The Kitchn Cure

Lots of people believe in spring cleaning, but I think it’s just as important to clean as you head into fall. Why? Because you’re phasing out the summer stuff (Popsicle molds, melamine dinnerware, etc.) and getting ready for a nesting period, during which you’re more likely to entertain at home, cook heartier meals, and generally be inside more — only to be annoyed by clutter and messes.

The Kitchn Cure Day 20: Have a sit and make a list. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Why, hello! Here we are on the final day of the Cure. Congratulations! I hope your Cure has been beneficial; bringing you closer to, and more happy with, your kitchen. At the very least it is cleaner, and cleaner — while not everything — is a good place to start. Before we end, let’s come full circle and spend a final, quiet moment in our kitchen.

The Kitchn Cure Day 19: Revisit your list and pick a project. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Today is the day we pull out the list we made on day 1, pick an item from the dislike column, and do something about it! Your initial choice here is to either pick a project that can be completed in a day or begin the process towards tackling a larger endeavor. The smaller project will bring a sense of immediate satisfaction and reward and add to your Cure glow.

The Kitchn Cure Day 16: Clean the under-the-sink area and your trash can. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Gasp! What is this? We are already on the final week of the Cure? Time sure passes quickly when you throw yourself into a project! This final week of the Cure has a few challenges (like today’s under-the-sink clean-out, if your kitchen is anything like mine), but mostly it’s about caring for our kitchens on a simpler, quieter level.

The Kitchn Cure Day 15: Focus on your knives and wooden utensils. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments I’ll cut straight to the punchline: The most important thing in your kitchen is the sharpness of your knives. I was going to add that maybe running water is more important, but after careful thinking, I still come back to sharp knives. You can haul in water if it comes to that, but you can’t cut a tomato with a dull knife.

The Kitchn Cure Day 14: Replenish and replace. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Today is the day we finish up creating our Super Magical Power Pantry; replenish our spices; and replace any unhappy dish, tool, or gadget. Yes, today is the day we go shopping. Grab your bags; tuck in your pantry, spice, and utensil list; and set your mind towards a more conscious, mindful shopping experience. What?

The Kitchn Cure Day 13: Sort through your dishes and serveware. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Today we’re going to rummage through our dish and glassware cupboards and upend our various drawers of silverware, tools, and implements. We’re going to sort through and clean out and rearrange all manner of kitchen chaos. Hurray! But first, let’s talk about shoes. Shoes are purely functional objects, right?

The Kitchn Cure Day 12: Clean and organize your spice rack. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Today is going to be a nice day; a bit of a treat for the senses after a couple of weeks inhaling all-purpose cleaner and vinegar. Today we’re going to play with — err, clean and organize — our herbs and spices. In the process, we may also get a glimpse into our own inner workings. How big is your spice area?

The Kitchn Cure Day 10: Quietly reflect on the last nine days. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Did you notice we’re almost halfway though the Cure already? How did that happen? Time can pass quickly when we’re engaged and steadfast in our efforts. Especially these first two weeks, which were full of some very heavy-duty projects. Today, though, we’re going to head back into the kitchen for a more quiet, reflective endeavor.

The Kitchn Cure Day 9: Give your small appliances a good cleaning. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Today we’re going to take care of those small but hardworking appliances that help make our kitchens truly function. If you own a dishwasher, microwave, toaster oven, and a coffee grinder, then this is going to be a busy day. But it’s also the last of the major cleaning, so one more push and the heavy labor will soon be done.

The Kitchn Cure Day 5: Give your freezer a good scrub. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments We took it easy yesterday, but today might be a bit more of a challenge as we take on giving our freezers a good scrub. How much of a challenge this is depends on how large and clean your freezer already is, and whether or not it needs defrosting.

The Kitchn Cure Day 4: Sort through your freezer’s expired items. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Today is going to be a (somewhat) light day. We’ve earned it! If you clean your refrigerator on a regular basis, the past few days may have been a breeze. But most of us don’t do this nearly enough, so it’s possible that what we’ve just done is a huge accomplishment. Congratulations!

