One of my big New Year's Resolutions this year is to get my kitchen organized. Not that it's a total mess, but my spice cabinet is stuffed to the brim, and there's no telling what's hiding in the back of my pantry.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going through all my cabinets, the pantry and the fridge, tossing, cleaning and reorganizing. I did this last year and it's such a nice feeling to know exactly what's in my kitchen and knowing that I can find exactly what I'm looking for.

Your Pantry

Come up with a system (either alphabetical or by cuisine) for your spices and sort them that way. It will make it much easier to find a certain spice if you have a system. Do the same with your pantry. I like to dedicate certain shelves (or areas of that shelf) to certain items. I have a cereal shelf for example as well as a bread section and even my canned goods are sorted by veggies, fruit and meats etc. This is also a great time to check on the expiration date on various dry goods including canned items, spices and mixes.

Consider buying a few stackable plastic containers for your cereal, flour, dry pasta etc. It can save you a lot of room instead of using the huge cardboard containers these products come in originally.

Your Fridge and Freezer

Give your fridge a good cleaning and toss anything that looks questionable or has expired. Don't forget to toss all those little restaurant sauce containers too that have accumulated in a corner of your fridge over the past months. Don't forget to go through the freezer compartment of your fridge or any other freezer you have in the house as well.

Take a few hours over the next couple of weeks to give your kitchen an organization make-over. Just having everything clean will make you feel better and more organized.

Make A Meal Plan

Don't forget to look at how you cook dinner. Do you scramble in the evening to come up with something you can quickly fix for your hungry family? If so, take a look at meal planning and see if you can't get more organized and make cooking dinner easier on yourself by planning what you will prepare ahead of time.

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