense to send it too the thrift ship when I kept expecting her to need it. As it turned out Liam was the first to go but Bridget won’t be far behind. Liam didn’t really need much as he is moving in with his girlfriend who has plenty of stuff. I have bought him a microfibre mop and some micro fibre clothes, which he requested, and may end up buying them a good vacuum cleaner.
I also understand your desire for a second Santoku. We also have two because my husband lived away for work for 11 months in 08 and need a knife. He then bought it home but I have never decluttered it because it is a regular occurrence that they are both in use at the same time.
Colleen – Bridget goes soon too doesn’t she? Wow the nest will be empty! Yes, its a catch 22 situation because you never know exactly when they are going, and you just know it will be Murphy’s Law that if you get rid of stuff they will want it within weeks and if you hang onto it, they will hang around home longer than anticipated.
I had never heard of a Santoku knife but I wonder if I could forego all the other knives and just keep these. Its probably pushing things a bit too far, but I have heard of people who only have one knife in their kitchen.
We never had knife sets, we always just bought single knifes – and I also had no problem decluttering one by one of them either. We need more than one knife, but not so much because we need so many different kinds, but rather because we need more so we’re able to work at the same time. What I found is that we really just need a good allround-cutting knife (a santoku knife) each. One is a little bigger than the other but we have no real preference. Apart from that we use a special bread knife to cut bread and very small knifes to peel cooked potaoes or for other peeling tasks (I think they sell those as peeling knifes or fruit knifes).
We do however not use special knifes for fish, meat, vegetables or whatever, we cut those all with the santoku knife.
So we should do with 5 knifes alltogether (I think we still own 7, as my bf doesn’t want to part with his second bread knife or his chopping-knife yet, although I don’t think they’re used often enough).
We store them in a drawer, in the same drawer as our cutlery. Our cutlery tray inside that drawer was made for a smaller one, so there is room beside it and that is where the knifes live.
Moni,
I think 2 good knives, a smaller and a bigger one (3 including a bread knife) will get you very far – thus said we have a set of about 8 good knives because of moving together plus 2 cheese knives and one smaller all purpose saw blade one and I really don’t mind at all. At least thus you can have several people chopping at a time. Though I would not think of buying this many good knives just for having spare ones for the rare occasions I would not declutter any of them unless they break (not very likely though). We decluttered doubles that weren’t that good though because we’d always reach for the best performing one anyway. And I bet your kids will be super happy if you let them have some good knives once they move out because good knives really save the cook’s sanity. In hindsight putting up with dull and low quality knives for so long in my life was a stupid thing (but I just didn’t know any better …).
I love your term ‘ healthifying’. Have been contemplating what to do with a packet of pre made puff pastry that keeps falling out of the freezer . I have this pie maker that my sister gave me , which makes quick ‘fat snacks’, I am trying to eliminate such things from my diet, so I promptly binned the pastry this morning after reading your post and will consider donating the pie maker , donut maker and waffle maker.
Hi Moni, I struggle with keeping stuff for the kids to use when they move out. Part of me wants them to have the stuff, to save them money, but the other part of me does not want them to end up with clutter! I have a sewing machine sitting at the front door to go to the thrift shop, I asked my daughter if she would like it, of course she said yes, but neither of us have used it in the last 22 years, so why would she think she is going to use it in the next 22 years? But she will have it ‘just in case’.
Oh Lynda, you are getting rid of your Kenwood Chef! That is definitely something my daughter will take we she leaves home! I can only think that they make biscuits, pavlovas and cakes, which should not be on my menu any more!
Wendy F – I have an older friend and she seems to be running a second hand furniure library out of her garage for her three adult age children as they are in flatting situations and need or don’t need appliances as their flat situations change ie will join flat mates who already have a sofa so back the old one goes to mum but need a fridge so out that goes. It sounds good in theory but she really doesn’t want the arrangement any more but can’t seem to find a way to end it, she’s hoping that they all settle down soon and aren’t quite so transitory or that items will break down and not be replaced by her.
Hi Wendy F, I made that word up as I was writing the post. I never limit myself to real words in order to get my message across. 😉 Good to see that you have recognised that puff pasty and pie maker for what it is. I expect I will be seeing you at the thrift shop in Wednesday. 😆
Deb J – there you go, you can tell your mum that you’re way ahead of me on the knife block. We don’t have Ikea here in New Zealand – why I don’t know but I suspect I could go a little bit crazy should I ever wander into one. I’m going to go ahead and get the anti-slip stuff as we won’t have any dividers and I don’t really want knives banging around.
