SPONSORED POST: You’re 20 Minutes Away From a Cleaner Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry

I’m eating and cooking at home a lot more than I used to, and frankly, my kitchen can’t really keep up. You see, I was used to restaurant kitchens sharing some of the burden of storing and preparing food in my house. But now it’s all on me—and my fridge, freezer, and pantry have been overflowing at times.

The thing is: The longer you ignore the black holes in your kitchen, the harder it becomes to cook, eat, and even just store a leftover delivery pizza without setting off a chain reaction that ends in your eggs crashing to the ground.

So if clearing out your food storage areas is a task you haven’t done in a while, today is the day to get it done. We’ll approach this with our timed room-sweep technique.

Here’s how to begin…

If you’re doing the Cure, you know the drill on these sweeps by now: Set a timer and get to work. Normally I’d tell you to grab a basket and start collecting clutter, but kitchen food storage is a different type of beast.

So here’s what I recommend: Bring your trash can close to the refrigerator, grab a grocery bag for food donations (like canned goods), start a 20-minute timer, and clear out the pantry, fridge and freezer one shelf at a time. I like to empty everything off the shelf, clean it while it’s empty, then put everything back—minus whatever’s expired or turned into a science experiment.

Here are what sorts of things to look for in each area:

When the timer is up, take out the trash, set aside your donations for a food bank, and enjoy your enviously empty new spaces.