Kitchen Deep-Cleaning

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After a full school year of lunches, dinners, and breakfasts, not to mention the homework and projects that took place in this kitchen, it needed a good de-cluttering and deep cleaning.  It took me 3 full days to complete this deep-cleaning project, but worth it in the end.  I love getting rid of all the broken and unused items, so I can actually see the things we do use.  Here’s the end result! 

Looking at this makes me so happy. 

Look at those sunflowers out the window.  Dude, they were taller than the house this year. 

So, I’ll go through each area and explain how I decided what to put in each space, and how I organized and cleaned it.  First of all, I gathered my supplies. I do not use toxic cleaners in our house.  It has reduced the amount of fumes and weird smells.  I don’t feel bad about the kids getting it on their hands (when they help clean, and yes, they do!) or breathing in the air when I clean. Supplies: Paper towels, sponge, toothbrush, baking soda, and Basic H cleaning spray from Shaklee (just a small squirt of the concentrate mixed with water cleans basically everything and that concentrate lasts fo-ever.) I use the baking soda for anything that needs a gritty scrub, sometimes adding vinegar for more punch.

In this kitchen I have a nice food pantry, but also two smaller closets, one I use for small kitchen appliances, and the other for trash, lunch boxes, kids’ craft stuff, and other miscellaneous stuff.  I’ll show you those closets first.  Here is the appliance closet before and after:

All I had to do here was to get rid of a few weird things we no longer used (old white salad spinner, an old candle, etc.) Then I took everything out and put like-sized things together, spraying and scrubbing each shelf first.  Yes, mama.  This is better!  Down on the bottom, I put the heavier appliances, like my Kitchen Aid mixer, crock pot and waffle iron.  Just look for a minute at this stuff.  How blessed are we all? I have appliances to cook just about anything.  How can I ever complain? Thank you, God.

Next, is the trash can/misc. closet.  Here are the “before’s.” Not terrible, but just some extra stuff that we no longer use, old papers, and general clutter.  I just took all of it out, threw out a bunch, and then got it all back in order.

Here is the lower part, “after.” The trash can is in there, a smaller bin for recycling, and a container for plastic bags.  The aprons are hanging up on hooks, and we have a few fly swatters up there too.

Above are the upper shelves, “after”.  Still got the kids’ craft stuff in there, just more orderly, and got rid of a bunch of it.  Lunch boxes, household manuals, recipe box, and some other miscellaneous stuff (note the Snoopy sno-cone maker. yes.)

Now onto the drawers.  Right by the stove, I have a spice drawer.  Now this is a great idea, but it can get out of hand.  A few years ago, I spend a bunch of time putting all my spices into those cute little labeled containers. Just got out of hand, like I said! Here’s a cool kit I might have to invest in one of these years to redo my labels. Well, I started by taking it all out and cleaning the drawer.  I had my jars on the floor, and I used a make-shift funnel to put any of these other bulk spices that had made their way into this drawer (ahem, Hubs, ahem).

I can’t believe all of this was even in there. 

Here’s my little spice rack. 

Next drawer down: utensils.  Dude, every utensil ends up in this drawer.  I needed to go through it, and get rid of all the broken stuff or duplicates. Put it all up on the counter, clean the drawer.

Believe it or not, this is much better. It now has only stuff we use, and I can see it all.

Next two drawers are glass/plastic containers (bottom) and their lids (drawer above it.) I like this system, it keeps us from getting to many of these containers, and I always know where the lids are.  I just went through, matched the lids, got rid of the random containers and lids that somehow find their way in here.

Next, silverware drawer. Just gets nasty over time, and somehow collects all kinds of plastic stuff.  Take’r out, clean’r, put back in, done.

Yes, much better. Next on to the baggie/twist tie drawer.  Somehow a baggie containing a moldy piece of bread had gotten in here.  HOW, people?

Oh, yes. Note those loose baggies.  Yes, Hubs rinses them out and reuses them, and from time to time, I will do it just to make him happy.

Last drawer: Kids’ dishes/cups.  I like having this drawer down low.  They can get themselves cups of water and snacks, set the table with the dishes they use, and it all stays together. (I also have two drawers of kitchen towels and dish clothes, didn’t photograph those).

Now on to the cabinets. I started under the sink. Here are the “before’s” ewwwww. This space gets crusty.  I took everything out, scrubbed it out, and started fresh.

Here it is, all scrubbed and ready for the stuff.

I love these hooks for my wet wash-rags.  Keeps them out of the way, and out of the sink. 

Here’s a nice spot for my scrubbers, scrapers, and Norwex bottle scrubber (the cloth top was in the wash at the time). 

Then everything goes back in! I don’t have much down there, mostly because I use Basic H to clean everything else in the house! I had some room for some larger, rarely-used serving plates down there, and I put some rubber matting on top and between them to keep them from chipping.  I use this rubber matting under glasses in some of the other cabinets too. 

The rest of the lower cabinets were pretty simple to clean. I just took the mixing bowls out of this lazy susan cabinet, scrubbed it, and back in.

These handy racks store my cookie sheets, cutting boards and other skinny stuff.  I use the rubber matting so stuff doesn’t slide around. 

This lower cabinet is right by my stove, so I can get out my pots.  I don’t keep a lot of these, you really don’t need too many! I have a few frying pans, a big awesome non stick sauce pan, and the other pots you see here. 

This upper cabinet holds some glass serving bowls I don’t use too often, so a simple cleaning of the shelves was all that was necessary.

This little cabinet holds a mortar and pestle, and some fun martini glasses. 

This is the “before” of this shelf.  It was a random mix of water bottles, serving dishes, and other stuff.  I just took it all out, threw out a bunch of old water bottles and put it all back in. 

Look at this pretty serving bowl we got for our wedding. I think it was from Crate and Barrel.  I’ve got to remember to use this more often at home! 

Here is the end result again….so pretty and makes me feel so good!