The Kitchn Cure Day 3: Banish guilt and finish cleaning your refrigerator. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Yesterday we started our big fridge clean-out by wiping down the door shelves and produce bins and sorting through the bits and bobs we store there. As an extra bonus, we also discovered our Cure spirit animal. (Snail, hummingbird, or other? Tell us in the comments!) Today we’re ready to go back in to finish the job.

The Kitchn Cure Day 2: Wipe down refrigerator door shelves and produce bins. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments I’m not usually a fan of cleaning my refrigerator. I’m not sure why — I love a sparkling fridge with everything neatly arranged and in its place — but somehow, I often can’t get there.

The Kitchn Cure Day 1: Make a list of what you like and dislike about your kitchen. Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments Hello, and welcome to Day 1 of the Kitchn Cure. I’m really excited to get started on our four-week journey to a more mindful and thoughtful relationship with our kitchens.

Our Kitchn Cure starts Monday September 7. Join us for a 20-day journey towards a cleaner, happier, more mindful kitchen. Get all the details here! This year’s Cure is led by Dana Velden, the author of our Weekend Meditations column, and of the new book, Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes from a Mindful Cook.

Day 20 Task: Get Our 20 Minute/30 Day Cleaning Plan It hasn’t always been easy, and there hasn’t always been a lot of time, but my kitchen is now officially clean and organized. The tell-tale sign that the Cure was worth the extra effort this month? I’m more excited to cook and have people come over. But just because The Kitchn Cure is done, it doesn’t mean the cleaning and upkeep is over. Let’s review the 20 minute/30 day cleaning plan for the next month.

Day 19 Task: Buy Something Nice For Your Kitchen Now that you have a totally clean kitchen, it’s time to treat yo’ self to something pretty. It doesn’t have to be big or expensive — just a little something that will add some beauty to your kitchen and make you want to be there that much more. My personal criteria for the assignment was to purchase something small, useful, and permanent. No flowers or good-smelling spray that I don’t really need.

Day 18 Task: Clean the Countertops, Backsplash, and Floor Things are starting to feel really great in my kitchen. The anxiety I originally had when opening a cupboard to find something in the pantry, or looking for a cleaning item, is now gone. The final clean for The Kitchn Cure comes down to the big picture things: the floors, countertops, and backsplash. Let’s do it. The first thing I did was break down all the surfaces into how they should be cleaned.

The Kitchn Cure Day 18: Wednesday, September 3 Assignment: Clean the countertops and backsplash. Sweep and mop the floors. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure After three weeks of cleaning, decluttering, and (we imagine) still cooking in your kitchen, your kitchen floor is probably in desperate need of a good mopping. The same goes for the countertops.

Day 16 & 17 Task: Clean and Organize the Under-Sink Area; Clean the Trash Can “What’s wrong?” my boyfriend asked sitting on the couch, watching my eyes glaze over while I stared in the direction of the sink. “You don’t look so great,” he said, starting to get concerned. The next two Kitchn Cure assignments were not going to be fun. Not fun at all. As we head into the last week of the Kitchn Cure, two unglamorous tasks await.

The Kitchn Cure Day 17: Tuesday, September 2 Assignment: Clean out trash can and wipe it down. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure I admit it — today’s assignment is a bummer. Why? Because cleaning the trash can is kind of gross. But you know what’s even grosser?

The Kitchn Cure Day 15: Friday, August 29 Assignment: Restock your pantry. Buy any tools, gadgets, or utensils you really need. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure We’re coming up on a long holiday weekend, which is a great time to catch up on The Kitchn Cure tasks if you need to. If you’re feeling on top of it, then your only task for today and this weekend is this: shop!

We’re rolling on through The Kitchn Cure, 20 days (or four weekends) of assignments to get your kitchen clean, organized, well-stocked, and all round rocking. To get us through the last push, let’s rock out on this long weekend with a playlist designed to keep your toes tapping and your mop in motion. Here are 20 songs, from our readers’ suggestion and our own favorite playlists — all guaranteed to set you dancing as your kitchen gets cleaner.

Day 14 Task: Clean Cupboards, Shelves, and Drawers Now that I’ve tossed or donated all of the dishes, bowls, classes, and utensils that I could spare in my kitchen, it’s time to clean and organize! This is my favorite part of these Cure assignments. Today’s assignment helped me discover a whole new outlook on life, one that is filled with opening cupboards and not crying out of fear and frustration.

