Do you purge your cabinets? Kitchen and Bathroom? If so, how often?

Never. I have so minimal stuff that I never have to clear out the 3½ cabinets I take up. My desk, however, gets frequent purging.

I do kitchen about every year. Same with bathroom.

Coincidentally, I’ve been doing the bathroom cabinets this weekend. I dumped everything out on the dining room floor and I am putting together all of the soap, toothpaste, shampoo, sun screen, etc. I am giving a bunch of hand cream away because I don’t use it.

I am making it where the cabinets have minimal stuff. It was very frustrating to open the cabinet and have it be like an avalanche.

I am putting some stuff in other areas. I have a lot of soap. I’m a little bit of a fancy soap fanatic. I have to find a dry spot in the house for the soap collection. I’m telling myself I’m not allowed to purchase any more soap or shampoo until I use up what I have.

Once a year. If you have not used it in a year (thus in any season)), you don’t need it.

I follow the rule of it you haven’t used it, or worn it for a year, get rid of it. I do not like clutter, I will never have pack rat/hoarding issues. I have a friend who is borderline hoarder, drives me nuts. She saves everything.

Take out food containers, dryer lint, plastic utensils, straws, every ince of cupboard and drawer space is jam packed with stuff, stuff, stuff. She has a huge walk in pantry and it is just crammed with crap. Dozens and dozens of jars, paper bags, crap everywhere. I always fantasize what that pantry would look like if it were mine. haha

@Coloma I’m intrigued, what does your friend do with dryer lint, the mind boggles??

@Adagio, I saw something on the internet that said dryer lint, stuffed into an empty toilet roll holder, make good fire lighters. Personally, it seems ludicrous to keep dryer lint but perhaps that’s what’s she’s using it for.

Laughs, dryer lint? I keep it for the birds to use in their nest in the spring.

Dryer lint and wax = fire starters.
Or so I’ve heard.

I have an understairs pantry and I keep food and kitchen equipment in there. I like it organised at all times so when i have done my weekly shop, I spend a little time tidying up after a week of use. I put like with like. Once a month or so I check things that haven’t been used for a while for their sell by date. I will start to use things that need to be used soon and chuck away stuff that’s out of date. I hate waste so this helps me throw away the mnimal amount. Not foolproof though.

Yes. This is one of my favorite things to do. When I have the free time, every six months. Otherwise, once a year is good. I also agree with @josie, if you haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it.

My only exception is the fridge and pantry cabinet, which I clean bi-weekly (when we go food shopping).

@Adagio Haha…yes as @Adirondackwannabe said…she saves it to start fires but the thing is she has this paper gift bag hanging on the handle of the laundry room door and it is crammed with like a years worth of dryer lint and she never uses it, but ya know, just in case they run out of fire starters chips or whatever it is there. She also has this amazing, huge, walk in laundry room with tiled wash sink, tons of cupboards, tile counters and a space to put a chair or bar stool under the drawers in front of a window for a sewing or hobby room and every square inch of counter space is cluttered with stuff, stuff, stuff. I have helped her get “organized” about 5 times in the last 2 years and within a few day there is shit all over the place again. lol

About once in a blue moon, I go through my pantry and throw out any out-dated, opened, or unusable containers. I also remove all others, wipe the shelves down with bleach-water, and re-organize if necessary. Looks like we have a blue moon next month, so I will be doing this sometime in the next six weeks.

I don’t do it in my bathroom often enough. Once every 6 months I go through and make sure we are using all the mini shampoos and samples that are still lying around. I pull them out and put a bunch in the shower, or on top of my counter to make sure they are within easy reach.

I also go through my make-up, nail polish, and fragrances, I hold onto all of that stuff way too long. Probably 3 years longer than I should. I have some nail polishes ten years old, which is ridiculous. Mascara is the only thing I am really good about and never keep longer than 6 months.

My kitchen really isn’t that bad. I have probably 3 canned items that have been in my cupboard forever (2+ years) that I keep thinking I will use, and some dry mixes that might be past their expiration dates. Things like dry soup mix, gravy in a packet, and taco seasoning. That’s about it. Otherwise, everything else in my pantry is up to date and will be used within two months time. It isn’t jammed full, I like there to be some empty space, but it’s still quite a bit of food. Probably could last me a week just using pantry food if that’s all I had. I don’t have to do massive clean outs, because I don’t keep a ton of food.

My fridge I clean out constantly, making sure nothing old that probable went bad is still in there. Especially on trash day I get rid of anything questionable. Actually cleaning the fridge, washing it, by removing bins and shelves, I only do every 3–4 months. Probably I should do it more. I do minor wipe down constantly if it’s visibly dirty somewhere.