Organizing Your Kitchen for Optimal Health and Wellness

This is a guest post by Cindy Levitt of peace by piece professional organizing and design www.pxporganizing.com

Your kitchen is more than a place to prepare foods and eat. Often it is the heart of your home. Here are some reasons why you may want to re-organize your kitchen: 

• An organized space promotes clarity of thought and peace of mind. 
• Creating a safer, more nourishing space in which to prepare meals and eat will support your health and wellness goals.
• You will save time and money and find what you want easily with less food spoilage.
• You will have less stress (looking at piles of clutter, dirty dishes, cramped cabinets releases the stress hormone cortisol).
• You will find it easier to keep your kitchen clean and sanitized.

First Step: Edit and Sort

• Start by taking everything out of one cabinet or drawer. Edit, sort and then clean the cabinet, shelf or drawer before you put things back.
• When sorting and organizing, use a timer to keep you on track and avoid “zig zag” organizing. This means don’t run all over the house putting things away that don’t belong in the kitchen. Do that later on after you finish in the kitchen. 

For your food cabinets:

• Remove expired foods and things you no longer use.

For dishes, utensils, pots, pans: 

• Put like things together and remove cracked dishes, gouged pots and pans (especially non stick surfaces which can be carcinogenic) and pick your favorites and donate the rest. For example you don’t need 6 sets of measuring cups!
• Make decisions about each item you have based on your individual needs and not just because your mother used it or gave it to you!

Second Step: Decide where things go and Use Containers 

• Decide what goes in which space and store like things together (common categories are pots and pans, everyday dishes, baking items, food prep, serving pieces, holiday items, entertaining, etc.)
• Keep “most often used” items within easy reach and those “once a year items” stored away from “prime real estate.” That may mean on a higher shelf or out of the kitchen altogether. 
• Use containers to store smaller items and for easy reaching especially for food items like beans, lentils, rice, etc. (Click here for info on ordering the containers below!)

Third Step: Maintain and Clean

• Keep your kitchen counter clear.  Don’t store every appliance on the counter. It will be easier to keep clean and maintain.
• Under the sink, use plastic shelf liner and use containers for your cleaning products. Less spills and damage to cabinetry.
• If space is an issue, consider hand washing utensils rather than using the dishwasher. That way you don’t need multiples.
• For food: when you come back from grocery shopping put your new items at the back of the pantry or cabinet shelf and rotate the older items forward. This way you don’t forget to use up what you have and it’s easier to manage your inventory. 

Last Step: Enjoy!

Step into your organized kitchen where you can find everything you need when you need it! And create food that nourishes you and supports your health and wellness!