The Kitchn Cure Day 14: Thursday, August 28 Assignment: Clean cupboards, shelves, and drawers. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure Now that we’ve cleared out a lot of the extraneous stuff hidden in our kitchen cabinets and drawers — duplicate tools, rarely-used gadgets, one too many holiday mugs — we’re ready to give those shelves, drawers, and cabinet fronts a good soapy scrubdown before putting everything away.

Day 13 Task: Declutter Dishes, Glasses, Tools & Gadgets After feeling great about decluttering and organizing my pantry items, I was ready (even excited) to declutter my dishes, glasses, tools and gadgets. As is painfully clear in the above image, the cupboard holding my dishes and glasses reads like a jam and Mason jar crime scene. The jars lurk behind the dishes, waiting to attack. I’m ready to take charge of the situation.

The Kitchn Cure Day 13: Wednesday, August 27 Assignment: Declutter dishware, glassware, utensils, gadgets, and tools. Make a list of anything you need. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure Do your cupboards runneth over? Is your utensil drawer starting to look like a survival of the fittest contest? Have you accumulated one too many kitchen gadgets?

Day 12 Task: Clean and Organize Your Pantry Shelves After tossing, organizing, and donating my pantry goods, it was time to clean the cupboards and organize everything. This was the easiest and most satisfying assignment of The Kitchn Cure so far. I don’t have a ton of space in my cupboards, so it was a no-brainer on how to organize all the pantry goods in the kitchen. Remind me, why didn’t I do this earlier? Read on for very satisfying before and after shots of my pantry.

The Kitchn Cure Day 12: Tuesday, August 26 Assignment: Clean and organize your pantry shelves, or wherever you store food. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure Yesterday you decluttered your pantry; now it’s time to wash the shelves and get rid of the grime, grease, dust, and that sticky spot from your honey jar that’s been there for months. We’re going to wipe off all storage containers, too, and organize things. Let’s go!

The Kitchn Cure Day 11 Task: Declutter the Pantry Now that all the big and small appliances are clean, it’s time to edit and clean the pantry this week for the Kitchn Cure. Like a soldier readying herself for battle, I accepted this challenge and prepared to combat all the expired, spoiled, and disorganized goods I have in my cupboards. Let’s take a look at my extremely disorganized cupboards full of pantry goods, shall we? It’s a mess. I’m sorry.

The Kitchn Cure Day 11: Monday, August 25 Assignment: Declutter the pantry and make a donation box. Make a list of anything you’re missing or need. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure Welcome to Week 3 of The Kitchn Cure! You’ve handled the big cleaning jobs with aplomb so far. Deep cleaning the oven, freezer, refrigerator, greasy stovetop, and all your small electric appliances is no small feat!

Day 10 Task: Buy That Pan or Small Appliance You Need After deep-cleaning the oven, the stovetop, the range hood, and all the small appliances, today’s assignment for The Kitchn Cure is a fun one: buy that small appliance for your kitchen that you need! After a little brainstorming, I quickly got to work on that one thing I’ve been wanting for my kitchen for quite some time. The only small appliance I think I really want right now is a nice blender, like a Vitamix.

The Kitchn Cure Day 10: Friday, August 22 Assignment: Buy that pan or small appliance you need. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure Today we take a break from cleaning to do something fun: shop! If you really need a new pan or small appliance, now’s the time to get it. This is your reward for all the deep cleaning you did this week.

Day 9 Task: Clean Your Small Appliances One of the Kitchn Cure tasks earlier this week centered on reevaluating our pots, pans, and small appliances in the kitchen. Now that I have an “edited” kitchen space, it’s time to clean everything I kept! After cleaning the oven, stovetop, and range hood this week, cleaning the small stuff should be a breeze. I was least excited about cleaning the dishwasher, so I decided to start with that first.

The Kitchn Cure Day 9: Thursday, August 21 Assignment: Clean your small appliances. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure This is the last cleaning assignment for this week, friends! You’ve really gotten down and dirty these last few days, but give it one more push today and all the major stuff will soon be behind you.

