Alright, so here in the village, January is “Organize Your Kitchen Month!” We are going to take a hard look at our kitchens and see what we are holding onto that we no longer use, how to make better use of the space we have, and just do a general decluttering/organizing of the entire room.

For today, we aren't going to actually be doing any hard labor on our cabinets...I'm just preparing you for tomorrow. I want you thinking about your cabinets. Think about how long it takes you to find a pot that you want, and once you've located it, how long it takes you to find the matching lid. Do you know where your cookie trays are and how much time does it take you to get to them? When getting things from your cabinet, are you pushing small appliances that you never use out of the way? Think about how well your cabinets are really working for you. Are you thinking? Because tomorrow, we start tossing and organizing!

To start us off, here is an article that I found at http://organized-mom.com

5 Kitchen Cabinet Organizing Tips
by Fisher Swanson
Here are five tips to help bring sanity to your kitchen cabinets:
1. Clean Your Cabinets
One great way to keep your kitchen cabinets organized is to clean them out every couple of months. That allows you to keep stock of what's in them and get rid of anything that is past its prime or has damaged packaging. Containers with damaged packaging that leak food can attract pest like ants, cockroaches and mice.
2. Organizing Your Cabinets
After cleaning out your cabinets, put everything back in a well organized way. Items that you don't use very often, put towards the back, while having frequently used items within reach. Try to group "like items" together. If you know where to reach for specific ingredients it will save you time in the kitchen. Train everyone in your house to put items back where they got them.
3. Remembering Where Stuff Is
If you tend to have a hard time finding things that are stashed away in the back of your cabinets, place an inventory list on the inside of the cabinet door. You can even draw a square and diagram where items are likely to be located. A diagram may also help inform other family members where to put things away, which could save you headaches down the road.
4. Grocery List
Attach a piece of paper to the inside of the cabinet door to write down items as you run out of them. Then you can reference it when you put together your grocery list. This is very useful if other people use the kitchen as well, everyone will know that you have ran out of something and won't spend a half hour looking for it.
5. Access More of Your Cabinet Space with Lazy Susans
I always keep my eyes open for inexpensive Lazy Susans at garage sales and discount stores. A Lazy Susan is basically a turntable that you can install in a kitchen cabinet or pantry that rotates so you can easily get to everything on the cabinet shelf. This is especially useful for cabinet shelves that are difficult to reach.
Fisher Swanson writes for http://www.ThriftyFun.com, a site that looks for frugal solutions to everyday problems.

Check back tomorrow for some real cabinet work!

Ok, I'll be organizing my kitchen with you Amy! I've been wanting to do this forever! Thanks for helping us! :)

Oh this is good! Thanks Amy! I'm on board....:smball:

Count me in too!!

WooHoo...we are on our way!! Thanks Amy!!:toothy:

My appliances are all in a glass door cabinet, so those are fine. My pots and pans cabinet needs some help though and so does the top of my fridge. That's my favorite place to toss things out of the reach of the kids. ugh

I need to get something to hang my broom, dustpan, and mop too.

I will do as much of this as I can this month. We have an entire kitchen remodel coming up and our kitchen is as organized as it can currently be with the crappy cabinets that are in there now.

Right now my huge mission is putting away Christmas items, decluttering as I go (will donate things I don't want or use to the thrift store), AND I'm making a household inventory list as I go. That's an important one to me after seeing so many people lose everything last fall and then have to sit down and try to write down for their ins. every single item that was in their house.

I am with you Amy. It is funny because yesterday I was tossing out lids to unknown bowls...lol! I didn't even know we would be starting in there. I know a few things I would like to get done in there. I am going to check into some kind of spice rack. I have my spices in the cabinet and I can't ever find what I am looking for unless I take everything out.

January challenge will motivate me to get that kitchen in order!!:D

Okay, I already started and didn't even know we were doing that this month!!!!!!

Ooooh Amy this is a good one. I find my kitchen is always unorganized. It seems everything ends up in the kitchen.

Great place to start.

I cleaned out some of my cabinets so they would be organized. Need to do more, but have the rest of the month to do it. I decided that if I don't use certain pots, glassware, or containers except for only a few times a year I put them in my pantry. This way it let me have more room for the above that I always use. I think this forum will be fun. Will keep me motivated knowing that others are organizing. Also, this will free me up for the summer and not have to worry about organizing that much.

This is perfect amy - I was going to be working on my kitchen this week already - this will be wonderful having a "coach" and a team to bounce ideas off of!! Thank you for doing this!! I actually have three cabinets that are empty!! So you know I can use some organizing skills!!

Well, I just did my kitchen a couple of months ago but taking a quick look around, I have found that it needs it again. So I will be working along side the rest of you after all.

Originally posted by kimmee
This is perfect amy - I was going to be working on my kitchen this week already

Same here-- the kitchen cabinets were next on my list of things to get in order in this house-- I guess great minds think alike!

I have my food & dish cabinets organized but I need to go through my storage bowls & give some of them away since I have too many & don't use them all.
I also keep a grocery list on my freezer door & that way whenever I run out of something I just write it on the note pad until I order my groceries.

I have to clear out all the little plastic containers and lids that come from who knows where. Also have a couple junky drawers and a cabinet above the fridge filled with stuff we never look at or use. Probably have a bunch of little kids cups , etc, that we have outgrown. I definately have issues to deal with! :eek:

This is a much needed area to tackle for me.

I keep my cabinets organized or I simply can't function. Pantry gets out of wack often because of hubby! Hey can I just get rid of him? Just kidding! Fridge is my main problem because it's so small.

Thanks for doing this Amy

:bang: I really need to organize my cabinets also. Is it to late to sign up, Amy?:bang:

No Sarah it isn't. Just follow along with these posts and any other posts of Amy's and you'll do fine. Some of the members are behind and catching up. Have fun.

Originally posted by homesteadmamma
No Sarah it isn't. Just follow along with these posts and any other posts of Amy's and you'll do fine. Some of the members are behind and catching up. Have fun.
Thank you so much.
:smball: