4. If you have a dishwasher (or dishpan under your sink) and it's now filled with dirty dishes, now is the time to get it running. Put the detergent in and set that baby to “pots & pans.” It uses more water, but if your dishes have been sitting for a while, they'll need the extra strength of that cycle to get sparkling clean. You don't have to use the dry-cycle—it eats up energy and makes your dishes too hot to handle. When the dishwasher is done, open the door and let the dishes cool *briefly* before putting them away. Do the last step quickly—if you keep the dishwasher empty when the dishes are clean, you've won a large portion of the battle to keep your kitchen organized. If you have a dishpan that's full of dishes, move the pan up to the sink and start washing. Dry them quickly and put the dishes away—then move your dishpan to its spot under the sink for collection of future dishes.



5. Take a look at your kitchen appliances on the counter (or up above the cabinets). Do you have too many things that you hardly ever use, but collect dust and kitchen grease? Take an honest assessment of what you have and when you last used the item(s). If you haven't used it in a while or don't plan to use it in the near future, donate, sell, give it away, or pitch it. Take a look at the cast-iron skillet you have but haven't used in God-knows-how-long. Useful, yes. In your life? Maybe not. Be honest and be brutal. You'll end up with kitchen appliances that you love and that are useful, not clutter.

6. Now look at your sink. How grimy is it? Take a good steel wool soap pad and scrub that bad boy out! If you've got a porcelain sink, don't use a steel wool pad, but do use a gentle abrasive.

If you don't have a cleaner on hand to do it, sprinkle a good portion of baking soda on your sink and use a wet rag. Rub the baking soda paste (created with the water from the rag) in circles and when you've completed the whole sink, rinse the remainder down the drain. Regardless of what type of sink you have, once you've given it a good scrub, pull out the window cleaner and a dry rag. Shine up the faucet and inside of the sink (if it's chrome). Dry it all out and your sink will shine! I dare you to put a bunch of dirty dishes in it after that!

Okay, in Part 3 of Organizing Your Kitchen, we'll look at fixing up the larger areas like cabinets, appliances and floors.