Our kitchens are truly the hearts of our homes, which means any time spent organizing this very important space is time well spent.  However… organizing our kitchens can seem really overwhelming, since there are things, both useful and scary, behind every door and in every drawer!

So let’s break down this big and useful project into several little projects, instead:

• Food and Pantry Items
  Tackle your food storage areas first.  To minimize the overwhelm, review your kitchen a cabinet at a time.  Start with grouping your food categories (canned goods, boxed pastas, baking supplies), and review all your items for their expiration dates.  It’s likely at least a few items will be expired, and those will go in the trash.
  Decide, too – even if a food item isn’t expired, will you and your family ever eat it?  (For example, when my sons were young, I bought a 10 pack of boxed mac and cheese and then they announced they didn’t like it).  If an item is still within code but of no use to you, share or donate it to a local food pantry so it doesn’t go to waste.
  Plan your next week of meals around the food you have on hand, to continue the clutter clearing!  And always check your cabinets before you grocery shop, to avoid having to throw out expired foods again.
• Reusable Water bottles and Coffee Mugs
  To get started, pull them out of ALL THE PLACES THEY ARE STASHED, and pair up the bottoms and tops.  And Yes, if you’re asking, you probably have too many of these.  Decide just how many you feasibly need.  I’m the only one that uses go-mugs, and I use the same 2, rotating them daily.  We have a few more than 2 water bottles, but not too many.  And next time you’re at an event where they are giving away free water bottles or can wraps or coffee mugs, just say “No, thank you”.
• Cleaning supplies
  Good golly.  I’m always amazed at the full inventory of cleaning supplies most houses hold, and most is stashed under the kitchen sink.
  Which makes no sense, because you can’t really see it under there.
  Take everything out, line up the items by category.
  See anything you can just toss? (why are there always a few empty windex bottles?  Go fig.)
  Are there any items that are clearly past their prime?  Off color, bad odor, rock hard, etc.?
  Any partial bottles you can combine?  (The dribs and drabs of dish soap or hand soap?)
  Look around your kitchen or pantry, and see if there is a better place to store your cleaning supplies.  If there is not, corral the different categories into plastic baskets and store them under the sink so you more easily access your supplies when you need them!
• Spices
  Here is the link to my recent article on organizing your
  spices!  
• Junk drawer
  Here is the link to one of my most popular articles ever,  “If You Call It A Junk Drawer, Guess What Ends Up Inside?”
• Plastic storage containers
  Yes, it is time to organize these, too!  Click here to read my recent article “What to Do With All These Storage Containers”!
• Top of the fridge?
  Ohhhh, yeah.  This space can be great storage or it can be a crazy no-man’s land of scary stuff.  Click here to read “Reclaim The Top of Your Refrigerator”.  (And there are even some words about Cookbooks in this one!!)

Fight the overwhelm, and tackle these projects one at a time to get your kitchen on track!