Category: Meal Planning & Kitchen Organzing

This Week, Clear Clutter and Prepare for Cold Weather!

The day this episode comes out, the day this article and newsletter drop, I am hosting a free “Clear the Clutter Webinar” via zoom, check my website, socials or newsletter for the link!

I want to talk about clearing clutter today.

Clearing clutter reaps benefits beyond a clearer surface. We live lighter, we’re less distracted visually, we are safer in our homes without things in our way as we walk and without clutter gathering dust, mold or mildew, germs and small critters. Taking positive action to improve our physical spaces provides positive boosts to our mood and energy level as well.

I feel like it’s time to clear some clutter. We don’t need a reason, but there are good reasons to clear clutter this time of year!

Yes, it is the change of seasons.

Yes, the clocks have changed, and the evenings are getting darker and darker earlier. And we’re nesting, as we spend more time inside our homes.

Yes, the holidays are approaching, but I am not going to focus on those today!

So, for cooler weather, for wellness, for the holidays, because it’s the right thing to do! Sometimes, we need to move physical clutter to create movement in our brains and calendars and energy, and now is as good a time as any!

As though in support of this topic today, I received an email from an author I follow (Jon Acuff, if you know you know!) that a great year in January starts in November. (I am paraphrasing, but it resonated with me!)

Let’s do this!

I started writing this article on November 1.

That morning, I put away the Halloween Decorations and washed my front door, because – ew. Lots of little finger prints and such from our visitors the night before. I also sent a bag of candy in to Greg’s office for the communal candy jar because we DO NOT need all of that candy in the house because we will just eat it. I intentionally enjoy the clear and undecorated look of November before adding Christmas decor on December 1, so after all the surfaces were clear again, I smiled and took a couple deep breaths.

So, de-decorate from Halloween if you haven’t yet.

Next up, the kitchen cabinets. Shelf by shelf, category by category, review the food in your cabinets for expiration dates. Toss anything that is expired or stale, then put stuff back grouped by category so you can find it again when you’re looking for it.

Now do some Pantry shopping. What is Pantry shopping? It is what it sounds like. It is intentionally using up what you have on hand, in the pantry, before going to the grocery. As you review your items in the cabinet, take note of items you already own that you can use in your menu plan for the next few weeks. Clear some cabinet space and save money by using foods you already own. In addition, with a few thoughts ahead for your holiday cooking, use this as an opportunity to inventory and plan your holiday food shopping.

Next stop – your refrigerator and freezer! Did you know, November 15th is National Clean Your Refrigerator Day? Let’s tackle the fridge and freezer like we tackled the cabinets! Start with the easy and obvious. Review your food, and toss anything that is expired or even questionable. Make note of any prepared food that you need to use up, and add the foods in your fridge and freezer to your menu plan for the next week to make some space and save some money. And, make note of what you might need to replace or stock up on.

Now that the kitchen is looking better, we can turn our attention elsewhere.

Let’s get clothes and shoes ready for the Cold.

Have you switched your clothes and closet for the season yet? Sadly, it is time to put away those summer items and bring out the sweaters. If your dresser and closet are crowded, the easiest way to make some space is to pull out strictly summer items and store them until Spring. For storage, tap underutilized storage space like the closet top shelf or under your bed.

It is also a great time to do a final check – clean your summer bedding, if you have it, and pack it all away until Spring. Or, take items to the drycleaner and set a reminder in a few weeks to pick them up.

How about your landing and launch pad spaces, front or back door? I just checked out the baskets by our back door. In warm weather, the baskets contain baseball caps, rain ponchos and umbrellas. I tossed anything that needed to go, brought out the hats and gloves and scarves, and put away the baseball caps and ponchos. The door where we come and go from is now ready for cooler temperatures.

Also, as you swap out the warm weather shoes and outerwear at those landing and launch spaces, or in your closet for colder weather items, now is a great time to collect any summer shoes or sandals, in my case, check them over and take them in for repairs now so they will be ready for you in 6 months!

Whew. Kitchen is looking better, areas where you come and go look better, your bedroom and closet is looking better, too. And… moving on…

Get your house ready for the colder weather:

  • It’s time to switch all the ceiling fans to clockwise for colder weather. Clockwise pushes the warm air back down.
  • By the time this episode drops, we will have checked the smoke detectors because we change the clocks this weekend.
  • We, or I will say, my hubby put away the patio furniture, rain barrels and gardening paraphernalia weeks ago. And the air conditioning unit got tarped until spring.
  • Now is the time to clear the outdoor walkways, and get your sidewalk salt ready!
  • Get your car ready for the cold, too – find that snow brush and ice scraper, and add some granola bars and a blanket to your car!

A few final words about recycling! In addition to Clean Your Refrigerator Day, November 15th is also America Recycles Day!

