I can be one of those annoyingly organized people at times. Having kids took care of the bulk of that, unfortunately. I still try, I just don’t have time. And then little tasks grow in size.So what I try to do is break it down (or chunk it down, as we say in special ed land) into manageable tasks. I clean out one cabinet or one cupboard at a time–I don’t make it a plan to do the entire kitchen in a day. That’s never going to happen!

No, my spices aren’t this pretty. My own cabinet is not very photogenic.

So I’m going to start a series of posts on cleaning and organizing and how I chunk down those tasks. It’s mostly to inspire me, but hopefully some of you will be inspired too. I picked Tuesdays because Mondays are crazy around here. I often have Tuesdays off. But if we tackle one or two projects a week, imagine how sparkly our homes will be! The holidays and the holiday cooking/baking/overindulging season are almost here. And with that, we will be finding lots of great deals on baking items, spices, and stuff like that.

So for this week’s project, let’s all clean out our spice cabinets/spice racks or whatever you keep them in. Mine are on my Lazy Susan.

• Try to determine how old an item is. Anything questionable gets tossed. McCormick stopped selling spices in those square cans over ten years ago, so out it goes!
• Going forward, if a spice doesn’t have a date on it, use a sharpie and put the month/year you purchased it. I keep a fine point sharpie way up high on a kitchen cabinet shelf and use it often.
• Once everything is out on your counter or floor, determine how you’re going to put them back for best access. What do you use most or least often? Or do it alphabetically?
• Since mine are in my corner Lazy Susan, I’m usually viewing them from above instead of straight on at the label. This is what I do–take a sharpie and I put the first letter of the spice on the lid. Then I organize them alphabetically by the letters on top.
• For those seasoning packets, like taco mix–I have them in a kids shoe box. It’s the perfect size and holds a dozen or more. I can stand them up right and flip through for what I need.
• Wipe off the shelves of course and put everything back.
• Write down what you are overstocked in and what you need and put the list with whatever you use to grocery shop. When you find a deal, you’ll know exactly what you need.

All together, I bet we can accomplish this task in 60-90 minutes. I don’t have all weekend to fall-clean and rearrange my kitchen cupboards, but I can find an hour block of time for this.