Can you believe it’s October already? Where have the last 10 months gone? With the holidays on the horizon, now is a great time to get your kitchen organized, whether or not you plan to use it a lot in the coming months. There is nothing like a healthy kitchen makeover.
Having a kitchen that is well organized, stocked with healthy foods, and free of nutritionally deficient ones is important if you want to upgrade the quality of food that you and/or your family are eating and make it easy to prepare quality meals.
Here are 5 tips to get you started and to help you maintain what you’ve already organized.
1. Store items near where you use them. Store your dishes and utensils near the dishwasher. Store your pots, pans, and bakeware near the stove and oven. Make sure all your plasticware have bottoms and lids that fit together. This will save time, energy, and space when you need them and ease putting them away.
2. Arrange “like” with “like” in your pantry. Keeping similar items together makes it easy to know how much of an item you have and if you need to buy more. For example, keep all pastas on a shelf, soups on another shelf, and condiments on a 3rd shelf.
3. Keep masking tape and a Sharpie near your leftover containers and/or plastic bags. Having supplies at the ready allows you to easily label every leftover with the date and contents. Store leftovers in one place in the refrigerator. This will help you throw out expired food and will remind you to go through your refrigerator and cabinets for any other old food items.
4. Store extra plastic bags in one larger plastic bag or a container. Storing all the bags in one spot makes it easier to find them when you are in a hurry and to recycle them for future use.
5. Keep counters clear. Store seldom-used appliances in another area of the house (e.g., on a shelf in the basement, hallway closet or garage). This will free up counter space to prepare meals.
Making some simple changes will help you get the most out of your time in the kitchen. You will save time, energy, and space keeping things where you use them. An organized kitchen makes it easier to cook at home to improve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. You will save money eliminating duplicate and triplicate purchases and by eating out less. Family members will be able to help with meal preparation and clean-up when they know where things are stored. Finally, your life will be simplified, and you will be able do the things you really want to do.
What are you going to do to make your kitchen a healthy area of your home? Now is your time to go From Bedlam to Brilliance!
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