Cardboard – can we just talk for a minute about recycling your cardboard? We had boxes stashed on two different shelves, saving them for “later”. We had WAY too many and almost all of them went into the recycling bin. My typical answer about the question of cardboard is that more will always come. We can confidently break down and recycle what we have, because more will always come.

Anything else easy and obvious? Return items that need to be returned, drop off those bags of donations.

Spend some focused and dedicated time this week clearing clutter in important spaces, either in small bursts or one or two longer sessions, and reap the benefits for weeks to come!

Meal Planning: Start With What You Know

Last week, we got started on Meal Planning by asking two questions: What does healthy mean to you? And, What are your meal planning goals?

I hope you have had some time to think about your answers to those questions! With answering those questions, you have gained some awareness for and about yourself. Awareness is the first step for progress!

I know Meal Planning may sound like a lot of change and a lot of work, but it is easier than you think, especially to get started. I am not here to tell you what and how and when to eat. Those are personal choices. What I am here to say is that meal planning can help support your intentions and achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

So, as we get started with the HOW-TO for meal planning, let me suggest starting with what you know.

So, what do you know? 😉 Let me tell you, You know more than you think you do!

First, you know you.

You know what healthy means to you, and you know your goals.

You know your preferences, your allergies, your schedule, your finances, and your family situation and who else you need to factor into your meal plans.

Let’s get to it. Starting with what you know, Make a list of your favorites.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes coming up with ideas for what we want to eat is the hardest part of meal planning for me. It’s not checking inventory, or grocery shopping or even cooking – the IDEAS are what stump me. To circumvent that trouble, I have a list on the inside of my cabinet door of 30 of my family’s favorite meals.

What are your favorite meals, or your family’s favorite meals? Favorite doesn’t have to mean complicated, it just means meals I know we will eat. Items included on this list for us are:

  • chicken pie
  • chicken enchiladas
  • chicken soup, with noodles or with rice
  • chicken breasts
  • tacos, ground beef or chicken
  • pork roast
  • pork chops
  • smoked sausage gumbo (crock pot)
  • andouille sausage and grits
  • kielbasa and pierogi
  • BLTs
  • ham and sweet potatoes
  • beef stew
  • meatloaf
  • chili (crock pot)
  • burgers (summer)
  • pot roast
  • fish, shrimp
  • stuffed pepper casserole
  • egg roll in a bowl
  • breakfast for dinner, etc.

Right there, for us, are more than 20 ideas. Now consider that these days I make a big batch of two or three meals once a week and then reheat them, with veggies or a salad. With 20 ideas, that is 6-7 weeks of planning, if I wanted new ideas every week. And, I have to say, knowing that I have ideas for more than a month feels pretty great!

If you want to use meal planning to make changes and therefore are looking at new or different recipes, the same strategies hold true. Start with a list of recipes you would like to try, or foods that you want to incorporate into your plan. Try a new idea or a new food every week, and once you find winners, add them to your Favorites list!

The next two “Start with what you know” steps are related! We look at the schedule, we look at the inventory, we look back at the schedule and match things up, etc.

Take an inventory of what food you already own.

What is in the fridge, the freezer and the cabinets?

For example, on Saturday morning, I was getting ready to batch cook that evening for a few days. So I checked the freezer for what proteins we have on hand, and planned accordingly (chicken enchiladas and some lovely frozen, fully cooked lemon chicken).

The great thing about having a list of favorite meals and recipes is that I tend to have the ingredients for the items we eat the most often already on hand. So, the chicken enchiladas used homemade enchilada sauce, diced chicken, canned green chiles, canned black beans (I used red kidney because that is what was in the cabinet), tortillas and shredded cheddar cheese. All of which I had on hand.

I need to do more batch cooking later this week, and as I planned my batches for Saturday looked ahead at what else we might want to eat coming up, and added those items to my grocery list.

A suggestion that I will plant here is that, as you start this process for yourself, now would be a great time to Pantry Shop! What that means is to review your foods, checking for expiration dates and making sure everything is safe, and then incorporate what you have on hand into your meal plan for the next week or two. It’s a great way to clear clutter in the cabinets and also save some money by not grocery shopping this week!

Once we know what we have, take a look at your schedule for the next 7 days.

Consider, too, if you need to plan for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, or just 2 meals or even just one. When my sons were little, we meal planned for dinner. Breakfast and lunch were easy and basic, but dinner was a little more complicated.

Now that I cook typically for just my husband and myself, our needs have changed. I still don’t plan for breakfast, but I factor in extra left overs because we tend to eat lunch at home more often with remote work. A friend who homeschools her children plans for all three meals every day because that makes her week flow more smoothly. Perhaps you don’t need that much detail. Your choice.

Also, when looking at the schedule, note days that either don’t need a meal, or perhaps need a special one. For example, my college student comes home on Friday for his Spring Break, so I’m guessing there will be pizza from our favorite local pizza place Rosangela’s for dinner, no need to cook that night!

