Uncomplicate your cooking

organized refrigerator
….by getting your refrigerator organized. Raise your hand if you’re tired of cooking every single meal every single day! 🙋🏼‍♀️ And I love cooking!

But every day, day in and day out, it can be overwhelming and frustrating to come up with yet another meal…that everyone will like and not be too time consuming and not a repeat of what I made yesterday. And if your refrigerator offers nothing but sadness and overwhelm it’s even harder to get inspired to cook.

Plus going to the grocery store is not as enjoyable as it used to be. Some of us miss samples!

Being organized allows you to focus on solving the real problems of the world like what to make for dinner. NOT being organized makes any task worse.

Opening a refrigerator and not being able to find what you need or not knowing what you have is the worst. This is a huge obstacle for even wanting to prepare yummy and healthful meals. If it looks depressing, it’s going to feel even worse.

So I am here to make the task of cooking a little easier for you and a lot less complicated by sharing tips on keeping your refrigerator organized. 

How to un-complicate your refrigerator
  • Toss expired condiments. Empty out your refrigerator door with all of the jarred and bottled condiments and check all of the expiration dates. If it’s past, out it goes. 
  • Toss any expired food. While you’re getting rid of expired condiments, toss out any old leftovers, fruits, veggies, milk, and anything else that has gone bad. If it doesn’t pass the smell or sight test, let it go. 
  • Group like condiments together. I love pickles and mustards so have several different types in my refrigerator. It’s so much easier to keep track of them when they are stored next to one another. It’s one less thing to remember!
  • Decant beverages. By decanting, I mean take them out of the external packaging whether it’s a box or plastic rings. Then you can line them up any way that works in your refrigerator. 
  • Use clear containers. If you have the pleasure of dining out and happen to bring back leftovers for later, switch the container from cardboard or styrofoam to clear glass with a lid. This makes the storage air tight and visible. Seeing what you have is half the battle!

I was introduced to a great resource for minimizing ALL food waste whether in your refrigerator, freezer, or pantry. Click here to read the Guide to Food Storage for Healthier Eating
It has all of the details on proper food storage and handling including what can be stored on the counter and what needs to be refrigerated and frozen.

Getting your refrigerator organized is the first step to un-complicating your cooking. Once you can see what you have on hand, you can start to build a better cooking repertoire and menus that are enjoyed by everyone.

Uncomplicate your pantry: best organizing tools

This is it! The last week of June and the last in my 4 part series on uncomplicating your pantry. I hope you’ve enjoyed all of the tips and found them helpful. 

If you’d like a recap, here you go: 

part 1:  Get rid of expired food
part 2:  Create zones
part 3:  Decant

Which leads us to the final week 4:  best tools to create a beautifully organized and uncomplicated pantry. These are bins, lazy susans, and other tools to keep your pantry in shape and looking its best.

Remember every pantry is different and you don’t necessarily need to rush out an buy anything. While I think it is important to invest in tools to help you stay organized, you can always try to repurpose baskets and bins that you already have if that is what your budget requires. 

Clearly, (get it 😉?) I like clear bins. If you can see it, well, you haven’t lost it. Being organized is all about knowing what you have and where it goes.

These links are for your information and browsing pleasure. I do not receive a commission or even a thank you for recommending these products. These are just the ones I buy and use repeatedly with clients and for myself.

Clear bins

Lazy susans

Can stacker shelf

Containers with lids for decanting (you saw some of these last week)

Jars with lids for baking supplies, nuts, oatmeal, etc.

There it is! My favorite organizing tools that I get for clients all. the. time. They work and are worth the investment!

Uncomplicate your pantry: decanting

decanted pantry food

I hope you enjoyed part 1 and part 2 of the #uncomplicate your pantry series. Between tossing out expired foods and creating zones, you are well on your way to a beautifully organized and uncomplicated pantry. 

This week’s #uncomplicate tip meets at the intersection of form and function. It takes your pantry zones to the next level of organization. It’s what I call “decanting” your foods.
 

What is decanting you ask? It is taking foods out of their packaging and putting them into containers so that you can find them more easily, see your inventory on hand, and know exactly what you have and what you need.


This is especially important and necessary if you shop in bulk either at big box stores or from bins at grocery stores. 