The Kitchn Cure Day 8: Wednesday, August 20 Assignment: Clean your stovetop and range hood. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure If you cook every day, your stovetop inevitably gets dirty. Spills and splatters are a natural part of cooking. You may be in the habit of doing a quick wipedown after every use, but sometimes you just need to dig in and give the whole stovetop a thorough cleaning.

The Kitchn Cure Day 4: Thursday, August 14 Assignment: Clear out the freezer. (See all the assignments so far here) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure Your refrigerator is now in tip-top shape, so let’s move on to the freezer, shall we? Like the refrigerator task, we’re divvying up this task into two days. Today we’ll clear out, consolidate, and label everything in your freezer; tomorrow we’ll clean and organize it so you can easily find what you need!

Day 3 Task: Clean and Organize the Refrigerator Yesterday I threw out all the expired, questionable, or otherwise unappetizing things in my fridge. Today I got down into the dirty, dark side of the two-day fridge task for The Kitchn Cure: the actual cleaning and organizing. With a few cleaning supplies on hand, an easy cleaning guide, and the will to succeed, this task went a lot faster than I anticipated.

The Kitchn Cure Day 3: Wednesday, August 13 Assignment: Deep clean the refrigerator. (See all the assignments so far here.) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure Now that you’ve cleared out your refrigerator, it’s time to give it a thorough cleaning. Say farewell to the watery goop at the bottom of your crisper, the sticky mess at the back of the second shelf, the crumbs in the rubber door seal.

It’s Day 2 of The Kitchn Cure, which means it’s time to tackle the fridge. As you go through your questionable leftovers and weed out the expired condiments, it’s essential to rock some tunes that make things a little more enjoyable. Maybe even a little fun. What songs do you have up your sleeve that will have everyone dancing like a fool while cleaning and organizing the kitchen?

The Kitchn Cure Day 2: Tuesday, August 12 Assignment: Clear out the refrigerator. (See all the assignments so far here.) Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure How did Day 1 of The Kitchn Cure go for you? We started off light, but now the real work begins. Today is the first day of our two-day refrigerator task! Instead of tackling both a fridge clearing and deep clean in one day, we’re splitting the project into two parts.

The Kitchn Cure Day 1: Monday, August 11 Assignment: Make a list of what you like and dislike about your kitchen. Sign Up: Sign up here for The Kitchn Cure Welcome, everyone! Today is the first day of The Kitchn Cure, and we’re so happy you’ve decided to join us. Over the next four weeks we’re going to clean, organize, and beautify our kitchens from top to bottom. Are you ready?

There’s nothing more disappointing than getting all geared up to clean out your kitchen, only to find that you don’t have the proper cleaning supplies and have to run out to get them! Having everything on hand will put you in the right frame of mind to focus on the tasks ahead. If you’re joining us on next week’s Kitchn Cure, stock up on these essential supplies so that you’re prepared and ready to go!

Day 10 Task: Plan a dinner party My experience doing The Kitchn Cure can be summed up this way: it made me finally do the things I’ve been wanting to do in my kitchen. Sometimes you just need a good kick in the pants to get going, you know? — something that stops the excuses and procrastinating and helps you get your ideas or plans off the ground.

Day 9: Thursday, October 10 Assignment: Cook yourself a meal The penultimate assignment in The Kitchn Cure is always to cook yourself a simple meal. This isn’t your big graduation brouhaha; this is a simple meal you are to cook yourself right away. As in tonight. Your kitchen is clean, you have no nasty old food in your fridge or pantry, you have all the right tools and you even have some fresh flowers or a plant inspiring you to nourish yourself. What’s stopping you? I get it.

Day 8 Task: Bring fresh flowers or a plant into the kitchen Who can’t keep succulents alive, you ask? That would be me. But they’re the easiest plants to take care of! Yes, so I’ve been told. Like, seriously. So easy! I get it. Really, they require almost no water! OK STOP. I don’t know what it is, but I have terrible luck with plants.

There’s nothing I hate more than something that doesn’t work well, and I’ve definitely been tormented by plastic wrap. Who hasn’t? (Well, maybe a lot of people, but I’m not one of them.) The Kitchn Cure has me really looking at what’s inconvenient about my kitchen, and how I can change it. As you may have noticed, I’m pretty excited about my new ChicWrap dispenser. This stuff really works! And the zip cutter on top of the box is genius.