So, before you say – No Way, Colleen, meal planning is way too much work! Or, before you decide you have to make HUGE Changes, which by the way are really difficult to implement and maintain, let’s start with what we know. We know ourselves, we know our favorites, we know our inventory and we know our schedule! Start with what is in front of you. Just start!

Meal Planning: What Is Healthy? And What Are Your Goals?

Today’s topic has been on my list for a few months now, and I am ready to share!  Over the last year, I have shifted to more coaching and less-in-person organizing, and that shift will continue. AND, not surprisingly, meal planning is still a hot topic for my clients and presentations.  Because, well, we all eat.

As I sat down to write this content, I had just finished wrapping up the dinner dishes. Two hours or so before that, in about an hour, my husband and I had assembled and cooked three separate dinners, ate one (with leftovers) and put the rest in the fridge for the next few days.

How?  Why?  And why am I telling you this?  Well, let me tell you a story!

Last summer, I rebooted my “An Organized Kitchen” presentation.  I had many speaking requests last summer for “An Organized Kitchen” and Meal Planning content and I thought it was time for a refresh.

I don’t remember a time when we didn’t meal plan. Much of my past content about meal planning is from the view-point of cooking with and for kids and my family, which is all really good content! But as I spend more time coaching my clients and thinking things through for myself, I recognize that what we eat, how we eat it, how it gets to our dinner plates – all of these impact our days and weeks and life!

I could be surprised by how many of my coaching clients want to be more productive… and eat better.  Or that want to find that next new job or career … and have better habits around eating a healthy breakfast. Or, are facing lifestyle shifts and changes, and realize that eating healthier and finding time to exercise would go far in helping them face their challenges.

I could be surprised, but I am not.

Nutrition is a building block for many other things, it is part of the foundation of our life, and we want it to be a strong foundation.

I follow personal development influencers, and a quote from Brendon Burchard comes to mind. I’m paraphrasing, but the idea was that we can start to make positive change in our lives by being intentional about what we eat. We have to eat, right? It is something we already do. While adding in an hour work-out every day 7 days a week may seem daunting, making adjustments on what we do every day anyway seems less intimidating.

In my newly re-booted Meal Planning content, we start with two questions.

  • “What does healthy mean to you?” and
  • “What are your Meal planning goals?”

There are SO MANY ideas on what healthy eating means.  Low carb, no carb, gluten free, keto, paleo, vegan, lo-cal, high volume, sustainable eco foods, plant based, intermittent fasting.

But my question to You is “What Does Healthy Mean To You?”  Because if you tell me you want to eat healthy, that can be something vastly different than what I consider healthy.  And since I am NOT a nutritionist, I would suggest you figure that out for yourself as you figure out meal planning.  Because there are SO MANY IDEAS AND OPINIONS out there, if you don’t have a way to focus in and narrow down your options, you are going to be overwhelmed before you even begin.

The second question then, is “What are your Meal Planning goals?”

Yes, goals.  Did you know you can have meal planning goals?  Meal Planning goals might be…

  • Save money. Or waste less food. (It’s estimated that the average American wastes 216 pounds of food a year. And an average family of 4 throws away $1600 in produce a year. (per rts.com))
  • Save time, have less hassle.
  • Teach yourself and your family how to cook.
  • Establish healthy habits and / or support. Or, most likely,
  • Some combination of these and others!

Just this week, two different clients reported wanting to make positive changes including meal planning. One was seeking a plan that would let her adhere to an subscription menu and eating plan that she receives via email every week on her own schedule.

For another, she works full time and wants to meal plan better for having lunches and dinners for the whole work week.

One of my sons moved back into theatre housing in Indiana last week since rehearsals start tomorrow. He stopped by and mentioned that he had spent time meal prepping after he unpacked his stuff.  I asked him those questions – What is Healthy ? And What are your goals?

For the What Is Healthy answer, he is aiming for 30 grams of protein per meal, and more home-cooked foods. His goal is to have nutritious food made ahead of time so he can pack his lunches to take to work / rehearsals, and also not have to cook when he gets home if he’s tired.  Brilliant.

My personal example: As we entered 2024, I realized that January was going to be very busy (and it was). I am not going to report out on what specifically I consider healthy eating because that is not really the point. I will say, though, that I want home cooked food, to eat well, to save time and money and minimize stress, and to not rely on take-out. And to meet those goals, my strategy was and continues to be to cook two nights a week, most likely Friday and Sunday, and make multiple meals on cooking nights to carry us through until the next cooking night.

The evening I described when I started is an example of supporting my meal planning goals.

I was home that afternoon and evening, which doesn’t always happen.  And since I knew that morning that I would have a little more time at home that evening, I pulled from the freezer some ground turkey and Polish sausage to thaw. At dinner time, we diced many green peppers, an onion and a few potatoes, browned some ground turkey, and using what we had in the fridge (left over rice plus staples) and freezer (already browned ground beef), assembled Inside Out Stuffed Pepper casserole, Egg Roll in a Bowl (a new recipe, and so delish!), and baked Polish sausage with diced potatoes, peppers and onions.

