7 Easy Steps to Clean & Organize your Kitchen Cabinets

 

 

 

I have been on a cleaning and re-organizing frenzy lately!  The older I get the more I feel the need to have more space and less “stuff”.  If you are anything like me, cleaning out my cabinets is something that I don’t look forward to.  Not to worry, I have discovered 7 easy steps to clean out and organize those messy cabinets!

Step 1 – Clear a space in your kitchen to put all of the contents of your cabinets.  It makes it sooo much easier to have a clean area to put everything.

Step 2 – Start with your messiest cabinet….get it over with and it is down hill from there.  Take everything out of the cabinets – yep everything!  To truly organize your cabinets you have to get everything out. Put like things together – start making piles of like items on the clean space that you made.  Put baking items together, coffee items together and so on. You will be amazed by how many duplicates you have.  I found 6 packets of Sloppy Joe seasoning packets!  Don’t put anything back yet!  You need to sort through everything and put each item in one of the “piles” of like items that you made.  Throw out anything that is expired or that you rarely use.  Get out of the habit of “well I may use this in the future”.   If it was buried in the back of your cabinet you don’t need it!  Your cabinets will look better with less “stuff” in them.  Only keep items that you use regularly in your prime cabinet spaces.

Step 3 – Clean the cabinet inside and out.  I love using Mr. Clean sponges to get everything off my cabinets and then go over them with soap and water.  This is a good time to put down liners if you want to.

 

Step 4 – Take a look at the different stacks of like items you have.  Do some of the items belong in different cabinets?  If so, set it aside….you want to make sure to keep all like items together.  To keep things organized moving forward, put your smaller like items in clear plastic stackable bins that you can easily grab and have everything you need at your fingertips. I put all of my seasoning packets in a plastic container like this.  I also used mason and other glass jars for things like baking soda, baking powder, sunflower seeds, crushed pecans….you get the idea.  It really makes a huge difference using the same size containers.  It is a little more work when you put away groceries, but you will LOVE the way your cabinets look.   It is much easier to stay organized if you have a place for everything.

Step 5 – Okay, now that you have your “like” items together and in containers to keep them organized you can now decide which cabinets would work best for the amount of “stuff” you have in each of your piles.  You may decide that your baking items need to go into a different cabinet based on the amount of items in your pile or by where the most convenient space you use them.

Step 6 – Now is the fun part!  Start putting your organized items into your clean cabinets.  Remember not to put too much in each cabinet.  You want to be able to easily get to your items.  Trust me, it is freeing and easier to stay organized with less “stuff”.

Step 7 – My favorite step – Once your done putting everything away, open your cabinet doors and admire!  I promise you, it will be worth all of the work.  You will smile every time you open your cabinet doors.