Organizing, Cleaning and Repairing the Kitchen Cabinets

For years, I have been wanting to clean each and every cabinet in the kitchen, however, the task just seems so overwhelming. I finally get motivated when the condition of my spice cabinet drives me to despair. Each and every time I am looking for a spice, I cannot easily find it because 1) the light is insufficient to the cabinets they are stored; 2) I cannot reach anything over the first shelf, especially if the jar is in the back. So it is finally time to go through each and every cabinet to clean, sort, organize, and retouch if necessary.

Where to begin

I start to the right of the stove where our “coffee center” is located. Since there is only 1 upper cabinet, one lower cabinet, a slide-out section and a drawer, it seems like a good place to start and not get discouraged. This area is between the stove top and refrigerator, and it feels that I can reasonably accomplish cleaning these cabinets out in one day. In addition to the cabinets, I will also deep clean the counters by decluttering and disinfecting.

This photo was taken in August 2017 when I wrote a post about designating this section of the kitchen as the coffee center. Since then the walls are a new color and we have a bigger and better coffee maker here.

Before and After

I won’t take you through each and every cabinet or drawer, but it’s a bit embarrassing to show you some of these photos. The drawer above is the first aid drawer where anyone in the family can find bandaids, thermometer, healing teas and drinks, etc. It’s amazing how much we use this drawer. Check out the before~what a mess!

Getting rid of expired ointments, aspirin and items we no longer use, now makes this a pleasant drawer to open. Since this drawer does sit below the coffee/tea station, it’s also a place we put some of our favorite drinks.

Below the first aid drawer is a lower cabinet that houses more tea and related beverage items. The children went through a “tea” stage when we had a Tevana, an amazing tea store nearby. Unfortunately, tea, like spices, gets old and most of it needs tossing.

Now I can find what I am looking for, whether it is tea, super latte powder, syrups and we even keep a candle or two in here. Using baskets and trays help to put like items together.

Quite honestly, I cannot remember when I cleaned out my baking supply cabinet. But now, all expired products are gone and everything is neatly labeled (a great labeling machine here). Placing smaller items into plastic tubs also helps reduce the clutter.

Personally I LOVE sliding drawers in cabinets. In retrospect, I wish I requested more of these because as we know, things get lost in the back of the cabinet. Out of sight, out of mind.

Cleaning and Disinfecting

After each cabinet and drawer is empty, I wipe with a disinfectant, remove old labels and check the cabinet’s condition. Since we had all the cabinets re-laquered a few years ago, most of them are still in good shape.

I am surprised (but not really) on how dirty the interiors get. Even with the doors closed most of the time, things spill or there are scuff marks from dragging products in and out. They clean up nicely though, and look almost new (even though they are 23 years old). I use disinfecting wipes for the countertops and for the tougher jobs, Krud Cutter really cuts any grease and grime.

Drawer Organizers

Here is a before and after of the junk drawer.

Having plastic drawer organizers with divided sections help keep small items organized! There are so many to choose from~just make sure you measure your space to get the right size.

Even my utensil drawer has a plastic organizer and see how much better it looks organized and tidy! After all, who needs numerous ice cream scoops? After narrowing down my collection of tools, I take all the duplicates to the local good will store.

My silverware, knife, first aid and large utensil drawer all have organizers. They come in different sizes, shapes and materials, depending on your needs. It makes finding things SO much easier.

Making My Way around the Kitchen

I tackle all the perimeter cabinets, drawers and slide outs, even including a deep cleaning of the dishwashers, ovens, wine refrigerator, refrigerated drawers and the side by side refrigerator/freezer.

I throw out old oven mitts, stained dish towels, donate extra aprons and organize all the plastic Tupperware. How did we ever get so many water bottles and insulated travel coffee containers?!? Isn’t it amazing how we can accumulate so much stuff?

The last section to tackle is the kitchen island, which has 8 more cabinets/drawers and warming drawers to clean.

Fixing the Chips and Dings

When you have lacquered or painted kitchen cabinets, in any active kitchen, you will have paint chips and dings. Add pets and children and the likely hood is far greater.

I keep a mason jar of paint for each room labeled with the type of paint and sheen. I cannot tell you how many times someone has tried to touch up an area using the right color paint but the wrong sheen….and it looks awful.

Many of the chips are small but cumulatively, I believe it makes a kitchen look tired. It takes just a second to apply a little paint and the chip is gone.

Sorry for the blurry photos~it’s hard to paint and take a picture at the same time. Most of the major dings are in the slide out garbage can cabinets so a nice fresh coat of paint looks neat and clean.

Baseboards and Toe Kicks

Due to sweeping and vacuuming, the toe kicks under the cabinets take a beating. After laying blue painter’s tape on our hardwood floors, I get down on my hands and knees and paint all the toe kicks. The most time consuming part is laying down the protective tape, but what a difference a new coat of paint here makes.

Since the island is a different color (a light sage green), I did the same for the island toe kicks, chips and dings as well.

We have rather tall custom baseboards in our home. Our sweet dog, Cooper, decided to chew on the corner of this one. I thought about trying to rebuilt the wood detail, but instead, just painting it white makes the damage disappear.

Using a damp cloth, you can easily wipe away over paint smudges from the plaster walls.

So what about the Spices?

Since I have outgrown my existing spice drawer, I need to move the spices to a completely different cabinet. I design a new system, but need to await the construction of a new sliding drawer.

The entire process to move the spices is deserving of its own blog post. I hope to send that off to you next week.

How Much Time Did this take?

My goal for completing this project is rather simple~I would try and clean a few cabinets each day. Overall, without including the spice drawer redesign, this project took about 14 days. There are approximately 52 cabinets, plus the extra cleaning of the appliances. Painting the toe kicks went quickly and I did touch up painting on each cabinet/drawer as I went along.

Having a fresh and clean kitchen is providing much joy, each and every time I open something. It took some time for me to overcome the immensity of this project, but taking it slowly and a few cabinets at a time, made the project much more manageable.

To see more about my kitchen, visit My Kitchen-Part 1 and My Kitchen- Part 2. Also 10 Things I Love About my Kitchen.

This post shared with Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday #758