‘Tis the season for baking, cooking, and prepping all of your favorites, whether you’re hosting the holidays yourself, or just bringing a side dish or sweet treat (or three) to the festivities. But to make all that holiday baking and cooking much easier on you, now’s the time to declutter your kitchen—or at least, a few key components of it—to ensure that you have everything ready to go when it’s time to prep Santa’s cookies or your grandma’s rugelach.
“The kitchen is a great place to declutter before the holidays get into full swing,” says Jamie Hord, professional organizer and founder of Horderly. “Less clutter in the kitchen will make a less stressful and much easier cooking process.”
Focus your kitchen organizing efforts on these six key areas to ensure you’re ready to go for your holiday parties, cookie swaps, and other festive get-togethers.
Jamie Hord, professional organizer and founder of Horderly
Rusty or Worn Pans and Cooking Tools
Make sure that your cookie sheets, roasting pan, and any specialty baking pans are in good shape and ready for your holiday cooking traditions. Replace pans with rust or peeling coating, or give stained pans a good cleaning to get them back in shape for your holiday baking.
And sort through your cookie cutters, too—you’ll want to replace your bent-out-of-shape Santa cookie cutter and that rusty star.
Surplus Tools
Do you really need 10 spatulas or two meat thermometers to get the job done? Now’s the time to purge any excess—and perhaps share it with someone via your local Buy Nothing group or donate to a local charity.
Things You Haven’t Used in More Than a Year
If you haven’t made pizzelles in a few Christmases, or your roasting pan has been idle since another family member took the reins for Thanksgiving dinner, it might be time to let go of that cookware—especially if it’s taking up prime real estate in your kitchen. (P.S. You can also try our tips for cooking a turkey without a roasting pan, so you can still make your holiday delicious and your kitchen less cluttered than ever before.)
Expired Ingredients
If your brown sugar is rock hard and your shortening has turned an off color, you may want to go ahead and replace them—or at least, get a head start on declumping the brown sugar!
While you’re decluttering, take stock of what’s missing from your cupboards, too. You don’t want to have to rush out to the store for more cornstarch or vanilla extract when you’re in the middle of cooking.
Chipped Serving Dishes
Give your festive food dishes the proper framing they deserve. If your serving dishes and bowls have seen better days—they’re chipped, the patterns are fading, or they otherwise look less than their best—it’s a good time to repair or replace them.
Stale Spices
If you can’t remember when you bought that shaker full of ground cloves or dried sage, it’s been too long since you’ve replaced your spices. You’ll want to refresh your set at least every two years to ensure plenty of flavor in your cooking!
Don’t worry: We have plenty of ideas for how to use your expired spices, so they don’t go to waste.
Anything You Can Share With Others
‘Tis the season for giving back and doing good. So go through your cabinet and look for any (unopened and still fresh!) goodies and ingredients that could brighten someone else’s holiday. Donate mixes you won’t use, gingerbread house kits, extra chocolate chips, cans of pumpkin puree, or jars of sprinkles so everyone in your community can make their holiday feasting dreams come true.