Spring Cleaning 101: Kitchen Cupboards and Drawers

I am excited to be collaborating Amber again to help me with my Spring Cleaning 101 series!

Hello Everyone! It’s Amber from over at tidylady.net and today I’m so excited to share with you my methods, tips, tricks and of course a free printable checklist for performing a

…deep spring clean on the kitchen!

I always recommend starting with cleaning/organizing all the surface stuff. So do the dishes, clean the paperwork and clutter off the counters and pick up any other random items that are just lying around. This alone with give you a great feeling of accomplishment and seeing those quick results will keep you motivated to dive in deeper with the rest of the kitchen!

Next, I suggest moving onto the pantry or kitchen cupboards that store food. For many, the pantry is the mecca of the kitchen and many times similar to a messy closet in that you just don’t know where to start or how to maintain organization.

1. Take everything out and clean all of the shelves.

2. Organize items by category.

3. Now is the time to go through and check if any items are expired, stale, empty, etc and throw those away.

4. Make sure when putting items back into the pantry, that the oldest are in front to use up right away.

5. A simple way to keep track of this (and to cut down on wasting food) is to keep an ongoing inventory of items for not only the pantry, but also the fridge and freezer too. I do sell some great inventory printables in my etsy shop which are great for this!

6. Loose items such as potatoes and onions should be kept in seperate baskets or containers with a plastic or paper lining to prevent dirt/debris from falling on the shelves.

7. Baking ingredients, pasta/rice, spices and other various bulk or loose items can be difficult to sort and organize. For this I suggest getting glass airtight containers and labeling them.

 Labels are so huge, especially when buying in bulk. It is not only important to label what the item is, but the date purchased. I don’t know about you, but before I started labeling and dating I had bags of flour, cream of tartar, sugar, baking powder, etc. and I was never able to tell what was what or how old it was. This has helped tremendously!

 Kitchen Cupboards & Drawers

Everybody has their own system for storing their kitchen items, but go through cupboard by cupboard and start organizing.

1. Start with the glasses cupboard. Take out all glassware, sort and discard any unused or broken items. Start a donation pile and a seasonal pile. I keep all my seasonal glass, dishes, trays, etc with my holiday decor instead of the cabinets year round taking up space. Wipe down all shelving in the cabinet.

2. Repeat this process for all cabinets in your kitchen including dishware, pots and pans and any other misc cupboards. Next tackle the drawers. Start with the silverware drawer. Take out all the items and clean out the drawer and silverware holder.

3. Next move onto your other drawers and repeat the process for the cupboards by taking everything out, sorting and discarding any unused or broken items. Add items to your donation or seasonal pile if applicable. Do this for all drawers in your kitchen. Make sure to bring your donations to your nearest thrift store and transport your seasonal items to their proper location right away so they don’t end up back in your cupboard and drawers!

After all of your cupboards, drawers, fridge, freezer and pantry have all been cleaned and organized, we move onto the cleaning stage.

1. Start with the microwave. Clean out with warm soapy water and take out the glass plate to wash. Don’t forget to wipe down the outside as well.

2. Move onto the oven and clean according to your manufacturer’s instructions.

3. Clean and polish the outside of all your appliances including the dishwasher, microwave, blender, coffee maker, toaster or any other countertop appliance.

4. Next, clean and wash all countertops and outsides of cabinets. If your cabinets are wood, use a wood furniture polish. If your cabinets are granite us a glass cleaner to make them sparkle. After everything is wiped down and cleaned, sweep the floor.

5. Spot clean any sticky areas on the floor and mop the floors entirely, removing all removable furniture ahead of time.

6. Shake out and wash any throw rugs.

 Ahhh now doesn’t that feel good?! 

It’s time to open up a window to get some spring air and buy yourself a small bunch of lovely daffodils – you deserve it!

 Happy Cleaning & Organizing!

Amber, from The Tidy Lady