Cleaning Out the Cupboards

There is nothing like getting up early on a Saturday morning and getting to work right away.  Today I cleaned out the cupboards in the kitchen.  They weren't especially needing it, but it is good to regularly go through your cupboards to see if there are any unneeded or unwanted items there.  I found a few lids without containers, a couple of water bottles, and an apple corer that we rarely use.  A couple of weeks ago I found some high quality knives at a garage sale and bought three.  They are great knives, but it made the space in my drawer for knives too crowded.  So, out go the three nice knives.  I managed just fine without them, good deal or not.  There wasn't too much junk in the junk drawer and it was nice to take a mental inventory of everything we have in all of the cupboards in the kitchen.

When was the last time you cleaned out your kitchen cupboards?  If it sounds like an overwhelming task, break it down into pieces.  Take one cupboard or one shelf at a time.  Pull everything out.  Wipe down the shelf and dry it and then put back only the things you regularly use.  They need to justify the space they take in your kitchen.  If you have cans of food, label them with the expiration dates on them using a Sharpie.  This makes it so you can easily see when the item needs to be used.  If you have food that is expired or you know you won't use it, donate it to the food bank.  Our food bank takes items that are up to one year past the expiration date.  Organize cans, boxes, and other foods so they can easily be found:  veggies together, fruit together, cereal together, pasta together, etc.  Put the newest items in the back and the oldest ones in the front so you can rotate.  Doing one shelf a day shouldn't take you more than 5-15 minutes.  Listen to some music or some motivating talk as you clean and declutter.