Foods that are packaged into individual servings should definitely be removed from their box or plastic container because they take up more space on the shelf and hide the contents inside.

Even foods that are boxed but are sold in multipacks should be separated so they can be arranged on the shelf to utilize the space better.


I like to buy oatmeal, nuts, and some cereals in bulk and then transfer them to glass jars when I get home. It makes it so much easier to keep track of what we have on hand. 


Drinks are perfect for decanting, even tea bags.


This week I want you to decant (if you can) your pantry.

  • Take the plastic off of multi packs of foods, even drinks
  • Empty bulk foods into containers. This is a good way to utilize glass jars with lids
  • Remove additional packaging where you can


When you take food out of the excess packaging you are able to utilize the zones you created last week better. Bakets, bins, and other containers can help with this as well. 

Stay tuned to next week’s post on favorite pantry organizing tools!
😄

Uncomplicate your pantry: zones

I hope you enjoyed part 1 of the #uncomplicate your pantry series. My goal is to give you the steps and tips for creating a beautifully organized and uncomplicated pantry. 

Did you toss all of your expired packaged food?

I’d love to hear how long it actually took you. Some organizing tasks seem to take forever and some take less time than you expect. When you put your mind to it, though, that feeling of accomplishment is intoxicating!

Part 2 is all about creating zones for the contents of your pantry. What does it mean to “create zones?” Think about grocery shopping and how each aisle is organized by category of food. You are essentially re-creating the grocery store categories in your pantry.

However, it’s customized for you. For example, in the store, peanut butter and bread are usually sold on separate aisles but you typically use them together. I’ve created a zone, sometimes with a basket or bin to contain them, for peanut butter, almond butter or other nut butters, jelly, jam, honey (depending on how the client eats it), and bread. This is to make it easier and….

uncomplicated

No more searching multiple shelves or cabinets for the foods that go together. 

You store like foods together and thus a zone is born. 

Here are some examples of zones I’ve created. You don’t need to create all of these. These are just examples that you might have in your pantry.breakfast foodspastagrains & legumescanned foodsmeal starterssauces & condimentschipscrackerskids snacksadult snacks (usually stored on a higher shelf and contain yummy dark chocolate 😉)barspeanut butter, bread, & spreadbottled water or canned drinkspaper productsbaking suppliesbirthday suppliessmoothie ingredientsoils & vinegarsThis week I want you to create pantry zones based on the foods you have in your pantry and how you cook and eat.

Group like foods together.  You can use my list above to help you get started.

It’s all about you so if you don’t bake, you don’t need a “baking supplies” zone. 

If you’ve got a household with food allergies or sensitivities, creating zones for specific food types would probably be helpful.

The goal here is to create the zones that work for you so that cooking and shopping are easier, less complicated for you. The fewer places you have to look for foods, the better your life will be. 🙂

Uncomplicate your pantry: expired food

This month’s #uncomplicate is a series with the steps for you to uncomplicate your pantry one week at a time. Smaller steps are better anyway because we all have so much going on right now. I think we can all agree that taking a few minutes each day or week is certainly more doable than trying to get it all done at one time.

And the pantry needs attention year round due to its constant activity. We are constantly adding to and taking from it yet it’s frequently neglected because it just seems to take FOREVER.

This week I want you to focus solely on uncomplicating your expired foods in the pantry.

Take out each can, box, or package of food and look at its expiration date. The expiration date is typically 2 years after it was packaged. If you haven’t used it in that time, chances are you will not.

Look for the following:canned foodspastarice & other grainsmeal starters (Hamburger Helper, Rice a Roni)saucescondimentsteahot chocolatecerealoatmealnutsIf you can’t find a date, think hard about when you got it. If you’re struggling to remember, it’s probably time to toss it.

And speaking of tossing, that’s all you can really do with expired food. You can not donate it to a food bank or shelter. 

If the food is in a glass container, you can clean it out and recycle the glass. Or use it for storing other food once you’ve cleaned it out. Otherwise, just throw it away.

While you’re at it, throw away any packaged food like crackers, rice, pasta, nuts, etc. that has been opened and not securely closed. It is most likely stale and attracting critters. 😟

I’m going to give you steps in the coming weeks on organizing your pantry so you don’t have to deal with food waste in the future. Make a promise to yourself to do better about this and move on. 😉