Have you started your spring cleaning yet? For the past two weeks, I have been taking advantage of a short break in the work on my cookbook — I have turned in my manuscript to my editors and am waiting (anxiously) for their comments — to take care of accumulated household tasks. When changing those air conditioner filters and cleaning the carpets this spring, do not forget to spring clean your kitchen as well. Here are three ways to get your kitchen in order.

1. Get your knives professionally sharpened. If you do nothing else, do this. A sharp knife is a safe knife. Why? Because dull knives can bounce off the onion they are supposed to be slicing and cut you. A sharp knife also makes chopping and slicing a joy and reminds you to have respect for your blades. I recommend having your knives sharpened twice a year, around Passover or Easter and again before Thanksgiving. A good sharpening place will take all your knives, as well as pizza cutters and kitchen scissors. It can be hard to find a good cutlery sharpening place. Many Sur La Table stores will sharpen your knives for a fee. Or look for a business that sharpens saws, lawn tools, barber’s scissors and other professional blades. I take my knives to a place called Bernie’s Saw and Supply. No kidding. They charge by the inch, which I find to be hilarious.

2. Discard and replace old spices. We have all read in food magazines and cookbooks how spices lose their potency over time. But have you actually smelled that old jar of cardamom or tumeric that you have had since the Bush administration? My guess is, it is time to replace it. There are many spices, such as cumin, coriander, and cinnamon, I use so often that they do not have time to go bad. But I know some of the less commonly used spices have been sitting around for a while.  Time for fresh jars. If discarding half-full jars of spices upsets you, learn from this experience and buy smaller quantities from now on. Also, store your spices away from light and heat. I know this is harder than it sounds. I am like most of you and I keep my spices close to the stove for ease of use. But I am keenly aware that the heat is causing those spices to lose their potency.

3. Ban the rancid: get rid of rancid oils, crackers, nuts, and flours. Do you have a box of crackers that has been open for the better part of a year? A bottle of sesame or walnut oil that you bought for one recipe and never touched again? Nuts that have been sitting around since Christmas…2013? If so, they are probably rancid. You can tell when something is rancid because it smells like paint and has a bitter or off taste. Foods that are naturally high in fat, like nuts, oil, and whole grain flours, go rancid quite quickly.  You won’t get sick from eating rancid food, at least not today. But rancid food has lost much of its nutritional value and when foods go rancid, the process can produce potentially toxic compounds associated with long-term harmful health effects, like cancer. So yeah, chuck that ancient box of Wheat Thins. To lengthen the shelf life of oils, nuts and whole grain flours, store in the refrigerator or freezer and buy in small quantities.

What are you doing this spring to make your kitchen a nicer place to work in?