All of these recipes store well, warm up well, and are currently waiting patiently in my fridge for future consumption. We can eat well and free up time by not having to cook or clean up for a few days.  We save time, we save money, I stress less and we still eat delicious food.  Check and check!

Next week, I will delve deeper into the how-to.

So, what’s it going to be?  What does healthy mean to you?  And what are your meal planning goals?  Keep the answers in mind, and tune in next week when we talk about how to make it all happen.

We Never Really Have to Start From Scratch!

We Never Really Have to Start From Scratch! We don’t have to start over.

Do future you a favor. Take notes. And refer back to them.

I was inspired to write about today’s topic by a recent experience. Of course, because that is usually what inspires me!

Let me set it up for you:

One Saturday morning every other month, a group of parishioners from my Parish assemble 150 bag lunches for a local charitable organization to distribute to their community. That Saturday in November was a few weeks ago.

My friend Kristen organizes the service project every time.  This was our 4th morning so far, we started back in May.  We have added people from month to month, and occasionally one of the regulars can’t attend, but there is typically a team of 10 or so adults and some students seeking service hours. 

We are learning, and we get better at the process every month, every time we do it, which is great. And one of the reasons we get better at it is we don’t start from scratch every time, because, honestly, why should we?

Why shouldn’t we learn from every experience? And yes, we can learn from every experience, but also importantly, we need to remember what we learn.

In addition to learning from the experience, we also need to retain or review or make a note of that.

And here’s the deal – if we do something… occasionally… it’s not yet a habit or a routine.

How often we do something and in what time interval are two factors that impact how much we remember from time to time.  If we don’t necessarily remember all the details every time, that’s okay, because sometimes we don’t, and that’s all right. But we can learn from our experiences and get better at doing things!

In my productivity presentations, I mention recipes, and I’m not talking my corn casserole recipe, even though its Thanksgiving time, even though I have no problem sharing that. I mean, recipes as in a path for future you to take. 

In my presentations, I mention those complex tasks we occasionally complete. Often enough to want to get good at it, but not often enough that it’s become natural or a habit.  The example I use in my class is balancing my company’s monthly banking statements.

When I switched my banking years ago, I connected a credit card to my account for purchases.  My banking and bookkeeping are very simple processes now that they are well established, but when I first made the switch, I would stumble from month to month – log into the banking website from my browser or connect Quicken from the quicken platform?  Make a note in quicken regarding paying my credit card bill from my spending account, or pay the bill first and then update the transactions from quicken?

Every month, when the process was new, I would stumble.

So I leave myself a note.  A short list: open quicken, log into banking website, pay credit card bill on banking website, go to quicken, go to credit card tab, click reconcile, click accept all, make note in Quicken.

To use the service example, after we make lunches, we take a few minutes to talk about what worked and what to tweak next time. For example,

  • We write down who volunteered today.
  • We make note of who showed up in answer to the bulletin article, and collect their email so we can alert them next time.
  • Maybe it’s logistics: “We always start with wiping down tables and putting on gloves” or we “need three plastic table cloths instead of 2”
  • Or, about the process: “We need to start with the longest step first and get that rolling, focus on getting the sandwich assembly line started first.“
  • And “Let’s make sure to confirm the time with the school students who need service hours“.

This is a pretty low pressure situation, to be honest – we have a solid team and the work isn’t difficult.  But we are on the clock, as the lunches need to be delivered by a certain time to the mission who is distributing them. And we still want to do things efficiently and effectively. My friend writes down notes and learning, and the ideas and a plan for next time.

Here’s another example of wanting to do things well and leaving notes from next time.

This time of year, I think of my client who has an orange binder in the cabinet above her kitchen desk. It’s the Thanksgiving binder and it really does contain all things Thanksgiving. She always hosts Thanksgiving.  It’s a big family affair, lots of people bring lots of things, and it’s lovely.

And so from year to year, they make notes in the Thanksgiving binder. For example,

  • How many people were there, and who?
  • What recipes did we use? Who brought what and how much?
  • How about “So and So made made the gravy and it was delicious!”
  • Or “We picked up a pie from such and such bakery, and it was a big hit“.
  • We can write about what worked well and what didn’t, or what did we do well and what could be better.

We can keep notes of those things because we would absolutely forget if we didn’t keep track!  When the service morning rolls around again, Kristen will check her notes that she made and start from there as we set up who is scheduled to help and who needs to bring what.  She already has a plan for next time.  That’s the third or fourth time I have said that today.  Let’s relish in that for a minute.  A plan for next time. Based on what we know and what we continue to learn. 

That sounds pretty great to me.

Go-mugs, Water Bottles and Blender Pieces, Oh My!

Go-mugs, water bottles and blender pieces, Oh My!

