Organized living in the kitchen saves you money and stress!

At some point in your life, you’ve probably met one of those individuals who is totally organized. Clutter bugs may view these people as somewhat obsessive, but I can tell you that good kitchen organization puts a meal together far quicker. Organized living habits in the kitchen save you time, money and angst on those busy days. Now who doesn’t want that result? Here are some easy techniques that allow you to enjoy your kitchen work in the least amount of time!

Organized living is a universal concept which you can carry over to any room or task. It all comes to logical grouping and reminders to manage the whatever efficiently and in a manner where you can get right to the task.

Two typically big elephants-in-the-kitchen are the frig and messy cupboards.

Unless you apply organized living concepts, cleaning out the frig is not a favored task. Most of us tend to ‘find a space’ and put that leftover food or dressing bottle wherever it might fit. This results in waste, both in time and money. Family members assume that bowl of diced, cooked chicken will make a tasty sandwich. Tonight, when you go to make dinner … it’s gone. Leftovers are pushed to the back, not to be seen again, until they’re inedible.

This is why your frig needs organized living methods. Leftovers have their own section. You peruse the area on a daily basis to see what can be worked into a snack or meal. No waste. Dressings are all together and so, easily found. Snack foods get their space too. Point out the snack and leftover areas as the help-yourself-please section to family members. Your do-ahead and other specific ingredients for meals go in a particular section for the cook’s use. Instead of using the sandwich plate covered with plastic wrap as a storage container, invest a few bucks in those stackable plastic boxes. This gives you the most efficient use of your frig space.

Dating perishables in these containers is essential. The day you store it, slap a label on it indicating the date it hit the frig.┬á You’ll experience far less waste.

Cupboards are seldom poster children of organized living methodologies. Just like the frig, cupboards tend to accumulate┬á randomly placed items until you can’t find the bouillon cubes because they’re underneath a box of cereal. Empty your food cupboards, grouping like items together on the counter. For example, sort canned soups, fruits, vegetables and cereals.

Clear plastic storage containers for items like pasta, rice and granola type bars makes it easy to see just how much you’ve got left and keeps them fresh. Turntables are great organizers and space savers, for storing herbs and spices, as well as condiments and related prep items, such as bouillon cube containers and marinade mixes.