DESIDERATA

Buckle up. Step nine is the kitchen cabinets. Whew. We can do this. (This is me psyching myself up for this.) It couldn’t come at a better time for me – they’re scary. A couple of years of people who aren’t me putting away the dishes left me with…no rhyme or reason whatsoever on where things live. Plus, I’m losing two of my upper cabinets to have windows put in in a few weeks so I need to have those all cleaned out and empty. It’s a bit overwhelming right now but will feel so much better when it’s done.

Depending on your kitchen, this might be a little ambitious for one 45-minute session. That’s okay! Take all the time you need. Either stick to your 45-mins a day plan and take as many days as you need, or plan in advance to set aside a few hours to really get it done.

We’re going to do beverage stations, drawers, and countertops in later stages so you can either skip those for now or if your stuff is all mixed together, just set those items in a bin to be addressed later.

The non-negotiables:

• Take it all out. This is the “it gets worse before it gets better” part. As you take items out, try to group them by zone. And rejoice when you finally find the missing lid to that Pyrex dish.
• Wipe down surfaces inside and out. Seriously, how does spaghetti sauce get on the top shelf of the cabinet?! Really get into the seams and corners with a toothbrush or small tool. All-purpose cleaner and a long cotton swab usually does the trick for me but for serious things, I use the orange grime-fighting cleaner and an old toothbrush to really freshen it up. Don’t forget about under and on top of cabinets! The part where the cabinet meets the baseboards is a serious black hole of dirt and grime in my house so always needs some scrubbing.
• Wash and scrub dirty items. Sometimes it’s just dust build-up from my seldom used items, sometimes it takes some elbow grease. My ex had this trait of never washing the cookie sheets so they are…gross and need some serious TLC. Cast iron and wooden items need oiling and care – do this now too.
• Plan your space. Think about the function of your kitchen – can your mugs live next to the coffee maker? Can the spoons live next to the stove so you can grab one single-handed while panicking about the pot that’s about to boil over? For me, I like my cookware in the lower cabinets next to the oven, my glassware next to the coffee pots, my bowls and cookware above the mixer. Look at the amount of stuff in the zones you’ve created. Does it really work to dedicate one shelf to plates when you have 4 sets of dishes? You might have to adjust your plan (or the amount of dishes)
• Edit. But do it according to YOU. Do you need 4 sets of dishes? Probably not. Do you use 4 sets of dishes? If the answer is yes, then keep it. Get rid of mid-matched Tupperware. Do your editing based on what you find yourself reaching for over and over. If it’s something you can’t remember the last time you used it, donate or toss it. If it’s a heritage item or one with an emotional connection, think about if it brings you joy (à la Marie Kondo). If yes but it’s not an item you use, set it aside and when your functional items are put away, find a place to honor it as part of your decor.
• Put it away. Carefully put all of your items back, zone by zone, adjusting as you go. You might need to tweak your plan just a bit if the cookie sheets don’t fit in the space you intended or you have too many coffee mugs and turns out they need their own display area (guilty!)

The maybe negotiables:

• Level up your organizing. Call me weird but I like to buy dividers and bins after my items are in their homes. Then I really get a feel for the space and can measure and plan my organizers properly. I can’t tell you how many fancy organizer things I’ve bought and then gotten rid of because it just doesn’t fit my utensils or my drawers. Maybe I just have weird-sized drawers or spoons. I don’t know. Live with your items in their new homes for a bit to make sure it’s the right space for them, and then buy/source your organizers. Like, do you wish your pans slid out from the cabinet? Then measure your cabinets and pans and buy one of those. Maybe you prefer them hanging, or stacked. But try it for a bit with nothing and see what your instincts tell you about the way you wish they were arranged and then tackle it little by little.
• Style it. Can you arrange your dishes in a way that combines form and function? For example, I have black and white plates. (Like black plates and white plates.) If I stack them in just a stack of plates, it looks a little messy. But if I divide them into two stacks on the same shelf, one black and one white, it looks clean and calm.
• Honor your heritage pieces. Maybe that bowl that your great uncle made should hold your keys at the front door, not just sit in a cabinet taking up space. Maybe the casserole dish from your mother can become a storage bin for napkins so you use it every day. I have an embarrassing amount of coffee mugs. Far more than any one human needs (or many humans, for that matter) but they bring me joy and it’s a collection that I’ve amassed over 2 decades of travel. My kids love picking my mug out for me for “where I should go on my coffee adventures” and then I get to share the memories of what that place was like with them. So I keep them on a display above the coffee maker so we can enjoy the visual world tour and have easy access. Having stuff isn’t bad! Just make your stuff intentional and honor it in a special way.

Smarter, not harder (smart home integration):

• Connect smart appliances. I’ve had a smart fridge and oven for a long time but never connected them. I just didn’t understand why that feature existed. Now I do and I wonder why I didn’t do it sooner. My oven can preheat while I’m on the way home from work or let me know I’ve forgotten to turn it off. The fridge lets me know when someone’s left a door open and automatically orders new filters when it needs one.
• Install smart outlets. These are game-changers for me. If you don’t already have smart appliances, consider putting in smart plugs so you can manage your kitchen while you’re busy with something else. Like starting and stopping the crock pot, or putting it on a timer. It also comes in handy at Christmas time when I want lights above my cabinets that will go on and off remotely (without me having to have 4 remotes to do it).
• Smart home speaker. I love having music on while I’m working so investing in an Alexa device with a good speaker is a priority in my kitchen. Plus, it helps me manage things like my grocery list. When someone is using the last of the milk, they can just say “Alexa, add milk to the grocery list” without missing a beat or searching for a pen and it makes our shopping so much more efficient.

Maintenance:

• Clean up spills as you go. When you notice a drip down the front of the counter, address it right then.
• Every day, do your routine. When the dishes are done, put them away in their homes. Teach your family where their homes are so they can help too.
• Cast iron/wood care every week. Once a week (today + recurring), oil your cast iron and cutting boards. If you need more help knowing what to do, you can follow along on my Instagram as I do mine but the internet is a wonderful resource with lots of tips and tricks. The key with both, though is to always remove all the water immediately after washing and never let them feel dry. Sounds like a paradox but it needs to be dry from water but oiled so they last a lifetime.
• Deep clean once every two months. Set a reminder on your calendar for two months from today (and then recurring!) that it’s deep clean the cabinets day and do the entire process to get it all clean and sparkly.

Your turn:

What are the heritage items in your kitchen and how do you honor them?

What are your kitchen organizing hacks that make your time more efficient?

Now let’s get to it!