Day 7 Task: Special project I didn’t mean for it to happen. I was feeling guilty, because my special project wasn’t all that special, or difficult. I needed to deal with the cookbook situation. I have a thing for random cookbooks and that thing is getting ugly. And the spaces behind the cookbooks were getting really ugly, so it had to be done. But then something amazing happened: My youngest son got totally into the Cure, and I don’t mean the band.

Day 7: Tuesday, October 8 Assignment: Special project This is where it gets really fun: it’s Special Project time! Your special project is about improving the functionality of your space, with a slight eye toward the aesthetic. I’ve seen people repaint their kitchens, strip wallpaper, replace faucets, and create new systems for storing knives or compost.

Day 6 Task: Consider appliances, gadgets and tools. The first thing I did when I saw today’s task was go out and buy this $5,800 Trousseau kitchen set from MOMA. Then I threw everything else away. I kid, I kid. (Although if I had $5,800 to spare and, you know, no rent or bills or living expenses of any kind for forever, then maybe.

Day 6 Task: Consider appliances, gadgets and tools. Y’all! We have crossed the halfway line of The Kitchn Cure! Doesn’t it feel great? The Cure has been all about streamlining for me. I don’t need more, I need less, so I can find and use what I have. As I went through my appliances, gadgets and tools, I found at least one really cool thing I had forgotten, and I’ll be using it regularly.

Who’s ready to clean?! If you’ve been following The Kitchn Cure, you know that yesterday was Deep Clean day. Raise your hand if you put that off till this weekend. (It’s okay, don’t worry!) If you did, then you’re in luck, because we just put together the ultimate playlist for cleaning the kitchen.

Day 5 Task: Restock ingredients I knew what I wanted to do for this task right from the start. Since moving, my mortar and pestle has sat, unused and sad-looking, on my pantry shelf. Well, ok. If I’m being totally honest, it sat, unused and sad-looking, in my old apartment, too. I know that freshly ground spices are on a totally different planet than their pre-ground counterparts.

Day 5 Task: Restock ingredients I needed more destocking than restocking. Judging from the mess in my fridge, freezer and pantry, I had everything I needed. It was time to use it! But all that shiny, empty space was tempting, so I did add a few things. The first thing I did was take stock of my stock (ha!). I was down to one container and I had a bag of duck bones and onions in the freezer, so I knew what I had to do. I even managed to use a few more things in the fridge that needed to go away.

Before horror (left) and after (right) — so much better, but the door is still gunky. Day 4 Task: Deep clean You know things are serious when it’s 10:30 at night and your oven is caked in baking soda, your oven racks are soaking in the bathtub, your tea kettle is bubbling with boiling water to pour over your stovetop grates, and your husband is on his hands and knees washing the floor with a sponge because you realized too late you didn’t have a mop in the house.

Day 4 Task: Deep clean. I have a confession: This task was not too scary, because we have a house cleaner once a week who takes care of a lot of deep cleaning type tasks, so our space doesn’t get too bad. The floors are clean, the baseboards dusted and the counters and backsplash polished on the regular. There are, however, a few scary spots, which I tackled with glee. (Hey, this is starting to get fun!) The worst place in my kitchen is under the sink.

Day 4: Thursday, October 3 Assignment: Deep clean every part of your kitchen Here is one of my favorite tasks. I know, some people think I’m crazy, but cleaning a kitchen is one of the most rewarding chores. There are some places in a kitchen that can go years without attention, then suddenly you notice the grime and the grease and cleaning it up feels so liberating, you could just sing. Okay, maybe not all of you, but that’s how it goes in my house.

Day 3 Task: Declutter appliances, gadgets, and tools The third task arrived, and I approached it with trepidation after my bruising experience in the pantry on Day 2. On the surface all looked well, since I cleared out most extraneous tools and gadgets before I moved back in June, but I was taking nothing for granted. I knew my drawers had gotten a little messy, and there were a few crumbs in with my silverware. Would I find a horrible spill in the bottom of a cabinet?