Once you have your kitchen organized, how are you going to maintain it?  

Here are a few tips to help you maintain your masterpiece:

• Do dishes immediately after meals.  (Your future self will thank you in the morning!)
• Purge old and expired food regularly. Consider reviewing everything in your pantry, food storage cabinets, fridge and freezer quarterly.
• Keep healthy food stocked and at eye level.
• Place an inviting basket of fruit on the counter.  Its visibility may tempt you to eat it, rather than sweets and treats. 
• Pre-washed, cut & proportioned vegetables and fruits in plastic baggies in the fridge make grabbing on-the-go lunches a breeze.
• Remove healthy pre-packaged snacks from their boxes and put them in small baskets or bins in the pantry for ease of access.
• Create a deli box in your fridge, by adding everything you need to make a sandwich. 

When your kitchen is clean and organized you are more likely to choose to eat healthy. Additionally, eating healthy away from home takes planning and organizing.  Stock healthy options like nuts, energy bars, and fruit in your car, purse, and/or office so you have something to eat on the go.  ​

Kitchens are one of the trickiest spaces in a home to organize.  We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and it often serves many more functions than just the place to prepare and eat meals.  A well-functioning kitchen should:

• Provide a space to easily prepare healthy meals and make healthy choices; and
• Serve as a place to gather with loved ones.  

To do these things, creating a clutter-free environment is essential for a highly functional and efficient kitchen.  This means keeping counter tops as clear as possible. 

Let’s dive into how to organize your kitchen.  Think about the layout of your kitchen.  The area within the sink-stove-fridge triangle is considered “prime real estate,” due to the frequency of activity in this space.  (It’s OK if you don’t have a triangle - just envision the areas near these stations.)  Ideally, we would have what we need at each of these stations.  To do this, zone out your kitchen.  Store equipment/tools closest to where they are first used, creating one-step centers as follows:

• Non-consumables center – store plates, bowls, cups, and silverware near the dishwasher or sink so you can easily store them after they are cleaned.
• Cleaning center – store cleaning tools under your sink since you will be using water as you clean.
• Food preparation center – store food preparation tools (e.g., vegetable peeler and can opener) near your sink so you can easily wash vegetables.  Likewise, store knives/cutting/chopping utensils and cutting boards in nearby drawers and cabinets (between sink and fridge ideally).
• Consumables center – non-perishable food in a pantry that is not centralized is fine because you can grab everything you need to prepare the meal and bring it to the preparation center.
• Cooking center – position near stove; store pots, pans, cooking utensils, cooking oils, and spices in nearby drawers and cabinets.

While organizing these centers, begin by removing clutter and items not related to the center’s function.  Clear your counters of small appliances you don’t use at least one time per week and store them in a cabinet.  If you find your cabinets too full to accommodate these items, consider letting go of the gadgets you rarely use.  Most of these “rarely used” items aren’t necessary and take up much-needed space.  Why keep a food chopper when a knife will suffice?

Next, you want to consider accessibility in each center.  Place items strategically as follows:

• Place items more frequently used in easy to reach drawers or cabinets.
• Place heavy items low, and light items high.
• In the consumables center, put protein and veggies at eye level and carbs and sweets below eye level.  You will be more apt to select something that is most visible first.
• In the cooking center, keep spices organized and fresh.  Spices enhance the taste of healthy food without adding calories and fat.

While organizing, I often find old/expired medication.  If you have the same genre of items in your home, check out this helpful website on how to dispose of them safely and properly:  ​https://www.singlecare.com/blog/how-to-dispose-of-medication/

Fun for all: SOCK-A-PALOOZA
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Throw all unmatched socks in a pile. Have kids find matches. Reward one minute of electronics for every match they make!!

Many of us are homeschooling right now. I have found that checklists are working better than schedules for my kids.
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Reward electronic time with a list that's all checked of!

I awoke one morning, feeling sleepy and groggy, to this scene on my bathroom floor:

My first thought, like any parent is "Dang kids, another thing to have to pick up!"  But then I told myself to stop and think like an organizer.  Why did this happen?  

• Is there no home for these items?  No, we have a home for hair accessories.
• Is this a habit issue?  No, both girls know where this stuff goes and usually put it away by themselves.
• Is the home not working (not the right type of storage system, too full, needs maintenance)? Let's see!
  

I had to do a mini-investigation!  I had to think about the stuff, the system, and the habits, to get to the bottom of this.  Sure enough, this is the next scene I discovered: 

The home was overloaded.  One of the kids probably tried to put the stuff away only to find an overstuffed home!  I felt a little bad about being annoyed at them when I first came on the scene.  

I knew I had 3 minutes to either deal with this or to schedule a time to deal with this on my calendar. I thought about the fact that we have another place for hair accessories in the other bathroom and that other place was probably low on head bands. That was the case so I quickly fixed the problem, knowing that this would probably happen again soon since we have 2 homes for these items, neither able to hold the full lot.  

Keep in mind, this could have gone differently.  I could have decided that we have too many head bands and we would need to purge some to make the system easier to maintain.  In that case, I would have scheduled a time with the kids to review the system.  I would have gathered all the head bands in the house.  Had them select which they still liked and which they wanted to let go of, then we would talk about our storage system and whether the current system would still work with the amount kept and if not, what the new system would look like to maximize efficiency in the morning.  For us, this meeting would take 10 minutes or less (as long as everyone was well fed and not tired because an argument would undoubtedly prolong it).

By now you might be thinking, WOW, this lady is crazy for worrying so much about head bands! Well, as you can suspect, since I do this for a living, my house has systems that we use, maintain, and review, often.  In a client's home, I might suggest creating a simpler system that would take less maintenance so they didn't have to spend time on organizing head bands.  I would help them decide what system they wanted based on what systems have worked in the past.  This system might look more like a basket with all hair accessories in it on the counter or in a drawer.  The key to success here is putting some thought into it.  It might feel daunting to think about head bands for 10 minutes, but consider the time it will save you each morning when you kids need this, that, and the other thing, and the bus is around the corner.  The time you spend will pay for itself 10 fold!