apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The refrigerator, freezer, and pantry area in my kitchen were cleaned out this weekend. I have one more food storage area to tackle tonight in a shallow closet in my living room (gotta love NYC apartments). Thank goodness we're doing this in weekly increments, otherwise I don't think I would tackle this at all! Multiples found so far:
3 bags of brown sugar (two opened, and all still soft)
3 bags of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free bread mix
2 bottles of rice mirin
3 unopened containers of whole black peppercorns (and I don't have a grinder)

Well, I got as far as taking the "before" photos... not pretty. I'll get movin' on the "after" portion this evening! It was a busy weekend.

I can't wait to see more pics!

I'm doing the cure after a move-in, so things were clean. BUT, we did do a lot of sorting out, giving away, and organizing. The result is (mostly) a bare bones kitchen that I feel comfortable in right now. Next steps include menu planning, grocery shopping (with a plan!), and putting artwork and curtains up.

So far, I've done the pantry and the refrigerator. Haven't gotten around to the freezer yet. (And not looking forward to it.)

I found 3 bags of lentils--all in different places, all opened. Two bottles of the same brand of spicy mustard. Lots of old, unused canned goods that are going to be donated.

So far, so good!

I did well, but like jarobinson1, I haven't tackled the freezers. Here's a question though: I know freezers work best when they are full, so should I keep the frozen turkey from two years ago in there or toss it? Or can it be cooked still?

I wish I knew someone I could donate my unused canned goods too! I did manage to clean out a couple of cupboards and the fridge, but there's still a lot of work to be done...

I am so proud of myself! Yesterday I worked hard, but now most of the cabinets and the fridge are ok.
In the fridge I found a bottle of yogurt expiring yesteday.
I made a cake with the yogurt and some Amaretto di Saronno, it tastes deliciously.

i'm starting tomorrow and i THINK that i can get it all tackled in the few weekdays left before the new assignment. i did my big grocery trip yesterday so i got a bit of a start on the fridge by doing our weekly purge. just some chopped eggplant that ended up near the back and some hummus left from a huge batch that i made a couple of weeks ago. got do a deep clean though. also hoping to swap pantry spaces. dishes moving to the pantry and more used bulk items are moving to the cabinet above the counter. maybe my oils and vinegars too. wish me luck.

weekends are for play! :)

I cleaned out the fridge and freezer late Saturday night after a HUGE grocery trip. We just moved in in July, but it was nice to wipe down all the shelves!

The next step is the cabinets, which aren't dirty but have been arranged haphazardly since I've just been pushing things to the back as I think of new things I need.

I am doing the home and kitchen cures and did a preliminary cleanup of both this weekend. Will tackle the fridge and pantry this coming week. I did oven roast some fading veggies and poured over some polenta with eggs for dinner yesterday. Progress!

I cleaned out the fridge and my spice shelf this weekend. In the fridge I found a red pepper that was so old that it actually hit rigor mortis! No mold, no funky smell, nothing. I didn't know this could happen to veggies...
Hopefully I won't find any more petrified foods in my pantry!

I cleaned everything out and threw out a lot of jars/bottles from the fridge and a lot of old spices or consolidated them. I was glad to finally clear out the freezer because there was a Popsicle spill that I had not wanted to deal with before. This is a good exercise for me because over the summer I broke up with my live in boyfriend, and he took a lot of responsibility for grocery shopping and daily cooking, but now it's all on me and I need to readjust to cooking and shopping for one and keeping tabs of what I actually have on hand for quick, tasty, and healthy meals.

Only got before pictures taken this weekend- in the kitchen anyway. I hung a mirror and tested some paint samples in the foyer. I planning on doing the fridge and freezer tonight and the pantry cabinet tomorrow. Is there a flickr group for this cure? I'm curious to see how others are doing.

i pitched a package of that icky processed fake cheese (the kind that comes in individually plastic-wrapped slices) that had been in fridge for god knows how long. the only reason i had it is because my psycho ex-roommate bought it, and she moved out nearly six months ago... ew.

