Spring is here and the urge to spring clean our homes seems to be on our minds.
Let’s begin with our kitchen.
I’m not sure why warm sunny days makes me want to start cleaning, but they do.
Maybe it is leftover from my childhood when my mother turned into a cleaning monster and we had to wash walls, baseboards, windows, and anything else she could point to as the weather turned warmer.
My children were smarter, they left home when the ladder came out with the cleaning supplies.
One room I never remember spring cleaning is the kitchen.
When is the last time you cleaned out your pantry?
Exactly!
Why do we busy ourselves cleaning dens, bedrooms, bathrooms, and laundry rooms, but skip the kitchen?
Your fridge is filled with condiments that expired years ago, your pantry has items in it that haven’t been seen in ages, and the freezer – well we won’t talk about what is in the bottom of the freezer.
Spring cleaning your kitchen doesn’t need to cause you to run the other way. I’ve discovered that I can spring clean my kitchen easily with these cleaning steps.
Let go of those items
How many items are in your kitchen cabinets that you haven’t used in years?
How many coffee cups or stadium cups do you need in your cabinets?
Plastic containers without lids, or lids without containers, chipped plates and cups, the lonely toaster languishing in the back of the pantry.
Why do we keep these items?
It’s time to let go and free your kitchen of unused items.
Now, turn your eyes toward your pantry.
What seasonings or sauces are sitting on your shelf never to be used? It’s time to let go. In fact, seasonings have a shelf life and your bottle of seasoning that you purchased for that recipe five years ago is no longer fresh, let it go.
In my meal prep course for beginners, I recommend that you refresh and clean out your pantry once per quarter. Develop the mindset of first in, first out, and keep your pantry fresh.
Wash and Cleanse
When is the last time you emptied your flatware drawer, your dish cabinet, or your pantry?
Let me challenge you to take a look at your flatware holder. What do you see? Are there little flecks of something in that tray?
Open your refrigerator and take a long all-seeing look. What do your vegetable and fruit drawers look like?
What about those glass shelves?
Now, open your pantry.
You get the picture.
It’s time to empty, wash, and cleanse these areas in your kitchen.
Of course, you may not have time to tackle the entire kitchen in one day, so break it up into sections.
Last weekend, I tackled the refrigerator. My sourdough starter had leaked onto the glass shelf weeks ago and I had ignored the dribble. Not a good idea. When I finally decided to take a cloth to clean it up, I discovered it was like cement. Okay, I don’t have time for this today. So, I took a warm wet soapy paper towel, laid it on top of the dribble and went about my day. That night, it had softened u[ and I easily cleaned it up.
Your goal is to get your kitchen washed and cleansed in a way that does not cause you to go into overwhelm. Take a drawer a day and celebrate the accomplishment.
I’m a scheduler, so I’ve scheduled my weekly and monthly cleaning on my calendar. Wash my cabinet doors down on Saturday, maintenance clean my dishwasher the last Saturday of the month, inventory my pantry once a quarter and don’t keep items I’ll never use.
How can you develop a plan of action to keep your kitchen refreshed?
Create Kitchen Calm
You’ve cleaned your kitchen, cleaned out your pantry, gotten rid of those useless items, and now it’s time to get organized.
Chaos causes stress.
Is your kitchen causing you stress?
Do you know where your utensils are, or do you spend time looking for your favorite knife?
I was away for Thanksgiving and my son called asking to use my electric knife. I told him where the blades were stored and where he could find the knife.
When I returned home and opened my utensil drawer, my OCD kicked in and I had one of those moments of anguish. Nothing, and I mean nothing, was where it was supposed to be.
Creating calm in your kitchen is just as important as creating calm in your everyday life. When you can easily open a cabinet door and grab what you need, your time in the kitchen will flow easily.
When you’re opening cabinets, looking through drawers, and standing there wondering where that item is hiding, you’ll find yourself getting frustrated and irritated.
As you put items back into the cabinets, drawers, and your pantry, organize them in a way that helps you keep your time in the kitchen less stressful.
Organize
Open your pantry and what do you see?
Are your items organized or do you spend time looking for that specific item?
Take time to organize your pantry to help you quickly and easily find what you’re looking for.
I’ve gone to our local Dollar Tree and purchased small baskets to hold similar items. I have a basket for my protein bars, bags of snack crackers, and other small items. This keeps my pantry organized and I don’t waste time looking for any of those items.
In my course Meal Prep for Beginners, I teach how to keep your pantry fresh with an easy system when you return home from the grocery store.
Get Creative
Every kitchen is unique, and you can get creative with the space you have with a little thought and inspiration.
What can you do in your kitchen to get organized and functional?
Can you put your spices on a turntable? Buy dollar baskets to store those bags of crackers and chips? Get a hanging rack for your pots? Hang your coffee cups on cup hooks?
Whether you have a large kitchen or a galley kitchen, you can get creative and make your kitchen easier to use.
Change is not Permanent
As you begin to clean out your pantry and cabinets, you may decide to make some organizational changes.
Everything looks nice and neat, and then life happens.
You begin to prepare a meal and can’t find that one ingredient, or your favorite pot.
When we remodeled our kitchen, I had more cabinets than before. Excited, I placed dishes, pots, and food in all my new cabinets. Then, as I began to prepare meals, I would open a cabinet door to reach for something and it wasn’t there.
Where did I put that grater?
What I learned, was if I went to a cabinet to get something and it wasn’t there, I put that item in that spot the next time I cleaned it and put it up.
Organization is only as good as it serves you.
Make a plan to organize your kitchen but be open to change as needed.
Grab your FREE 4 Steps to Cleanse Your Kitchen to help you get started this spring.
Click here to request your copy 👉 4 Steps to Cleanse Your Kitchen