(We attended my niece’s elementary school’s presentation of The Wizard of Oz over the weekend, and the title just came to me!)

I have presented hundreds of times to thousands of people in my time as a professional organizer. I know what jokes will work or not. And I can bring up common hot-spots and know which hot-spot mention will elicit a groan or exclamation.

Enter… go-mugs and water bottles, and to a lesser extent, blender bits and pieces. At a presentation last month to parents of high schoolers, the mention of go-mugs and water bottles sparked a lively discourse – “Some are so old the writing is all washed off!” or “That one leaks but it’s still here!” or “We don’t even know who that one belongs to or where it came from!”!

Organizing these items is another small but mighty project with a potentially big impact!

How To:

  • First, we open all the cabinets and drawers and pull out ALL THE PIECES! Bases, lids, accessories, sleeves, hooks, rubber gaskets, etc. Oi, all the pieces!
    • And since these are all portable beverage carriers, we also need to check in the cars, cupholders and under the seats. We need to look in all the backpacks, briefcases and sports bags by the door, too. Collect all the extras from EVERYWHERE and give them a good wash.
    • Next, we pair up all the pieces. Top with bottoms, rubber gaskets with lids, straws with squeezy bottles if you use those (we don’t), etc. Since we’re talking about blender / smoothie cup pieces too, we match up the cups that go with certain blender bases, as well.


  • Once we have the pieces all paired up, line them up on the counter (gulp). Yes, all of them.
    • Take a deep breath. Look at all of them. There are probably some that need to go.
    • Part with the easy ones – the unpaired bottoms or tops, the leaky ones, the childish ones and your youngest is now a teenager.
    • You can also send the ones that don’t belong to you back to their owners!
    • Decide how many is enough and how many are too many. I know this may be tough, but you can try these strategies:
      • Sort them by owner – I am the coffee drinker, so the portable coffee mugs might go in the Colleen pile;
      • As another example, each of us has our own Swell bottles, so I might put each of those in each person’s pile.
      • Utilize what I refer to in my presentations as Mug Math. Ask Yourself:
        • How many people in my house drink coffee? (1)
        • How many cups a day? (2) and
        • How often do we run the dishwasher? (Every day / every other day)
        • So, in theory, I need 4 mugs. OF course I have more than 4 mugs. But do I need 40? No. Same goes for go mugs / water bottles, etc.


  • After you have decided which items to keep, let’s think about how and where to keep them.
    • Hopefully the pile has gotten smaller by this point.
    • Next, we need to chose one and only one place in the kitchen for these items to live.
    • If you use these items often, choose a home near the sink for easy cleaning and filling. If you use them less often, choose a location a little farther away from the sink, as that space is always in high demand.
    • As you choose a home, remember you can adjust your cabinet shelves to accommodate tall items.
    • AND… next time you are offered a promotional water bottle at an event, Just Say No!


  • The Keys to Success for go-mugs, water bottles and blender / smoothie parts are: 1. A Consistent Home; and 2. Containers!
    • When we’ve looked at these clutter hot-spots these last few weeks, we know that we want a HOME for our stuff so we can find the stuff again.
    • Having a consistent home for our go-mugs, water bottles and blender / smoothie parts means we will find those items again! If we find a top or a bottom without its match, that’s ok. If we put all the part in the HOME, we can pair them up again. And a home keeps these items from floating around in other spaces in our kitchen, getting in the way in those other spaces.
    • We use containers like these shown, available on Amazon.com or at your local retailer. The containers corral the bits and pieces like lids and bottoms, but they also establish a limit for how many things we have / need!



Try your hand at this mini-project this week and reclaim your kitchen and storage spaces!

Kitchen Hacks We Plan to Keep

The topic of “The Changes we made during the Pandemic that we would like to keep (or not)” has been coming up a lot lately. For example, going to school via Zoom may NOT be something we want to keep. But having a Zoom happy hour with my college roommates who live far away is AWESOME and something we plan to keep! We can dig a little deeper into this topic, if you’d like, email me if you’re interested.

For Today, though, I’m excited to share these kitchen adjustments we instituted this time last year that will definitely stay!

  1. We (almost) eliminated paper towels and paper napkins.
    Since paper products were difficult to find I bought extra microfiber cloths on Amazon.com, and we got in the habit of using the cloths instead of paper towels and napkins. The photo shows the pile of clean cloths on the right and the basket for dirty ones on the left. We still have a roll of paper towels in the kitchen for raw meat juices but one roll lasts a long time!




2. We have a tray to corral all the sink stuff.
A year ago, we got in the daily habit of spraying down all the kitchen surfaces with an anti-bacterial spray. A spray bottle joined the other items on the small silver tray (Amazon.com) that already lived by the sink. In the picture, you can see the spray, along with lotion, hand soap and dish soap all in one compact place! (And you may notice all 4 products are from Melaleuca! If you want more info, I can connect you with my friend!)