Amazing how many half used bottles of tomato sauce I had in the refrigerator. They were all science experiments by now.
I've been wanting to tackle the kitchen for months and little assignments like these are totally doable.

I cleaned out my spice cabinet (many herbs with no aroma had to go) and my baking cabinet. I also tackled the freezer but it still looks cluttered. My pantry is the biggest problem and I haven't started it yet.

I got the freezer/fridge and pantry all cleaned out!... I didn't take any before pictures though. the before was just too shameful.

I really did think my kitchen and pantry foods were relatively up-to-date (if disorganized), but I still found a jar of borscht leftover from when my son had a Russian best friend (in 2007) who would sleep over and eat nothing but hot dogs and Russian foods, as well as some Thousand Island salad dressing from 2006.

I found so much great tea hiding in the back of my hot beverage cupboard! I was thinking I needed to buy some Assam, but no, I had an entire bag of it in there. My teas are now organized and accessible. I tossed a few I just didn't like and have challenged myself to drink a different one each day to break free from my Earl Gray & green tea routine.

Not too many surprises in my condiment cupboard, but I cleared out tons of things that didn't belong in there. I did find two opened bottles of rose water, two giant bottles of orange flower water, and duplicate baking soda.

Next up fridge and pantry.

I've thought about it.... and that's as far as I've gotten.

I got the pictures done, went through my 'pantry' which is thankfully small, and wiped down my spice jars, storage canisters and all... so far, so good!
I second the need to start a kitchen cure Flickr group. I'll see what I can do when I get home.

I got it all done on Saturday. It felt good!
Found some spices I have forgotten. It was like finding money in my winter coat!

Found two jars of cloves, which I never use. Seven bags of ground almonds, who knows why! Two bottles of Fish Sauce, due to an ex-roomie. Also learned I have nine kinds of sugar, fives kinds of flour & vinegar! Yikes.

(Oh, and a tin of new potatoes. Ew! Tinned?!)

I think I did pretty good. I threw away a chicken carcass that had been in the freezer for lord knows how long (grand plans to make stock) and a boatload of spices that I safely say had a longer life span than said chicken carcass ("Season All" seasoning salt-who uses that anymore????, multiple jars of lemon grass-both unopened, lemon pepper blend, "freeze dried" chives-yes the container really said that). I also cleaned out the area underneath my stove where the broiler rack and pan go and found a couple of pans that haven't been used in decades are are unlikely to ever be used. I feel pretty good!

I cleaned out and organized the cabinets yesterday. Thankfully there wasn't too much to throw away, things just needed to be organized better so that I could see everything. Fridge and freezer up next!

We cleaned out the fridge, after being out of town for two weeks. We had a moth problem in the pantry and took care of it several weeks ago, so it's on to the spice rack to prep for the holiday baking. Also lots of specials on baking products at the grocery, so a second written (not visual) inventory must be taken so I DO NOT do the three boxes of brown sugar.

I have a question: I have one pretty big cabinet for all my dry goods. because there are cans, Oatmeal container, bags of chips and flour, etc, little things like taco seasoning packets and tea boxes get lost. Any suggestions on how to corral the tiny things, so they don't get shoved into the back and forgotten?

Sent in before pics: not too bad, but can still use some help!!! I'm tackling the fridge/freezer this week. It was not cleaned out well when we bought the place in February, and I've been too lazy to deep clean it.

Hooray for me, productive weekend #1!

I took a bunch of before pictures of my kitchen, even keeping the doors embarrassingly open. Then I tackled my fridge and freezer. What I did do that is very against my norm is throw away tons of old condiments. I know some might be horrified, but I have been known to use condiments well past the "best by" date. Couldn't do it to the Worcestershire sauce though; guess I just don't believe their dating system!!

