Spring Cleaning with HLN Clean Sweep - P1 How to Declutter Your Kitchen

Spring Cleaning with HLN Clean Sweep – P1 How to Declutter Your Kitchen

No matter if the weather reflects it or not, Spring is here and its time to embrace it. Every year people across the world jump into a cleaning frenzy from their homes to their everyday lives, in order to get a fresh new start for Spring and Summer. Although many are use to completing this process with ease, there are still tons of people who just don’t know where to start and how to do it. So HLN’s Morning Express with Robin Meade asked me to work with Suzanne, a fellow busy Mom who wanted to focus on learning how to clean sweep her kitchen. In a three part series, I helped Suzanne transform her kitchen starting with Part 1 – “How to Declutter Your Kitchen”.

Purge

For years when someone told me that they started to Spring Clean, I honestly looked at them with confusion. I’ve heard of the term, I even attempted to do it, but for some reason I never accomplished the task. After really thinking about it, I just didn’t know where to start. One day, I was so ready to have a fresh new beginning that I just started throwing away everything in my kitchen. I threw away the pile of mail that I couldn’t seem to let go of, I tossed the blender that never got any use into my donation box, and I purged every single thing in sight that visually confused me. It only took about 10 minutes and made me feel rejuvenated immediately after. So, to get the major step out of the way, I asked Suzanne to do the purge.

2.Clear cabinets and pantry of all expired items

I know that I’m guilty of this and I know that I’m not alone, so when Suzanne realized that she had expired items in her cabinets and pantry, I told her to not feel bad and join the club. Often people don’t think that their spices, sauces, dressings, etc. expire, but they actually do. So the next step to declutter your kitchen and doing a clean sweep is to get rid of everything that is expired. Sometimes the expiration dates are easily seen on the tops of containers, but many times you have to search for them on the side of the container or on the bottom. If it doesn’t have an expiration date at all, just throw it in the trash.

3. Use Baskets

To help with cleaning up the pantry or cabinets for easier access to your items, use baskets. Baskets are a great way for a quick fix. Just purchase various sizes and start with placing items in them that you have multiples of. I like to put chips into a large basket and lose items like bags of popcorn, fruit snacks, granola bars, etc. into smaller baskets. Also, don’t forget to use baskets on the counter for items like phones, keys, or even in your coffee stations.

And just like that, with three easy steps you are on your way to having a decluttered kitchen. It really is that simple. The hardest part is actually getting started, and number one will help with getting that ball rolling. Here’s a quick list of what we went over: