Spring cleaning: Diving into kitchen cupboards and closets

This is part 3 of a 3-part series on spring cleaning.

The final week of our Spring-Cleaning Series focuses on kitchen cupboards and closets.

Here is your to-do list:

Kitchen cupboards

Exterior Clean

Take a hot soapy cloth with a bit of orange-based cleaner in the solution and give the outside of all cabinets a good wiping down to remove the topcoat of dust and debris. Be sure to wring out the cloth well to avoid having to dry the cabinets.

Gather a clean cloth and wood furniture polish and treat your wood cabinets to a moisturizing by wiping down all surfaces. Using a lemon/orange scented polish makes your kitchen smell fantastic and brings out the grain in your wood. The orange cleaner acts as a grease cutting agent to help you remove years of grime much easier.

Spring cleaning, part 1:Tips for the grand declutter, window cleaning

Spring cleaning, part 2:Tackling fans, baseboards, light fixtures, furniture

Interior Clean

Focus on two to three cabinets at a time and then repeat the process below:

Remove EVERYTHING - immediately get rid of things you have not used in the past 12 months. Create two piles on the kitchen table. One for items to be thrown away and one for donations.

Get a warm soapy bucket of water and clean cloth. Use solution to wipe down interior of all cabinets. Use a gentle natural solution of 6 tbsp. of baking soda, 8 cups of water and a squirt or two of dish detergent. This solution is gentle enough to clean almost any furniture without harming the surface.

Starting at the top (and this is key), wipe down all shelves and sides of the cabinet interior. Your cloth should just be damp to avoid a second step of drying. Once you finish wiping the last cabinet, the first should be dry enough to reload at the items you chose to keep. When you purge the items you really don’t use or need, you are left to treasure and appreciate the ones you do have left. Remember our motto – less is more.

Repeat above process until ALL upper and lower cabinets are complete. Always start high and finish low as crumbs and debris fall and gather on shelving below.

When reloading your dishes, bowls and cookware, take this time to be sure they will be located in the best possible place. Function is essential in the kitchen. A clean, well -organized and functional kitchen will make your life easier! Our goal is to simplify.

Captivating closets

Our homes are filled with many closets and this task can seem daunting. Don’t let it be! Take it one at a time and you will soon realize how liberating it can be to rid your home of needless clutter and give your family that valuable space back.

Remove EVERYTHING from the closets. Decide what has been used in the past 12 months and is necessary to keep and what you can part with. Create 3 piles: one for items to save, one for items to be donated and one pile for items to throw away. The key here is to be honest with yourself! Don’t save anything you may use or think you could need in the future. Remember what our goal is-organize, declutter, and simplify.

Vacuum the shelves and floor of the closet, and wipe down shelves and lighting.

For a special treat that will keep you closet smelling fresh, you can either place scented dryer sheets on a few different shelves or place air fresheners in the closet.

Take this opportunity to use smaller organizing bins and baskets to corral your items.

Install extra shelving where needed and use your space as wisely as possible. Careful space planning in your closet really pays off.

Reload all of your items to be saved in like groupings to make things easier to find.

Repeat this process for each closet. This is a favorite yearly occurrence in my home. My children have come to love and appreciate this as well and they now declutter their own closets. They find old toys that become new favorites, clothes they loved but hadn’t seen in ages and feel like they have new items to rejuvenate their wardrobe.

Captivating Closet week may take longer than others, but the payoff is well worth the time spent.

Congratulate yourself as you have now completed our Spring Cleaning Series! You have rewarded yourself with a deep cleaned, organized and stress reducing sanctuary. Repeat the process annually. Before you know it, you may appreciate the feeling so much, it becomes a semi-annual event.

Look for more tips from Deb in the Observer Dispatch every other Sunday and on her websites decluttercoachdeb.com and dceffconsult.com. You can follow her on social media and watch her TV show Organization Motivation! organizationmotivation.com.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Spring cleaning: Tackling kitchen cupboards and closets