I couldn't fully commit to the "throw anything away with freezer burn" direction (ground beef with a little freezer burn is just fine to toss in spaghetti sauce for me). Though older opened frozen veggies were thrown out, rather than my normal method of discovering they were bad as soon as soon as I had a craving for them and started to cook them....

Pantry will be done in the next few days, and then I'll start sending in pics!

I got my pantry cleaned out---and found that I have a surplus of mandarin oranges! I also had lots of stale crackers and a few things I didn't know were in there. I was able to donate a big bag of things to a local food pantry in exchange for 2 pumpkins to dress up my front steps. I also reorganized things for fall and made a shelf of things for crock pot dinners. This will make my searching a lot easier when I am trying to throw dinner together in the morning before I head off to work.

I did not get to my fridge, as I cleaned it out a few weeks ago. It's in good shape!

I'm still working on the fridge, so that I won't get overwhelmed I'm doing two shelves a day. It doesn't take longer then 10 minutes and it looks so nice. Not sure about my sorry pantry. I think I'll go with 15 minutes at a time to start.

@bryn: I use baskets to corral the small stuff - it also makes it easy to pull things from the back of cabinets. Wicker is nice, but those white plastic bins/baskets from the dollar store (I got mine in chinatown) are easy to clean. Just find something w/straight sides. Cuts down on wasted space.

I feel like life is so much easier. My pantry is now organized and everything has a place. I would like a new spice rack now. I think my lazy susan set up has seen better days. Anyone have any suggestions?

My fridge and freezer weren't too bad. Some really old duck fat found and tossed. One unidentifiable item in the freezer, but not too bad.

Posted this on another cure thread, but figured this one seems more recent:

I tried wiping down containers and the doors of the cabinets above the range, with 1:1 water-vinegar mix, but that didn't do much to cut the grease, espsecially on the doors and oil containers. Any advice on how to get it off without harsh chemicals?

I have completed step one!
spanking clean, organized fridge and pantry.
yay!

@tallmisto- i have a very simple setup. its this mini staircase looking thing which i line all my spices up on and keep in the pantry.
it looks something like this:
http://www.storables.com/images/Products/1008560/ft.jpg

I have started a flickr group to help us all out. Remember to keep as much of the conversation here on AT as possible!
(and that linking back to your-or someone else's-kitchen photos will be immensely helpful in each of these comment sections)
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1227993@N24/
(I'm Contemna's Darkroom...)

@aneelee I'm thinking of doing the pantry/dish swap too, let me know how it goes :) It makes me (irrationally) nervous. I say this like my entire kitchen is bigger than 2 steps from everything else...

I cleaned the fridge and freezer (I didn't think I needed to clean the freezer... WRONG, pesto from 07 hiding in there)
which was super satisfying. Started the pantry areas and they need some serious reorganization and more cleaning but are at least all edible things now. Everything that has been around too long but is still edible is now on the counter. Eating it this week or it is outta here.

Cleaned out fridge, panty and freezer. Washing down the fridge was especially satisfying. The pantry - jeez why do I have 10 cans of tuna and 3 bags of flaxseed?

I cleaned out some of my cupboards. I honestly thought that I wouldn't have much to toss but I had a lot of expired food. I experienced flashbacks to watching Hoarders every time I heard myself say, "But what I need that ____ someday." Ha! Felt good to purge.

Got pictures taken this weekend too but messed up posting them. Oh well. So far so good.

yogini -- I thought the same thing! I ended up purging about 2 garbage bags of expired food and generally gross things found in the fridge.

I absolutely love to clean so Week 1 was super fun for me actually! I took lots of photos and just created a Flickr account for the 1st time so hopefully I will be able to join the group there too.