3. I came up with a way to protect my family members’ drinking glasses (and clear clutter). Soooo… when there are lots of people living / working / going to school in my house, the counter can get cluttered with items including drinking glasses set aside by family members to use later. And, well, I may or may not have a habit of just sweeping dishes into the dishwasher, regardless of if the beverage is only half-consumed or not.

In the interest of protecting my family’s beverages, I purchased these personalized coasters (click here for my friend’s FB page of personalized items to purchase), not to force my family into anything, but to protect their drinks from my cleaning! (And they’re really good about using them!)




4. I adjusted our cabinet shelves around our new habits.
We ate. Oh, goodness, did we eat. Constantly. Suddenly all 5 of us were in our house, eating every meal at home instead of the school cafeteria or downtown at the office.

All 5. Every meal.

One of my first organizing projects was to tweak our cabinets and adjust around new habits. I cooked A LOT more, so I inventoried our pantry items and adjusted the shelf heights to accommodate a snack shelf and a can shelf.

My family was more excited about the snack shelf – just the right height for bags of chips laid on their side, easily accessible and regularly stocked.

I was more excited about the can shelf. All the cans now live on the bottom shelf where the short person (me) can easily find things. I adjusted the shelf above the cans to an inch above the tallest can which made space on the upper shelves for the snacks. Easy peasy.

5. We also have a candy basket now. Because, well, why not have a candy basket? At first, we tried to ration the candy so we didn’t eat it so quickly and then we gave up. I feel less guilty because it’s not a big basket. And sometimes you just need some M&Ms. You just do.

And we have new habits that will stay, too.

  • We run the dishwasher every night, and empty it every morning (mostly). This has been a game changer.
  • We are strategic with our take-out. We have some great local restaurants, and we’ve made a point to order from a different local restaurant a couple times a month.
  • We now order groceries on-line (woot woot!). I had always wanted to order groceries on-line but hadn’t gotten around to it. And then we were told to stay home and not go to groceries and I found the time! I go a little more often now than I did last year, but I will happily continue on-line grocery shopping with delivery.
  • Family dinners and more scratch cooking, of course, but those are topics for another article!

Anything new you would like to try in your kitchen? I’d love to hear about it!

Kitchen 2021: Set Yourself Up To Succeed.

If I desire new outcomes, I require new inputs.

“New” things aren’t necessarily hard or confusing. They are just new and maybe different or uncomfortable. Sometimes, change is hard. And often, well, it isn’t. And here’s the thing – hard or not, sometimes change is necessary.

Perhaps you are not a resolution maker, and that’s OK. Perhaps it’s enough to just get back to normal (and healthier) post-Holiday routines.

I met with a registered dietitian last week. I am excited about making some positive changes. And since these changes are my changes, I am not about to tell you what you need to do differently. BECAUSE, I am not a dietitian.

BUT, I am your certified professional organizer. While I cannot tell you what to stock in your own kitchen, I CAN tell you how set up what you have to make your own changes successful!

So, here are the steps to organizing the changes in your kitchen to make positive change in your life!



Educate yourself, and keep educating yourself! Read up on your new strategies, and plan to keep reading! We learn things as we go, through education but also through experience.

Clear off your counters! A study from Cornell University suggests “When it comes to the food left out in the kitchen, it’s increasingly clear that what you see is what you eat.” Meaning, your current counter landscape of junk food and holiday treats needs to be exchanged for healthier items if you want to succeed! Fewer cookies and chips, more fresh fruit, veggies or nuts. Goodbye hot cocoa station, hello clear counter! And less clutter overall – if you don’t have room to cook a healthy meal or dice veggies for a salad, you will not make those healthier choices.

Review your cabinets, check expiration dates and tidy things up post Holidays! (p.s., I would NOT get rid of food that doesn’t fit into your dietary changes just yet. First, I’m frugal and don’t want to get rid of food that is still good. Second, I live in a house with 4 other people, so there is bound to be someone here who will eat most things. If you need the space, or if you need to remove temptation, tuck away the things that will probably need to go in a grocery bag and out of sight for a few weeks. Then they are ready to donate to a food pantry or hand off to a friend when you’re satisfied with your changes.)

Menu plan around your healthy changes and using inventory you have on hand (if possible).
(click here for more kitchen and menu planning articles)

Plan a grocery trip to fill in the blanks, but only after you have inventoried what you have on hand and made a plan!

Make healthy habits convenient. There are some habits that benefit everyone, like taking your vitamins and drinking more water. Corral your supplements all together into a basket and then set a timer on your phone to remind you to take them consistently. Better yet, use a pill sorter and set your supplements up for a week at a time to save time. Take a few minutes now to fill and chill water bottles to take with you on the go, and dole out serving sizes of your healthy snacks into baggies or reusable bowls.

A few minutes and a little planning can help support your healthy habits, whatever they may be!

Pots And Pans: Enough, But Not Too Many?