The anti-slip stuff is good. I’m not sure I wouldn’t like it better but these were here when we moved in.
Kim – thank you for the info on knife drawer. I am going to give it a go, especially if it is one more thing off the kitchen bench. It sits in a small gap between the stove top and the pantry and invariably little bits of food flick on it, so if it means one less thing for me to clean – even better.
My mom gave me her old knife set when I moved out and bought herself the set she wanted. They’re some of the last things sitting out on the kitchen counter. I’ll have to think about moving the knives into a drawer and ditching the block and a few of the knives. We hardly use some of the knives, but I haven’t bothered getting rid of them because the block takes up the same amount of space however many knives it contains.
My husband has been really happy with most of the progress I’ve made in clearing off the kitchen counters, (he’s been wanting them cleared off for years, but I just recently got on board), but he staged a rebellion when I moved the sugar bowl into a cabinet. We only use it a couple times a month when we make coffee, so I thought it made no sense to keep it out. It is funny to find out what little things are important to loved ones.
Moni, glad I could help! I think you’ll like having them off the counter. 🙂
Kim – it looks great – Adrian thinks it looks a bit like a surgeon’s tray of tools but does like having the knife block off the bench. As the drawer has a fair bit of space I added the pizza wheel, cheese knife and the knife sharpener.
The anti-slip stuff is really nice and as there is plenty left on the roll I am thinking of doing the other drawers too. Adrian says he has the inclination to draw around each item so that they get put back in the same spot a bit like a wood worker’s shadow board but I think that might be going a bit far at this stage and who knows what items won’t be there in six months time?
Why is it that men think that way? We women, all we ask is that they get put back into the drawer! Is that why my husband can’t find the item he’s looking for when it’s right in front of him?
Kim – I don’t know, my husband has outlines on his shadow board above his work bench at work for tools that he no longer has……why, oh, why? Its a guy thing. Looks a bit like a crime scene to me. Of course, the blokes go to the other extreme too – youtube Michael McIntyre Man Drawer if you’re up for a laugh. I will ask Adrian to dig deep into his psyche and answer the outline question.
Moni….I love your humor!! 🙂 I agree, it is definitely a guy thing!
Kim – I asked him why guys like the outline thing – its so they know if something is missing and where it is supposed to go back so they can find it again without some woman accusing them of ‘man-looking’ when they can’t see it next time. Of course.
As always, great mini missions this week. Since most of us spend so much time in the kitchen, it is always a place to re-evaluate and streamline. I got rid of half of my coffee mugs before the start of winter and now that winter is coming to an end, I think that I can get rid of even more. I have a few appliances that are no longer needed and some items that are specific for entertaining but are not necessary.
Good for you Jen, you are always open to suggestions and great at assess for yourself what you need and don’t need.
Time to use up some kitchen food items. We received a HUGE box of red peppers, plum tomatoes, and two kinds of squash this week. I’ve given some away and now my goal is to use up what’s left before it all goes bad. Oh, and I happily used up the last bit of sipping chocolate powder my daughter off loaded to me. It was a dirty job, but I did it 🙂
You funny girl Willow. Your comment reminds me of a post I wrote way back in 2010 on my great sacrifice of decluttering the excess wine in our house. It wasn’t my fault that Steve was out of the country for several months and couldn’t help in this task.
My knife drawer has been achieved. Old set of knives and block in box at front door ready to add my son’s collection at our workplace. Another clear space!
Wasn’t sure what to do with the now surplus drawer plastic moulded divider, so gave both a clean and stacked on top of the other and put back in the drawer and put the cutlery back in. I have also realised that we have enough cutler for 20 people, not sure why but will pick enough for a 12 sitting and will donate the rest to my son. LOL just had a thought – isn’t this what used to be called a “glory box”?
I’m having a rummage as there are a number of utensils that I feel could be useful but haven’t see a lot of active duty. Will give them some thought.
What always amazes me when I have helped others declutter, is how much clutter is kept in a space that was not designed to store that particular type of clutter. Since your post is on kitchen clutter, I am reminded of a friend who used her entire pantry for needless paperwork and files while the items that should have been in the pantry were stacked on the kitchen counters or in boxes next to the refrigerator. Examining and moving items to their intended spaces will always result in clearing out the clutter.
