It's that time of year when everyone (or almost everyone) gets into Spring cleaning mode. When you think of Spring cleaning do you think of the kitchen, I mean beyond the outsides of cabinets or deep cleaning the fridge? I'm talking about going through your spice cabinet and throwing out seasonings that have expired or didn't meet your expectations. Maybe a refresh of seasonings that you need more of or that you're just want to try out. Have you been thinking of stepping up your BBQ game with homemade BBQ rubs or want to try a new style of cooking? One of our largest cabinets in our kitchen is our spice cabinet. All three shelves are filled with spices and seasonings. Some of the shelves are even two or three containers deep! When you have to cook from scratch all the time, you need to have a variety of spices/seasonings at the ready. Some containers are filled with mixtures we have created on our own and some are filled with go-to favorites. We go through our spice cabinet about twice a year to clean it out, but most spices/seasonings we buy don't last that long since we cook so much.
Another place to get into Spring cleaning mode is the pantry. How often do you stock up on something because it's on sale only to use on of the item and forget about the rest? Have your kids (or husband) left a box in the pantry that has only tiny bit left in it, just waiting for you to find it? Or how many of us have expired box items in the pantry like pancake mix (which can be seriously harmful if expired)? When we think about cleaning we don't often think of the pantry (unless something gets dropped). You could be using a lot of extra space in the pantry that you don't even need to. We try and keep our pantry pretty organized, but all it takes is one of my kids to demolish the pantry "looking" for something (that's often right in front of their face). We try to keep larger stock pots on the bottom with the heavy items like large jugs of oil or vinegars. The next shelf is for the crock pots (yes, we have multiples), rice cooker, waffle iron, tabletop roaster, or extra bottle of ketchup or juice. Above that are the snack bin, cereal, breads, extra jarred items, and oatmeal packets, plus C has part of this shelf for his work snacks/drinks. About that is mostly dried items and canned goods, with my sister J having 1/3 of the shelf for her items. On the very top we tend to keep things we don't use often but aren't heavy like take n' toss pans, plastic cake carriers, extra party cup/silverware and such.
Something else that should be gone through is your pots/pans, cooking utensils, and other cooking gadgets. You'd be surprised to see how many items you have hidden in cupboards that aren't or haven't been used in a long time! If you have a pan that is scraped up on the bottom you should replace it, especially if it has non-stick coating on it. It could rust easily and leach into your food. I'll admit, we kind of live in a kitchen store at our house, we have a lot of kitchen gadgets. So, this step is really important during my kitchen Spring cleaning, it helps me "weed out" things that are taking up space that we don't use. Is it a gadget that another family member could use more than us or simply something we bought and didn't like? I'm very big on donating items to family members or to the thrift store if they are in good condition, so this helps my mentality when going through things in the house.
Come back next week when I discuss the second half of Spring cleaning in the kitchen.
Kim