The topic for this week’s article occurred to me back in September while organizing a client kitchen. And I thought the week before Thanksgiving would be a great time to take a good look at our pots and pans!

Pots and Pans. Wow. I have organized dozens of kitchens over the years, and organizing Pots and Pans comes up A LOT! Every kitchen has them, most people use them, some people are very attached to them. They are also big and cumbersome and sometimes awkward to store.

Here are some things to think about, in no particular order:

Invest in Good Pots and Pans.

If you cook, invest in a good set of pots of pans. Not requiring great or expensive! I mean, if you’re looking for a new set, do a little research and find out which brands and styles are worth the money and the time. We’ve had the same set of Revere Ware copper bottom pots and pans since we received them as a wedding gift in 1994. (And yes, I cook almost every day!)

How many Pots and Pans do you really need?

Here at home, we have 3 sauce pans with lids, 2 non-stick skillets with lids (my preferred), 1 cast-iron skillet (my husband’s favorite), 1 large stock pot and a lidded Dutch oven. I also have a roasting pan that I’ve used twice ever, but will be used again next week! These are enough, I’ve never need more.

Everything but the stock pot fits in one kitchen drawer, including lids.

I went to camp for a week with one pan. Expectations were low, but one pan was enough. My college-aged son who really does cook has a skillet and a sauce pan. He has found that is all he needs.

If space is at a premium in your kitchen (and it usually is), look critically at home many pots and pans you HAVE versus how many you NEED and USE.

Treat Your Pots and Pans Well.

It turns out, some folks own more than one set of pots and pans because they don’t wash everything after use. Let me advocate for “Cleaning as You Go”, and not letting things pile up!

Please, wash pots and pans as they’re used and don’t let them sit as they get harder to clean the longer they are left dirty! (This is something I regularly remind my son of, when he makes macaroni and cheese!)

In addition, regular maintenance keeps a cleaner kitchen and clean pans can be used again quickly, which means we can own fewer pans.

The jury is still out on using the dishwasher to clean your pots and pans. We wash them by hand, which cleans up the kitchen mess and gets the pans into usable form quicker, but takes longer.

When we re-did the kitchen 3 years ago, I dedicated a wide and deep drawer to pot and pan storage, instead of a cabinet. This has eliminated the accessibility and lid-stacking challenges, so if you can try this, go for it!

We use liner like these (see picture, from Amazon.com) when storing my skillets, they really seem to have helped save the surfaces.

Let Your Pots and Pans Work For You.

As mentioned, today’s topic occurred to me a few months ago. It motivated me to:

  • find a replacement lid for one of our saucepans (thank you, Ebay, when your pans are 26 years old and apparently considered vintage!);
  • google the brand of Dutch oven I was gifted, to make sure it was stove top and oven safe (it is); and
  • gift a high quality but never used skillet from my drawer to my college -aged son to use at school.

Don’t expect the pans to make you a good or willing cook:

I have encountered many folks over the years who have bought snazzy new sets of pots and pans expecting that THESE new pans are going to be the ones that magically make them want to cook. That is a pretty impressive expectation for a box full of inanimate objects. The desire and skill to cook is not going to come from a box (sorry), so please stop buying more THINGS.

Spend a little time this week making sure your pots and pans are all together, pared down and ready to do their job! Happy cooking!

The Highs and Lows of Summer Meal Planning

It’s seems my sons knew that I was planning a Summer Meal Planning article for this week. Since, when I finally got home after coaching all morning and cleaning out a basement this afternoon then running errands on my way home, not one not two but all three of them wandered through my office at different points in 60 minutes and asked “so what is for dinner?”

My responses may have included one or even all of the following…

  • I don’t know, what are you making?
  • Ugh, Seriously! Didn’t we just have dinner yesterday?
  • (fake crying with my head down and eyes closed)
  • Take out? Um, we just had that yesterday.
  • Left overs? Oh wait, no, we ate all of those.

My kind and wise husband who had to go into his downtown office today (and I’m sure had his own busy day) replied with “Whatever you want”, when I texted him to ask what he wanted. Kind and wise. But not exactly helpful.

Here’s the thing. We are fully stocked with food. However, it is some-assembly-required food. And it is also almost all frozen. We have plenty of food, but I was lacking focus this morning, and my well-planned menu for the day / week required defrosting beef. Without defrosted beef, dinner became a question mark once more in my tired brain. (sigh)

There are highs and lows here, friend. The Highs and Lows of Summer Meal Planning. Yes, meal planning in the summer is totally different for me than planning in cooler weather.

The current lows of summer planning:

  • Shelter-In-Place orders inspired scratch cooking, baking, labor intensive recipes and let’s face it – more time to do it all. I made Risotto, for goodness sake! Do you know how long you have to stand over a hot stove top to make Risotto? There is no chance I will make that again until Fall.
  • In summer, we don’t like to heat up the kitchen with baking.
  • The hearty soups or stews and home made bread or baked pasta dishes don’t have the same appeal when it’s hot outside.
  • Work is busy again, which is both good (I like work) and bad (at least when it comes time for making dinner!)
  • In other seasons, daylight waning reminds me to get up and start dinner. In summer though – “Oh gosh, it 7 pm! How did that happen?!”