Colleen, those are good mini-missions. I have to think about today’s, but I think I know what has to go for Tuesday’s mission.
It’s my not-so-good christmas present of the year – a baking tray for mini tartlets (and if I say mini, I mean REALLY tiny). I tried it once, although I already knew that it wasn’t my thing, and well, it really isn’t.
I love baking, but with baking I don’t mean excessive decorating or elabourate miniaturization. I’m more a person that makes simple things like scones or a “real” cake which you have to cut to get portion-sizes. So this little tray really doesn’t serve me well.
(btw: I love my spring form, I make about everything in it)
Sanna,
I guess we are just German 😉 I also could not imagine getting rid of my springform ever as most cakes I do require it (which means 3 out of 5 or something like that. I have a tiny repertoire but I guess that’s because I am so lazy and usually love things that take up less than half an hour to mix up).
Probably. It’s the only baking form I kept though (apart from a few ovenproof ceramic dishes/casseroles). You can make everything from a tarte or quiche to an elaborate multi-layered wedding cake in a spring form (well you could… 😉 ), so this is the one I’d keep. 🙂
Hi Colleen,
kitchen declutters are not that easy for me (any more) because I have decluttered quite a lot in here already, some things are not mine to decide about, I want to be able to entertain a bunch of people at a time and I want enough mugs and dishes to have the dishwasher run fully loaded.
BUT: may I announce that I have finally “decluttered” the pain-in-the-a**ness of my deep food cabinet by build in drawers?! It was a two day job with the help of my father using Ikea-parts and wood, some brain power how to make it work and lots of tools and adjusting on the go but then we finally did it. And one day it’ll even be organized (at the moment we had to stock up too much for my taste but you just don’t want to run out too much with the arrival of the baby due any time within the next month so I put up with the stockpile chaos for a while and then I’ll make everything neat when we have used up the surplus stuff.)
And I have decluttered some tools. As the tools live in the kitchen (sounds stupid but makes sense as it’s the only room where easy accessible and deep enough storage space is available) I may count that in as well, okay? (Decluttering tools was a BIG thing for me actually as I love my tools – but there had been quite some surplus gathered over the years so at least some lower quality duplicates were released for now.)
Now, sticking to the kitchen theme, I’m off to declutter a mug of tea and a piece of chocolate 😉
Hi Ideealistin, you are right stick with what is right for you right now. Decluttering isn’t about letting go of things that you need or use. I too decluttered some tools this week. I used to have a small inside tool kit that I kept in the laundry right near my kitchen. My son has just moved out to his girlfriends house and they didn’t have any tools. I figured the exercise would do me good to make the short trip out to the garage in future so I let them have the laundry tool kit. I wonder what else I can palm off to him. Decluttering stuff to your children feels good and if you need it again you can always borrow back. 😉
Hi,
Like I mentioned before we don’t have thrift store here and I would like to know if it’s easy to donate things to the thrift store in your country? I mean, do we have to live in Australia to donate etc.
In which country do you live then?
You probably can find some organization in your region by google. There are many that might be happy to take things of your hands: schools or childcare (craft materials, books, toys), animal shelters (old blankets and old towels), women’s shelters or homeless shelters (clothes, hygienic products, sheets, towels in good shape, food, some kitchen appliances etc. ) and maybe even something resembling a thrift store. Then you might just use freecycle or a local advertising board to announce that you give away certain things. There are always young students or other people who really need and can’t afford some household items and will be happy to take them. I think you can find good places or people to give to everywhere in the world.
Hi Cindy I, I think Sanna did a very good job of giving suggestions as to how to giveaway or donate your items. One of our other readers lives in an apartment and puts a box of free items in the foyer of her building. They usually are taken. I have done this with larger items that I put out on the curb in front of my house. Is there a secondhand store in your town or a pawn shop? There is also a page at my blog with suggestion on recycling a giving away items, you can find it here. http://www.365lessthings.com/recycling-options/ this page may not help in your situation but it might give you ideas on what to look for.
You asked if it was easy to donate items to thrift stores in Australia and the answer is yes. Some store have donation boxes in parks, churches, school and other places where you can donate soft goods like clothes, linen, soft toys etc. I work in a thrift shop and people drop things off at our store, we also pick up furniture at people’s homes. In America charities do regular pickup at peoples homes of any sort of household goods to cars etc.