How to Clean and Organize Your Kitchen

Cleaning the home starts with organization.  When there is clutter and disorder there is chaos.  Order is the KEY to the simple life.  When you have a system in place, anything is doable.  The trouble is that in order to get the this point, it will take some work and dedication.

The good news is that you can get there one day at a time.  One drawer at a time.  One cabinet at a time.  Trying to conquer the entire home is an unreasonable expectation for any person.  It can be done over the course of several afternoon projects.  This is not a session that is meant to overwhelm you.  Please do not expect this to be an overnight thing.  I want to take you on a journey through my home, room by room.

If you take one lesson at a time you can get this under control.  Every thing in your home MUST have a Home of its own.  Each thing in its place will make keeping your home a breeze.  I spend only 20 minutes or less each day in keeping up our home.  It is so SUPER EASY, I am just so excited to share something that may ease your burden and make keeping your home such a joy!

Once you have a place for everything and you have all the clutter dealt with, it will save you so much time.

Today I will show you how to get started.  I like to start with the kitchen because it is the HEART of every home.  It is the place where food is prepared and where family will gather to eat a meal together.  The first step is to get the cabinets in order.  This is cause for some decision making.  You need to figure out the best places for your kitchen equipment, dishes, and food items.  After you figure that out, you simply take everything out of one cabinet and begin the deep cleaning process.

Because the kitchen is a place where things are cooked, there will be a presence of grease on most every surface.  I like making a simple degreasing solution that is both effective and inexpensive.

1 squirt of dishwashing liquid + 2 quarts of  hot water = degreasing solution

After you empty the contents of one kitchen cabinet or drawer, you need to decide what stays and what goes.  There are many times that I have found outdated things that were growing in my cabinet that needed a one way ticket to the trash can!  Sometimes you will find things that you have not used in years.  Perhaps it is time to donate it to the local thrift store.  Now that the cabinet is empty and by using the degreasing solution, take an old rag and begin wiping down the entire inside of the cabinet, inside the face of the door, the outside of the door, and the door knob of the cabinet.  Focus special attention to the knob and around the knob where the finger touch.  Fingers not only carry plenty of grime and oils, they carry pesky germs as well.  I routinely wipe the knobs in my kitchen which is a very quick job that only take about 4 minutes a day!  We have white cabinets and the grime is visible, so I like to stay on top of it.  It is not a big deal, you do not have to feel like you must do this each day, but I would recommend doing it occasionally throughout the year.

For fun, I like to put all my spices in glass jars.  It looks so nice!  I made labels on a piece of card stock with a black pen.  To make the labels have a more old fashioned “Grandmother” look, I use cursive writing.  Grandma always wrote cursive on all her recipe cards and I have them in my recipe box now since she has passed away.  What a special keepsake.  After I wrote the spice names on the paper, I cut them out in the same size rectangular pieces.  Once I had them cut out, I stuck them on the glass jars with a piece of clear packing tape.  Now I can wipe them clean without spoiling my cute labels!

Before returning all the items to the cabinet, give them all a little wipe down with a damp cloth.  Place things on the shelf that go together.  For instance, put your spices for cooking on one shelf and your baking spices on another.  That way you will know just where to find them, thus saving time!  Really, all that organizing does for you is save time in the future.  I hate wild goose chases!  I have wasted many hours in my life looking for things that were put in the wrong place.  When you have everything in its place you can find it right away and get to the business you were ready to do.

Stand back and look at your cabinet.  Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!  A cabinet in the kitchen should only take 10-20 minutes of your day.  If you have an hour to dedicate each day, you could get up to 10 cabinets done!  That is a really great accomplishment.  Soon you will be ready for the next lesson.

Tune in next week when I show you how to detail the appliances, light fixtures, and walls.  They need some attention, too.  See if you can get the cabinets and drawers done until then.   Do what you can but never stress over this.   Remember I am trying to encourage and make life simple for you not a burden:)  And I must also add that my home is not my idol.  Because I have order, I spend very little time actually cleaning it.  I hope this can be a blessing to some of you out there!