But, enough about the lows, I want to focus on the highs!

This evening, I finally found inspiration and whipped together chicken noodle soup. For some crazy reason, my sons LOVE this for dinner. Tonight’s was the total hack summer version, made with pantry items like store-bought chicken broth and egg noodles, frozen peas and chicken from the last rotisserie chicken we picked up at Costco. Hack, yes, and they still love it. (In cold weather, I would make my own stock and noodles, etc.)

So that is my first of many highs in the current Highs of Summer Meal Planning:

  • I spend a lot of time worrying over meal planning, while my family isn’t nearly as picky about these things as I am. My easy peasy chicken noodle soup made them happy, especially with the bakery bread I received as a thank-you gift over the weekend.
  • While I had a captive audience (as they sat and ate soup), I asked for input on menu ideas for the next few weeks. And there was a lot of laughing – absolutely a HIGH of summer meal planning!
  • It turns out, the soups and stews from colder times are still requested, so I will use the crock pot EVEN MORE in the next few weeks! (and while writing this, I made sure the frozen beef is now in the fridge to defrost over night for tomorrow’s beef stew!)
  • Put some fun into your planning (like our dinner time silliness today)!
  • Enlist aid! Guess what? My sons are all capable of cooking! Yes, they will be owning more of the “what’s for dinner” process!
  • We also spent some time thinking of our favorite dishes and how to tweak them for summer. Shepherds Pie? Um, who says it has to be baked in the oven?! Maybe the crock pot? OR just the stove top with a quick broil to toast the top? Yep, I can work on that!
  • One of my favorite parts of summer meal planning is all the beautiful summer produce! My own herb garden is quite lush (fresh pesto, anyone?), local farmer’s market are back with social distancing guidelines, there is just so many fabulous colors and flavors to enjoy!

So, what’s it going to be this week? If your meal planning has hit a mid-summer lull, join me this week in giving it – and yourself! – a boost!

Meal Planning: This Just Got Real.

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These are interesting times we’re living in right now. I have written and presented A LOT about Menu Planning and Strategic Food Prep, etc., but these ideas have gained special importance over the last few weeks.

You bought the food, now what are you doing with it?

If you didn’t inventory your stock on hand before you bought all your groceries over the last few weeks, you really need to do that now.

Sort like items together, pulling the foods from all the areas in your house it might be stashed or stockpiled

Check expiration dates on all of your food, cabinet / fridge and freezer! Pay close attention to expiration dates, friends. Even in this uncertain time – perhaps ESPECIALLY now – saving money over an expired can of tuna could land you with a case of food poisoning.

Rotate your inventory like a store, meaning put all that new food you’ve recently purchased at the back of your inventory in the cabinet / fridge / freezer and pull the older food towards the front to be used up sooner.

What to eat first:

Eat your leftovers first. I issued a moratorium on throwing out leftovers. With our current status around here, it’s even more important that we not waste food. Check the pantry, too, and use up what is open first.

This is the actual note I left my family members the other day, with the board placed under a bag of crackers left on the counter overnight with TWO crackers in it, a loaf of soda bread with ONE slice left, and a bag of 6 banana mini-muffins in it left open on the counter. (grrrr…..)

Finish. The. Bag. And then throw it away!


(And I’ve already reminded all the young adults in my house to NOT EAT ALL THE SNACKS in the first few days!)

Make your plan: I am not necessarily assigning meals to dates just now, but I have on hand the ingredients to make the following:

chicken pie, shepherds pie, baked ziti, crock pot – chicken tacos (today), beef stew / home made bread, crock pot – creamy chicken and rice soup, bacon-potato soup with cheddar, pork roast and risotto, pork chops and ??, chicken breasts and ??, spaghetti and meatballs, breakfast for dinner, crock pot chili, beans and rice (Friday).

Most of these meals rely heavily on frozen meats and veggies (which will last for months), non-perishable pantry items and some fresh produce that I’ll need to use in the next week, choosing those recipes first – hence the chicken tacos today!

In this new normal where we find ourselves, I have to think about having lunch food on hand, too, which is new. Granted, around here, planning for lunches means making sure we have sandwich stuff, leftovers or make-your-own-breakfast stuff available.

We’re actually having some adventures in cooking, since we have the time! I made french bread from scratch the other day, which was time consuming but so gratifying and delicious, paired with my home made beef stew! And now that I found bags of caramels at the store this morning, my sons are planning to bake some type of new cookie they want to try (works for me!).

I hope these ideas help you to get a handle on your own kitchen inventory and your meal planning! I wish you all good health – physical, emotional and spiritual!