If you’re reading this, then congratulations…you made it through yet another monster festive season! Give yourself a pat on the back.
For me, this season was not only full of jolly holy, fireworks, ham, and champagne, but I also moved into my new apartment a couple of weeks before the fat man in red came marching back into our lives. To be fair, this wasn’t my brightest move, however as I mentioned above, we’re all still here to tell the tale… Moving meant I got to set up shop in a brand-new kitchen with a completely different configuration of draws, cupboards and bench space – so I thought I would dedicate this week’s post to the top 4 ways I organise my kitchen for optimal health! Ditch the ‘Messy Draw’ My number one pet peeve in any area of the house is what my mum used to call the “messy draw”. Growing up, our ‘messy draw’ was in our kitchen, and the only way to describe it was, ‘open house’. Everything was welcome in this draw from pens, scissors, sticky tape, glue, string, notepads, my yoyo collection, mum’s sunnies, and I’m pretty sure my barbie lived for a week or two. Everything was in a big tangled mess. Once we moved out though, the ‘messy draw’ was put to rest, never to be seen or heard of again, and structure was restored. My point is that everything HAS a place, and everything should be IN its place. I know so many people who have their own version of the infamous ‘messy draw’, and the excuse is always “but I know where everything is” …come on, stop kidding yourself. In reality you open up that draw, sigh because it’s too overwhelming, and shut it again without retrieving what you needed. The trick I suggest to organising the chaos, is utilising draw dividers or plastic trays. Using dividers to section off different parts of the draw allow you to allocate a set place for each item that lives in it. Have a section for pens, another for sticky tape etc. If you want to ditch the ‘messy draw’ all together, find other places for the items that are currently in it eg the office, and then immediately use the draw for storing something else such as placemats, so the temptation to chuck stuff back in there is removed! Tupperware is Your Friend If you’re on Instagram these days, you will most likely have seen one, two, maybe 50 million posts of people’s pantries FULL of clear reusable containers storing all their foodie goods. Let me tell you now…ditching the open packets of half used rice, protein powder, crackers, whatever it may be – and transferring them into clean, clear containers is LIFE CHANGING. Using this method of storage makes it so much easier to see exactly what you’ve got, how much of it you have, and it saves so much space! My pro tips if you are going to adopt this strategy are, a) buy containers that have a vacuum seal/lip on them to keep your products fresh, and free of unwanted invaders; and b) label your containers. After all, there’s nothing worse than getting the salt and sugar mixed up! Out of sight, Out of Mind This tip is for those people (like myself), who have cupboards that are just plain awkward. You know the ones. I’m talking about that bizarre corner cupboard with the double hinged door; and all those shelves that you can’t reach, even when you’re standing on a stool. For hard to reach areas, once food goes there, it is only going to get pushed further and further back, until you decide to do an annual spring clean and rediscover it all again. For areas such as these I recommend using a Lazy Susan (Disclaimer: I’m not referring to a lazy woman named Susan). A Lazy Susan allows you to more easily rotate the products you have within your pantry, making them visible, accessible, and therefore less likely to go off – reducing wastage! Create Kitchen Work Zones Coming up with this idea definitely made me realise I’ve been spending far too much time at work, and should probably dial it back to reality – however it might be useful to some of you out there that are as pedantic about their cooking as me! Thinking of your kitchen in terms of work zones is extremely useful no matter what sized kitchen you have. Zones dedicated to food prep, cooking, cleaning, and storage are what I use. This not only helps me organise where to store everything, but also reduces the mess I make (…kinda), as well as preventing any cross-contamination when I am cooking. Using these zones helps with the flow of cooking and cleaning, making the whole process easier, more efficient, and more fun! Once again, I hope you find some, if not all of these tips useful, and at the very least – entertaining :) Happy cooking! S xo
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AuthorI'm Steph - a Health Sciences graduate, qualified Personal Trainer and Health Blogger. Here you will not find any quick fix, or diet tips. I'm here to share my love of life, fitness, mindset, and the lessons I learn as a journey through life. Archives
March 2020
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