Spring Cleaning In Fall, Part II: Kitchen

Missed part one of the series? Don’t worry – you can check it out here!

Last week we talked a bit about why I like to do my spring cleaning twice a year. We went through a quick overview of what this month’s cleaning challenge entails. Now it’s time to start!

Spring Cleaning Week One: The Kitchen

We’re going to do more than just sweep and mop the floor and wipe down the counters. But don’t freak out! I’ve broken the cleaning down into manageable chunks to tackle a little each day, or all at once if you’re feeling up to it.

First thing I want you to do is wash all your dirty dishes and put them up.

If you’ve got dishes in the sink or sitting on the counter it’s going to make it more difficult to get the rest of the cleaning done. So trust me on this. If you’re working through this cleaning list over the course of the week, do your best to stay on top of washing dishes. At the very least, load them up in your dishwasher.

Task #1: Wipe out all cabinets and drawers.

This one is going to take a while, so if you need to do it a little at a time that’s fine. Pull everything out of your cabinets and drawers (it’s easiest to do it one cabinet or drawer at a time). Take a rag and wipe out every shelf from top to bottom. Get all the crumbs that are hiding in the corners of the drawers. Scrub out any sticky spots, and wipe down the face of the cabinet or drawer too.

As you’re putting things away again, go ahead and start making “donate” and “sell” piles on the dining table. Don’t worry about organizing them just yet. Focus on clearing out space in the cabinets, and only keep what you really love or use on a regular basis. Bonus points if you can reorganize the cabinets to clear out an entire shelf like I did!

P.S. If you have a “junk drawer”, skip it for now! We will come back to it later. Only do the cabinets and drawers that have dishes and cooking utensils.

Task #2: Clean out the refrigerator.

Go through all the items in your fridge and freezer and check for expiration dates. Chances are you probably have some old condiments or frozen foods that expired and you just don’t use them often enough to notice. Throw out anything that is past its expiration date, and go ahead and get rid of any leftovers that have been in there for more than 48 hours.

Wash down each shelf and the doors, and make sure to get the outside too. If the plastic drawers can be taken out, wash them with soap and hot water in the sink. Make sure to wipe down the bottom of the fridge beneath the produce drawers – crumbs and sticky substances like to hide out down there.

Task #3: Clean the stove top and oven.

If your stove top has removable burners, pull them out and hand wash the metal plates beneath them. These types of stoves typically have a latch where you can “pop the hood” to clean out underneath the top. Make sure you are using the correct cleaning tools, and completely dry everything off with a towel once you are done.

Pull the racks out of your oven and scrub out anything that has been burnt to the bottom of the oven. You can hand wash the racks and replace them once they are dry.

One often overlooked part of the stove/oven is the range above where the light and fan are located. Clean the top of the hood – if you don’t clean it often, it may require some elbow grease to remove all of the old residue.

Task #4: Declutter your pantry.

Whether you keep food in a separate pantry or in kitchen cabinets, now is the time to sort through it all. Pull everything out like you did with your dishes, and wipe the shelves down completely. Check for expired dates as you go, and throw out anything that is no longer good.

If you have boxes with one or two pieces of an item left inside, throw the boxes away but keep the individually wrapped items. This will save space when you reorganize your pantry.

Keep like-items together (i.e. one shelf for breakfast items, one for baking, one for easy snacks, etc) and try to make it so you can visually see every item in the pantry. By being able to see what you have without digging, you’ll be less likely to spend money buying duplicate items. This will also help reduce the frequency of expired items sitting on the back of the shelf.

Task #5: Clean appliances.

We already did the big ones – the stove and fridge – but now we are going to clean the smaller appliances like your microwave, toaster, electric can open, etc. Any appliance that sits out on your open counter needs a semi-regular cleaning to remove dust and build up. The work is tedious, but rewarding when you see the sparkling on your clean counters!

Task #6: Empty out the junk drawer.

If you’re a Midwesterner like me, there is a 99% chance you have what we call a “junk drawer.” Basically it’s a drawer where you throw all the random odds and ends that don’t have a true home. Miscellaneous items like pens, rubber bands, screws, batteries, and loose papers fill up the drawer until you no longer can tell what’s inside.

Tackle this big mystery box by first removing everything from it. Pull all of it out onto the counter, wipe the drawer out, and take a breath. Now start sorting through the junk. Toss out any expired coupons or random bits that you don’t have a clue what they belong to. Round up all your batteries and put them in Ziploc bags by type, then throw out the boxes. Make a pile of the pens you want to keep, and another for the ones you don’t. So on and so forth.

The trick behind keeping an organized junk drawer is to use drawer dividers or bags to keep like-items together. Get rid of the random screws and nails, or throw them in the garage with your tools. Re-home anything that can be re-homed, and donate or throw out anything you haven’t used in over a year.

Task #7: Floors and rugs.

The last task I complete when cleaning any room is the floor. Typically I wipe things onto the floor or just make a general mess while cleaning, so it’s pointless to do floors before I finish everything else. If your kitchen floor hasn’t had a good scrub in a while and you’ve got the time and energy, go ahead and take a scrub brush and dig into it.

If you’re pressed for time – or are just dead after a whole week of deep cleaning – sweep the floor with a broom, take a vacuum tool around the trim and any floor mats, mop, and call it a day.

Want to printout these tasks for easy reference? Download the kitchen cleaning checklist here!

Come back next week if you’re ready to clean out your closet.