Welcome back to our Kitchen Organization Overhaul! In this series, I’ve been sharing ideas, tips, and projects as we finally get our kitchen organized.

Last week I shared my secret for planning out our kitchen organization overhaul. Instead of making it really complicated, I came up with a simple 3 step method for making a solid plan. If you missed that post, just click here to read more — How to Plan a Kitchen Organization Overhaul in 3 Easy Steps

This week is all about cleaning, sorting, and purging. The first step to really getting a space organized is to purge ruthlessly and get rid of things.

If you don’t get rid of anything then you are just going to be rearranging instead of organizing. And then your space will revert back to a mess in no time! It’s so important that you actually go through what you have and start getting rid of things.

So how do you know what to get rid of? Well, there were a few items that I found during our kitchen organization overhaul that I just knew had to go!

Today I want to share with you 7 things you need to get rid of when organizing your kitchen.

After I made a plan, it was time to remove everything from the cabinets and drawers in our kitchen. This was kind of fun at first — pulling everything out and seeing drawers and cabinets empty.

But then it started to get a little overwhelming. I’m just going to warn you, your kitchen WILL BE a mess at this point. But that’s ok, it’s all a part of the process.

Time for some fun “before” pictures of some of our cabinets and drawers. 🙂

As I started to look through what I had in our kitchen, I tried to group items by type. Then I started to pair down those groups to things that I actually used or needed. Anything that wasn’t useful or necessary was put aside to be trashed or donated.

PS: It’s helpful to have a couple of empty boxes or baskets during this process. One for items you want to trash and another for items you want to donate.

Here are 7 items that I found in our kitchen that I just HAD to get rid of.

7 Things You Need to Get Rid of When Organizing Your Kitchen

1 – Expired Food

One of the first things you should get rid of is any expired food. There’s no point in keeping it around because you are never going to use it. And let’s be honest, you probably forget you even had it!

I had a ton of expired and old food in our cabinets that I didn’t even remember I bought. Get a fresh start with your food storage by getting rid of as much old or unused food as you can. If the food is not expired, but you are never going to use it, donate it to a local food bank.

2 – Worn Out Cooking Utensils

Cooking utensils are items that get use a lot. And that also means that they tend to wear out faster than other items.

I had a bunch of cooking utensils that have been used so much they were falling apart. Because I use them so much, I invested in a new set of tools and threw away my old ones that were falling apart.

3 – Mismatched Tupperware

I know that I’m not the only one who gets frustrated when you can’t find the lid to your tupperware container. Mismatched tupperware is not only annoying, but it also takes up valuable space in your kitchen.

Go through the tupperware that you have and find all that matches. If anything doesn’t have a match, throw it away.

If you want to prevent this problem from happening again in the future, I recommend investing in a nice matching set of tupperware. That way you only have a few sizes and all of the lids and bases are easy to match up. We tossed all of our old tupperware last year and bought multiples of this glass set. It’s one of my favorite things and I never have problems finding matching sets anymore!

4 – Duplicate Items

I can almost guarantee that everyone has duplicate items in their kitchen. And while some duplicates are necessary, too many duplicates can cause clutter.

Go through all of your duplicate items and evaluate what you actually use. If you haven’t used a duplicate item in the last few months, get rid of it. You will have more room in your drawers and you’ll actually be able to get to the items you do use.

5 – Unused Serveware

Serveware is nice to have on hand if you are hosting, but too many pieces of unused serveware just take up valuable space in your kitchen.

When I was cleaning out our cabinets, I found 5 bowls in our serveware collection, 3 of which I’ve never used. The ones that I never used weren’t of any sentimental value, and I couldn’t see myself ever using them in the future.

So, instead of hanging onto them, I kept the two that I used all the time and loved and got rid of the rest.

6 – Unused Gadgets

Everyone loves a good kitchen gadget. There are so many that can be really useful for everyday food preparation tasks. But there are also some that you buy and they end up collecting dust.

While you might have been excited at first to get the latest kitchen gadget, if you never use it then it’s just creating clutter in your kitchen. Go through all of your kitchen gadgets and get rid of anything that you never use.

In our kitchen, I had been hanging onto a small fondue pot called “fondue for two.” We have never ever used it and I was sick of it taking up space in my kitchen. I decided to get rid of it so I could make room for things I actually use

7 – Items That Just Don’t Belong

I don’t know about you, but sometimes our kitchen is a dumping ground for random items in our home. Things end up in the drawers or the pantry that aren’t even related to kitchen activities.

When you are cleaning and organizing your kitchen, make a point to get rid of anything that just doesn’t belong in the space. If you still use the item in your home, find a new location where it can be stored.

Our junk drawer in the kitchen was a spot that accumulated a lot of things that didn’t belong. While I think it’s helpful to have a junk drawer for useful miscellaneous items in your kitchen, I’ve tried to pair ours down to only what we really use.

Things like pens, scissors, and tape are supplies we like to have on hand in the kitchen. But the extra parts for our vacuum didn’t belong there. I moved those to our cleaning supplies cabinet.

If you want your kitchen to function efficiently, don’t take up valuable space with items that just don’t belong.

So those are my tips for cleaning, sorting, and purging your kitchen. Once you get through this step of the organization project, I promise you will feel so much better. After you get rid of things, your space will finally have room to breathe!

As hard as it can be to get rid of things, just know that it’s for the best. You’re taking intentional steps to create a space that functions efficiently and works for you!

Stay tuned for more updates on our Kitchen Organization Overhaul.

Kitchen Organization Overhaul

How to Get Organized When You Are Overwhelmed

How to Plan a Kitchen Organization Overhaul in 3 Easy Steps

7 Things You Need to Get Rid of When Organizing Your Kitchen (You’re here)

How to Organize Under the Kitchen Sink

Organized Kitchen Cabinets and Drawers {Part 1}