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Organize Your Kitchen Cupboards

© Judy Brown

Do you have small electrical appliances you haven't used in years stuffed away in the back of your kitchen cupboards? What else have you got in there? Are you using the space wisely or could your kitchen stand an all out re-organization?

If the thought of tearing the kitchen apart to clean out the cupboards overwelms you why not take it one cupboard at a time? Plan on doing one a day and do it thoroughly. It won't take all that long and you will feel much better as you get rid of the old junk and free up valuable space to store the things you will use daily or have handy whenever you need them.

Let's start with the cupboard under the sink, this is where most people store cleaning supplies and dish soap. I think this is the best place to keep things for cleaning, you have it all in one place and it's handy to the sink and really with the pipes and everything there is not a lot of incentive to store food or good china. So let's get this area scrubbed and straigtened up.

First of all it is a lot easier to keep this spot clean if you group the items and keep them in plastic containers or baskets. I have one for polishing supplies where I keep my shoe polish, all weather leather spray and furniture polish. It is all there in a plastic basket about 4 inches deep and 8 inches wide. You can pick these up in any dollar store for .50 cents or $1. I also keep my furniture polishing cloth in a small glass jar so the wax doesn't get onto everything and the odour is confined.

The next basket I have is for soaps and sprays. I usually make my own cleaner and have my spray bottle, my bar of Sunlight soap which I like for quick cleanups in the kitchen. They say if you wash with Sunlight bar soap it repels insects. I just happen to like the scent. I have my dish soap and my TSP in this basket along with electric dishwasher soap and rinser.

I have one basket that fits under the place where the drain pipe hangs down and use that area to store the things I don't use that often: oven cleaner and bug spray is all I have there right now.

You might want a basket or a container that will hang inside the door to store garbage bags. You can use a large coffee tin with a lid to store bags you get your groceries in. Just cut a slit in the lid and whenever you get a plastic bag stuff it in the can leaving just a bit sticking out and you can just pull them out as needed.