March 31, 2021 by Mulberry Maids
With busy schedules, keeping your kitchen clean and organized can be a constant struggle. This can make keeping your Windsor home clean pretty difficult, especially if you don’t really like to clean and organize!
If you don’t have time to clean yourself, consider hiring out your deep house cleaning in Windsor to the professionals. This will not only save you time, but will ensure your home is in consistent tip top shape.Â
Read on to learn more about keeping your kitchen spices organized to help reduce clutter and safely store your spices for good health!
Why is storing spices properly important?
As with all things related to kitchens and cleaning, storing spices properly is important to keep them safe, and to cut down on clutter in your kitchen. We have written extensively in the past on keeping grease and food splatter to a minimum, routines to help clean your kitchen quickly, and tips to cook healthy meals ahead of time, and dealing with clutter and proper storage of kitchen items is right in line with it.Â
Storing spices properly is important for many reasons:
- Maintaining the quality and freshness of the spice
- Prevent the spice from going bad prematurelyÂ
- Keep the spice safe to consume
How should I store my spices?
Improper storage of spices can cause them to go bad quickly. This can be more than just the loss of flavor – spices can go rancid and grow mold, just like any food. This can be caused by many factors including excess heat, humidity and sunlight on the spice. Because of this, spices should be stored in airtight containers, in dark and cool sections of the kitchen.
Some tips to help aid in the storage of spices:
- Use a tin container, instead of clear glass, if the spices are stored out in the open
- Don’t store spices next to heat sources or where they will be affected by steam from cooking
- Do not store spices inside of the refrigerator, as the humidity will damage the spices
In addition to spices going bad due to the environment they are stored in, spices do have a shelf life. For example, dried herbs and ground spices should only be stored for 1 year, while salt will actually last indefinitely. To make sure that you are safely consuming your spices, use a marker to label the date that the spice was purchased so you can discard after the proper time frame. Â
Should I be careful cooking with spices?
While storing spices properly is important to their health, quality, and shelf life, cooking with them should be done correctly as well. When using the whole spice jar as a shaker directly over a hot and steamy pot or pan, the heat and humidity will travel up into the spice container, negatively affecting the spices.
It is best to shake the spice into your hand away from the stove, then to sprinkle the spices into your cooking dish with your hand.Â
Tips to help organize and declutter cabinet space
One of the main requirements for spice storage is for the cabinet to store the spices in to be dark, cool, and dry. This may mean rearranging your cabinets, as spices are usually kept close to the stove and oven. Â
Once your spice shelf is figured out, depending on the state of your kitchen cabinets, you may need to perform a deep cleaning on your cabinets. This should include taking everything out of each cabinet and doing a full cleaning inside of them. Ideally, you will want to use a hand held vacuum or a hand held vacuum attachment to get out any crumbs and food debris. This should be followed by a wet wiping of the interior, using a clean microfiber rag, and all purpose spray, and potentially a disinfecting spray depending on the state of the cabinets and what has been stored in them. Â
After cleaning the cabinets, it is time to organize. Go through everything that you have, and decide what actually needs to be kept. If your spices are really old, it will be best to just throw them all out, and get totally new spices. Additionally, you should sort through your dishes and other food to see what can be kept, and what should be donated or thrown out. Â
When you put everything back in, be conscious of where things are going. Put dishes and spices in logical places, and make sure to keep everything organized and well sorted. This will go a long way in decluttering your kitchen spaces and make using your kitchen that much easier and enjoyable!
After spending time organizing and decluttering your kitchen cabinets, take some time to relax at Windsor Lake as the weather is warming up and the sun is out!
Mulberry Maids offers the best deep house cleaning in Windsor!
Here at Mulberry Maids, we only work with the best cleaning technicians in Windsor, CO. They are fully trained, vetted, and rated after each cleaning they perform, to ensure you receive the best cleaning around.
Our company is customer focused, and service and results oriented. Your satisfaction is always guaranteed, and we are proud to offer the best customer service in our area.Â
Book your cleaning today, then relax in your newly cleaned space! Give us a call or visit us online to book directly on our booking page!