life in a tiny apartment.

Tip #134: If it’s not your cup of tea, get rid of it.

I do not like licorice tea. After offering cups of licorice tea to nearly everyone I’ve invited into my home in the past year, I’ve discovered that I am not alone in this particular distaste.

And yet I have kept the licorice tea bag among the other tea bags in my glass jar full of them. There was also a funky smelling rooiboos. A very lemongrassy lemongrass.

I enjoy having a robust tea collection. It’s a nice thing, I think, to be able to offer a visiting friend a cup of tea. And to be able to offer a choice among several teas of different types is even nicer. On Thursdays when my mom’s here with Faye, I like to make sure there’s Earl Gray to greet her off the train. In the evenings before bed there’s something awfully soothing about choosing from between two favorite herbal teas.

But despite the fact that it’s a far lovelier thing to have a tea collection filled only with teas that you love, the teas I didn’t much love persisted. When I fished around in my tea jar for a bag to offer my sister last week, I realized that my collection was indeed filled mostly with teas that I kept out of a sense of obligation or thrift or hopefulness that I might someday stumble upon the rare licorice tea lover upon whom I could foist my stray tea bag and finally feel a sense of triumph and relief. 

I urge you, feel the rush of excitement now, not later, and send that licorice tea bag packing.

This weekend, I had myself a tea purge. I gathered into a paper bag all of the tea bags and bags of loose tea that had been hanging around, but that I knew I’d never enjoy. I left them on my stoop. An hour later they were gone, to a good home, here’s hoping.

If this sounds like a familar refrain around here, that’s because of course it is. The easiest solution to small space living is to live with less. And to live with less we must ruthlessly identify what we like best. For even the most resolute among us, this requires some amount of regular maintenance. There will be tea bags sent your way that you did not expressly choose. You will use up all of the tea you do like and be left only with an entire box worth of spiced something or other that’s just not your cup of tea. 

Don’t put it back into the cabinet. Bring it to the communal kitchen at work. Include it in a care package for someone else who you think might like it. Offer it to the daycare staff. Donate it. Compost it. Just get it out of your cupboard.

In place of a motley collection of tea that you don’t love, fill your jars up with teas that you do. And yes, this is a metaphor as much as it isn’t.

If you’re looking for more kitchen inspiration, see this post on buying in bulk. And this one on keeping things wrangled in tiny bags. And this one about paring down your spices.

Tiny apartment survivial tips #1 – 133, RIGHT HERE.