I have the same issue with not being able to see all of my spices (I'm short). I have seen the stairstep gadgets at the container store, but am trying to build my own. Any ideas? I've tried it with shoebox lids/cardboard, but they aren't very study.

like apointe, i crated a flickr acc for the first time too and posted my before pics.

started out cleaning the pantry but somehow ended up doing a deep cleaning of the cupboards near the sink. but it is good. coralled some of the occasionally used stuff into cupboards in the bedroom (big pots and pans and extra utensils). now that is neat. washed some stuff and have kept to dry too.

threw away some old corn and found 2 bags of yellow dal, and lots of little jars of lentils. coralled all the little jars into one huge jar, to make lentil soup or bean adai.

cleaned out the freezer and will be using up the following this weekend, when my BF arrives for a visit: a pack of frozen parathas (heat and make some egg curry to go with it), some peas and paneer (rice pilau), chopped capsicum (in a raita), watermelon (juiced with mint), and some cauliflower (in a cauliflower curry or dry saute). this should nearly empty the freezer. only some dried coconut, mango puree, and chocolates will be left. whew!!

will also be using up some yoghurt in the fridge by making the raita.

this is good. i feel great and looking forward to the rest.

sangeetha

Our kitchen proved to be very hard to photograph, but I did get a good before shot of our pantry. I am getting ready to clear out most of the old food and such tomorrow since our trash is collected on Friday.

Here is my post:
http://aimeeroo.com/2009/10/21/the-kitchen-cure-fall-2009/

I recently moved into a new apartment and had a washer sitting in the middle of my kitchen for about a week, so the whole space was a complete mess of partially unpacked cookware, and pantry items that was not at all representative of how my kitchen normally looks, but I did take pictures anyways.

Since I had done the pantry and fridge purge before I moved and have a pretty empty fridge, that part of the assignment didn't take too long and I focused on getting everything into places that made sense in our cabinets. As a bonus, with the pantry items being better organized I was able to empty out the china cabinet in our living/dining area and move all those dishes to the kitchen, thus freeing up some much needed space outside the kitchen. My biggest problem in the kitchen is that even though I have plenty of cabinet space, I have only two small drawers (both of which cannot be opened more than 6 inches without opening the oven because they bump into the oven door handle). Does anyone have any ideas for good methods of storing small cooking utensils and other items in cabinets?

The oldest thing I got rid of was one of those containers of four types of spice blends for dipping bread into that was probably about 4 years old.

I'm looking forward to doing a really thorough cleaning because the cabinets and fridge were not as clean as I would like when we got here, but I didn't have time to clean them out before unpacking into them.

Boy oh boy!

I was slow to sign up for the Cure, largely because I didn't think my kitchen was that bad. Sure, it had gotten a little cluttered, but it was the least of my issues.

Seems I was WAY wrong. I started with the pantry last night and was amazed at how much stuff had accumulated in there. It's strange -- I think that after some period of time my mind just unconsciously adjusted to not see things.

I found, among other things, a half full tin of hot chocolate. I couldn't remember when I bought it, but I noticed there was a "Star Market" price tag on it. Well, I shopped at Star Market when I lived in Boston, and I've been living in NYC since 2001. You do the (nasty) math.

After four solid hours (um, yeah), my pantry looks fantastic. I know what I have, it is organized and neat. I keep opening the pantry to look at my work!

One question for the group -- I have very deep shelves (about 26 inches). It is good storage for my rarely used appliances, etc, but not as useful for food storage. I find the the back half of the shelf just goes unused. Any clever ideas for how to use this space?

I am looking forward to the next assignment - bring it on!

@tallmisto I love my Spice Stack spice rack. It really allows you to use all the space in the back of a shelf efficiently and still be able to find the jar you're looking for easily. You can also keep your spices on a high shelf with it because of the way the drawers swing down.

pantry done. fridge tomorrow.

@turtalia,

i ix-nayed the pantry/cupboard swap. i started and realized that i was going to spend some money on stackers and racks and they all just seemed to loosey-goosey (6YO dish spill everywhere) without extra help.

i relocated my oils and vinegars to the cupboard over the counter and moved less used platters, flower vases and decorative bowls to the high shelves. i also (and this is what has me most excited) cleared out my 6YO's play kitchen stuff out of the pantry and am finally getting her space together (complete with her real cookbooks, her own bowls and tools) within her reach and away from the hot surfaces in its stead.