Watch my video for today on cleaning and organizing my kitchen.  Enjoy!

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12 thoughts on “How to Clean and Organize Your Kitchen”

  1. I just bought your dvd set! I’m very excited to watch them with my daughter. I also got your book and am looking forward to reading it. I have a question from the above video. Where did you get those large pink bowls!? I love them!

  2. Thank you so much once again for departing wisdom that only God could have given you. You are a great encouragement to me and to many others I am sure. Thank you for challenging us, the younger generation, to stand up for our families, to teach our children, to walk besides our spouses, to love God and make the most of the time He has left us. You are a joy!

  3. Alex - Catering Kitchen Equipment

    Save video to laptop… Today in evening will start it and clean kitchen accordingly. Lets see!… What hapn.

  4. Hey, Erin! I just read this in an old book and I thought you’d appreciate it too. It’s from the book, The American Country Girl, written in 1915. Here you go:
    “O Woman, what is the thing you do, and what is the thing you cry?
    Is your house not warm and enclosed from harm, that you thrust the curtain by?
    And have we not toiled to build for you a peace from the winds outside,
    That you seek to know how the battles go and ride where the fighters ride?
    You have taken my spindle away from me, you have taken away my loom;
    You bid me sit in the dust of it, at peace without cloth or broom;
    You have shut me still with a sleepy will, with nor evil nor good to do,
    While our house the World that we keep for God should be garnished and swept anew.
    The evil things that have waxed and grown while I sat with my white hands still,
    They have meshed our world till they twined and curled through my verywindow sill;
    Shall I sit and smile at my ease the while that my house is wrongly kept?
    It is mine to see that the house of me is straightened and cleansed and swept!
    Margaret Widdemer.”
    Excerpt From: Martha Foote Crow. “The American Country Girl.” iBooks.
    This material may be protected by copyright.
    Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=492248869

  5. I loved your idea for the mason jar spice storage that I implemented it in my own kitchen (link posted). Thanks so much for sharing!

  6. than you so much for your blog and videos,i love the simple and practical exmples of training and homemaking that are all to easy to forget to do!
    also im becoming increasingly aware of my lack of organization and the effect on my family. im blessed by what your doing here.im taking the challenge to toatally organize my home this summer,started to day with several kitchen cabinets and it feels great!
    California homestead keeper and mother of 2,
    Noel

  7. I just loved this video Erin! It makes me want to scrub my whole kitchen right away! I look forward to the further videos. Thanks for all the time & effort you are putting into doing these!
    Blessings
    Renata
    PS Our family are loving your homesteading DVDs ~ thank you!

  8. Thank-you so much for your detailed explanation. Today, I organized my entire spice section of the kitchen. I placed all of them in the mason jars and labelled them like you have them in your kitchen. It looks absolutely amazing. My spices have never looked this good, ever. I will admit it did take quite a long time, but it was completely worth it. Thank-you!!! You are a blessing!!

  9. Erin,
    Thank you for brighting my day! Every time I open up to your website I feel that you are speaking straight to ny heart and challenging me. May the Lord bless you with what you are doing! I look forward to to all of the videos. Until then, I am going to work on my kitchen cabinets.

  10. Hi Erin! Over here in Australia we are just starting Winter and I seem to always have my spring clean now! I think it is a combination of the cooler weather and all the critters we get in the bush seem to slow down a bit! It feels so nice to have everything organised and clean, and I think it is wonderful to share, we can all learn so much from each other.
    Blessings Jo

  11. Erin,
    You are a breath of fresh air. I have been blessed by you through No Greater Joy, but found this blog via Lori @ Always Learning. I love to clean and keep a neat home and this is such a great encouragement!
    Thank you!
    Carla <><

    1. It was a very nice video. I plan on watching all of your cleaning videos. I feel so at a loss sometimes when I try to think of ways how to keep the house clean without spending to much time cleaning.

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