In cleaning out cabinets for out of date items I also eliminated ALL cardboard boxes and ALL plastic containers and all regular screw top glass storage jars (I found out the screw top ones that are not canning type don't seal completely!! No more little critter condos or trying to match lids!!Yea! I put foods in glass containers that will seal or 1/2 gallon, quart, pint and half-pint jars made for canning and I have baking dishes with glass lids I got on sale!! I do not buy food in cans so I already eliminated the electric can opener. I want to eliminate more and more electric things from my pantry and kitchen. I want to eliminate microwave (mostly used for heating coffee) and toaster. I eliminated EVERYTHING from two 6 foot bookshelves tucked on one side of kitchenette that I was using for a pantry and storage! Can you have only the stove (of which I completely fill the oven up and only use every two weeks, then freeze and reheat on stove top) and the fridge and dishwasher left for electric appliances? ( I have a full load every day because I do not use paper or plastic plates or cups.)
When I was checking for expired dates, (worst 2006, but I bought it last year!!) I started looking at the ingredients in the items and was Flabbergasted to find how many things has HUGE amounts of sugar and fats in them!! Salad dressings was the biggest culprits!! Figured if I'm cleaning the kitchen I should also clean up what goes on INSIDE ME!! OUT they went!! (I have looked up homemade salad dressings to make from scratch so I will know exactly what's in it!) The only thing that was left was a bottle of mustard from two whole shelves in the fridge!! Then I went to kitchen shelves and found the jars of spaghetti sauce I loved had 900 mg. of salt and second main ingredient was SUGAR!! So OUT they went, too!! I am left with marinated artichoke hearts! Forgot to look at the salt content! Oh, but I love them!!(They may have to go, too!)

i cheated. i'm having new countertops installed so i went through and cleaned out/off EVERYTHING. the only thing i didn't do yet, i'm doing tonight (clearing out my baking pantry.) not that i haven't done this in a long time but i had to wait to finish because i filled up my trash bin (in all fairness, a majority was filled by leftover birthday party things.)
thanks so much for this!!!

I didn't get a before photo of my freezer, and I only threw out some greenish pancetta (yuck!), two melty ice pots (ick) and some tasteless tortilla. But I saw how much is in there to cook up - and vow to finish it by Thanksgiving and not put any more in until then. I know that what is there is not older than this summer because I did a spring Cure. Best of all I could put like with like and that organization will make it much easier to cook from. I am putting off the 'fridge until Sunday as I want to cook up some of the "stuff" stuffed in there.

I have been working on the panty but have a loooong way to go. I need to keep cooking out of there and not buying more stuff! But it is neater and like with like (mostly) so it can be the same story as with the freezer.

I hereby vow and you my fellow Cure-ers are my witnesses!

I completely re-organized most of the cupboards to make my kitchen "make more sense." (i.e. moved my daughters snacks to a higher shelf now that my daughter can reach where it used to be, moved the medicine/vitamins to a smaller cupboard.) The only thing I have left is to clean my fridge and freezer... I think I'll try to do that tonight. :)

Sadly it was a busy weekend followed by a busier week. Hope to tackle assignment #1 this weekend if I can get the boyfriend out of the house - I'm certain he will not be pleased to have me taking high resolution pictures of our messy kitchen! Thankfully we have a small fridge and even smaller freezer so that portion of the to-do list won't be too tough.

Good luck to the rest of the Cure crowd!

Got the assignment done yesterday afternoon mere minutes before the Week 2 assignment went online - nothing like a deadline to motivate you! I know that the second week will take me a looong time, so I am setting aside on of my days off to tackle it.

It's pretty easy to organize wen your cupboards are mostly bare! Did a lot of combining- spices especially. One of my special projects will be cutting down the number of spice jars I have!

Keeping a chronicle here: http://artistmakesgood.wordpress.com/

Also, why did I have three mayonnaise jars? I don't even like mayonnaise!